Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when the College of Sorbonne was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the University of Paris, one of the first universities in Europe. Its current iteration was formed in 2018 by the merger of Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI).

Sorbonne University is one of the most sought after universities by students and researchers from France, Europe, and the French speaking countries. Most notably, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, who came from Poland in 1891 and joined the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Paris, was also the first woman to become a professor at the Sorbonne. Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie are considered the founders of the modern-day Faculty of Science and Engineering of Sorbonne University. As of 2021, its alumni and professors have won 33 Nobel Prizes, six Fields Medals, and one Turing Award.

History

College of Sorbonne

Robert de Sorbon (1201–1274), chaplain to King Louis IX (Saint Louis), observed the difficulties experienced by poor "schoolchildren" in achieving the rank of doctor. In February 1257, he had a house (domus) officially established which he intended for a certain number of secular clergy who, living in common and without concern for their material existence, would be entirely occupied with study and teaching. This house was named the college of Sorbonne.

The old slogan of the establishment, "Sorbonne University, creators of futures since 1257", refers to this date. The college of Sorbonne was closed along with all the other colleges of the former University of Paris in 1793.

The college of Sorbonne was located on the site of the current Sorbonne building, shared between Sorbonne University and Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Faculty of Humanities of Paris, "the Sorbonne"

Based at the Sorbonne, the University of Paris Faculty of Humanities (commonly known as the Sorbonne because of its location) was created by the decree of 17 March 1808 on the organisation of the Imperial University of France.

Under the Bourbon Restoration, the faculty welcomed an average of 1,000 to 1,500 students a year, rising to 2,000 under the July Monarchy. But the number of teaching staff remained limited: between 1809 and 1878, only 51 professors taught at the Faculty of Humanities. At the same time, in 1927 it opened a satellite campus at Orsay, in the south of Paris, which would later become the current Paris-Saclay University, as well as a satellite campus at Orléans in 1960.

Splitting of the University of Paris

In 1971, the University of Paris, including its humanities and science faculties, split into several interdisciplinary universities. Some, including the University of Paris-Sorbonne, retained the name "Sorbonne" and premises in the historic centre of the University of Paris, which had until then been mainly devoted to the faculties of Humanities and Sciences.

The University of Paris-VI, later renamed as "UPMC", is created from the majority of the teaching and research units of the Faculty of Sciences of Paris (the others joining the universities of Paris-VII Denis Diderot (now Université Paris Cité), Paris-Saclay University in Orsay, Paris-XII and Paris-XIII in Villetaneuse) and part of the units of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris (the others joining the universities of Paris-V René Descartes (now Université Paris Cité), Paris-VII Denis Diderot and Paris-XIII).

Reunification of the University of Paris-Sorbonne and UPMC

In 2010, some of the direct successors of the faculties of the University of Paris created the Sorbonne Universities Association. The following universities, members of the university system, decided to merge into Sorbonne University in 2018:

  • Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) (1971–2017), formerly a constituent part of the faculty of humanities of the University of Paris.
  • Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC or Paris VI) (1971–2017), formerly a constituent part of the faculty of sciences and of the school of medicine of the University of Paris.

At the same time, the Sorbonne Universities Association was renamed the Sorbonne University alliance; it includes the following institutions for academic cooperation:

  • University of Technology of Compiègne (1972– )
  • INSEAD
  • National Museum of Natural History
  • Centre international d'études pédagogiques (International Centre for Pedagogical Studies)
  • Pôle supérieur d'enseignement artistique Paris Boulogne-Billancourt
  • Four research institutes

As part of the reforms of French Higher Education, on 19 March 2018, the international jury called by the French Government for the "Initiative d'excellence" (IDEX) confirmed the definite win of Sorbonne University. Consequently, Sorbonne University won an endowment of 900 Million euros with no limit of time. This is the first higher education institution in Paris region to win such an endowment. The university was established by a decree issued 21 April 2017, taking effect 1 January 2018.

Faculties

Sorbonne University has three faculties: Arts and Humanities, Science and Engineering, and Health Sciences.

Arts and humanities

The Sorbonne University Faculty of Arts and Humanities provides studies in arts, languages, letters, and human and social sciences, and is the largest in France. Fields such as history, geography, languages, linguistics, musicology, philosophy, classical and modern literature, foreign literature and civilisations, and the history of art and archaeology are part of this faculty.

Science and engineering

The Sorbonne Faculty of Science and Engineering is a major research institution in France. It can be considered the successor in direct line to the Faculty of Science of the University of Paris with the Paris-Saclay Faculty of Sciences.

