It was created in 1971 from two faculties of the historic University of Paris – colloquially referred to as the Sorbonne – after the May 1968 protests, which resulted in the division of one of the world's oldest universities. Most of the economics professors (35 out of 41) of the Faculty of Law and Economics of Paris decided to found the multidisciplinary Paris 1 University with professors of the faculty of humanities of Paris and a few professors of law.[3]
Panthéon-Sorbonne's headquarters is located on the Place du Panthéon in the Latin Quarter, an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. The university also occupies part of the historical Sorbonne campus. The current name of the university refers to these two symbolic buildings: the Sorbonne and the Panthéon (Saint-Jacques part).[6] Overall, its campus includes over 25 buildings in Paris, such as the Centre Pierre Mendès France ("Tolbiac"), the Maison des Sciences Économiques, among others.[7]
History
Helene Ahrweiler, one of the cofounders of Paris 1
The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was reorganised in 1970 as 13 autonomous universities after the student protests of the French May.
The split of the University of Paris
In 1945, at the