It has 79 laboratories in the Paris region, most in association with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Some of the most notable institutes and laboratories include the Institut Henri Poincaré (Mathematics), Institut d'astrophysique de Paris (Astrophysics), LIP6 (Informatics / Computer Science), Institut des systèmes intelligents et de robotique (Robotics), Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu – Paris Rive Gauche (foundations of Mathematics, shared with University Paris Cité) and the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel (Quantum Physics, shared with PSL University).

Law (external tuition)

There is no law school as such in Sorbonne University. In 1971, most of the law professors from the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Paris decided to restructure it as a university, called Panthéon-Assas University Paris (after the two main campuses of the Paris Law Faculty: place du Panthéon and rue d'Assas campuses). Panthéon-Assas now provides legal studies for Sorbonne University as an independent university.

Another law school, the Panthéon-Sorbonne University School of Law (also a spin-off of the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Paris) also exists in Paris, but has no connection with Sorbonne University.

Campuses

<gallery>

File:P1300734 Paris V place de la Sorbonne rwk.jpg|The Sorbonne, the university's historic main campus. It is home to the university's arts and humanities departments

File:Paris 75005 Grande Galerie de l'Evolution 20070804.jpg|A view of the Jardin des plantes, the campus of Sorbonne University's Natural History Museum

File:Sorbona Amphi Richelieu.jpeg|The "Amphithéâtre Richelieu", a lecture hall of Sorbonne University

File:Tour Zamanski Lune.jpg|The Zamansky Tower, located at the heart of the Sorbonne Faculty of Science and Engineering campus

File:Hôpital de la Salpêtrière.jpg|Entrance to the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital campus

File:Institut d'Art et d'Archéologie, Paris 14 January 2018.jpg|Entrance to the Sorbonne Institute of Art and Archaeology

</gallery>

<gallery>

Paris 75005 Rue Saint-Jacques La Sorbonne facade 01c.jpg

Cloitre Cordeliers Paris.jpg

Campus universitaire de Jussieu, Paris 24 January 2016 001.jpg

Salle Saint-Jacques (Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne).jpg

Paris sorbonne colloque prog.jpg

P1300734 Paris V place de la Sorbonne rwk.jpg|Chapel of the main Sorbonne building

</gallery>

Main campuses

Sorbonne

Sorbonne University's historical campus is in the historic central Sorbonne building, located at 47 rue des Écoles, in the historic Latin Quarter university campus. The building is the undivided property of the 13 successor universities of the University of Paris, managed by the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris. Besides the monuments of the Cour d'Honneur, the Sorbonne Chapel and the Grand Amphithéâtre, the building houses the Sorbonne University Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Academy of Paris Rectorat, the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris, and part of the universities Panthéon-Sorbonne, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris Cité and the École Nationale des Chartes as well as the École Pratique des Hautes Études that are constituent schools of PSL University.

Before the 19th century, the Sorbonne occupied several buildings. The chapel was built in 1622 by the then-Provisor of the University of Paris, Cardinal Richelieu, during the reign of Louis XIII. In 1881, politician Jules Ferry decided to convert the Sorbonne into one single building. Under the supervision of Pierre Greard, Chief Officer of the Education Authority of Paris, Henri-Paul Nénot constructed the current building from 1883 to 1901 that reflects a basic architectural uniformity. The integration of the chapel into the whole was also Nénot's work with the construction of a cour d'honneur. The Sorbonne building is generally reserved for undergraduate students in their third year and graduate students in certain academic disciplines. Only students in Semitic studies, regardless of level, take all their classes at the Sorbonne campus.

thumb|239x239px|The [[Sorbonne Library]]

The Sorbonne Library is an inter-university library of the Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Sorbonne University, Paris Cité University, under the administration of Panthéon-Sorbonne. It is open exclusively to undergraduate students in their third year and graduate students. With the former archives of the now-defunct University of Paris, 2,500,000 books, 400,000 of them ancient, 2,500 historical manuscripts, 18,000 doctoral dissertation papers, 17,750 past and current French and international periodicals and 7,100 historical printing plates, the Sorbonne Library is the largest university library in Paris and was entirely refurbished in 2013.

The Sorbonne University Library's Arts and Humanities Department (French: Pôle Lettres de la Bibliothèque de Sorbonne Université), part of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, offers its students and teaching staff access to 18 libraries and thematic collections. The catalog includes 600,000 books, 350,000 e-books, 60,000 issues of online periodicals and 165 databases.

Pierre and Marie Curie (formerly Jussieu)

The largest of Sorbonne University's campuses is Jussieu Campus, officially named "Pierre and Marie Curie Campus". It houses the Sorbonne University Faculty of Science and Engineering and its Sorbonne Polytechnic School, Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence, Sorbonne Institute for Environmental Transition, the Institute of Health Engineering (IUIS) and the Institute of Computing and Data Sciences (ISCD). The first buildings are from 1957. The main part of the campus, the "Grill d'Albert", was built in 1964, and was completely refurbished from 1996 to 2016.

Within the Sorbonne University Library, it houses 6 university libraries, including an important research library in mathematics and computer science.

thumb|232x232px|Entrance of the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris.

Pitié-Salpêtrière

The Pitié-Salpêtrière Campus is home to Sorbonne University Faculty of Health Sciences and its Department of Medical Studies. It is located at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital and University Center (CHU), founded in 1657 in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. All undergraduate and graduate medical students study on this campus. Postgraduate courses are held at the Cordeliers Convent on the Latin Quarter campus.

The hospital campus also houses the Sorbonne Health Simulation Department, the Paris Brain Institute and the Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition (IHU-ICAN). The campus is also home to the AP-HP Sorbonne University Hospital Group.

Secondary campuses

Clignancourt and Malesherbes

Two other campuses are the Clignancourt and Malesherbes centers of the Sorbonne University Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Undergraduate students in their first and second years of study in Philosophy, History, Geography, Musicology, English and Spanish take their classes at the Clignancourt center. The Clignancourt Library contains 78,000 works, 210 French and international periodicals and 800 educational DVDs.

Undergraduate students in their first and second years of study in French literature, French language, Latin, and Ancient Greek take their classes at the Malesherbes center. All undergraduate students in these academic disciplines study in the central Sorbonne building in their third year. Undergraduate and graduate students in German studies, Slavic studies, Italic studies and Romanian studies, regardless of level, take all of their classes at the Malesherbes center. The Malesherbes center also hosts three research centers in Italian culture, the cultures and literature of central Europe and the Balkans and the Germanic, Nordic and Dutch centers. The Malesherbes Library contains 200,000 works specializing in the study of foreign languages and cultures and 1,200 past and current French and international periodicals. More than 50,000 doctoral dissertations are available for public viewing.

Michelet

Undergraduate Art History and Archeology students of the Sorbonne University Faculty of Arts and Humanities take their classes at the Institut d'Art et d'Archéologie, located at the main entrance of the Jardin du Luxembourg. Constructed by architect Paul Bigot between 1925 and 1930, the Mesopotamian-style building was classified as a national historic building in 1996. It hosts the Michelet Library that contains 100,000 volumes of work on art history and archeology with 100 French and international periodicals. Only 10,000 of the art history and archeology works are open to students, the others requiring special authorization of usage. Graduate Art History and Archeology students take their courses at the Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art in the Galerie Colbert, a partnered national institution of the university.

Maison de la Recherche

The Maison de la Recherche campus is the central building for doctoral studies that hosts the history and geography departments. It houses the Serpente Library that has 55,000 works and 292 past and current French and international periodicals. All doctoral dissertations since 1 January 1986 have been stored at the Serpente Library.

Other campuses in Paris

Both the Institut d'Urbanisme et d'Aménagement and the Institut d'Études Hispaniques in the Latin Quarter campus host third year and graduate students of Geography and Iberian and Latin American studies. The Marcel Bataillon Library houses the Institut d'Études Hispaniques<nowiki/>' collection of 25,000 works on Iberian and Latin-American culture. Catalan studies take place at the Centre d'Études Catalanes in the Marais.

The Sorbonne University also includes the Saint-Antoine Campus for the study of medicine ; the Cordeliers Convent, Curie and Raspail campuses for sciences studies.

Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi

An exclusive international agreement between Sorbonne and the government of Abu Dhabi was signed on 19 February 2006, starting plans to bring Sorbonne University to Abu Dhabi. Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (SUAD) was established on 30 May 2008 on Reem Island by a decree of the ruler of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates. All programs are taught in the French language except for the Bachelor of Physics and most of the masters programmes, that are taught in English . An intensive French language programme is offered for one or two-year(s) to students who do not meet the French language requirement for registration. The establishment of the university demonstrates the keenness of Abu Dhabi to create an international hub in culture and education, having also signed a contract with the Louvre in 2007 to create the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and with New York University in 2007 to create New York University Abu Dhabi. SUAD is jointly governed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) and by SUAD's board of trustees, with six members, three of whom are appointed by the home Sorbonne University and the other three appointed by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. The president of SUAD is the president of Sorbonne University in Paris, currently Prof Nathalie Drach-Temam. Academic programmes are offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the social sciences, humanities, law and sciences.

Academics and rankings

Rankings and reputation

Sorbonne University is consistently ranked in the top universities in Europe and the world. The first recognition of its existence as an integrated university came in 2018,

when it appeared on the CWUR World University Rankings 2018–2019 in 29th place globally and 1st place in France.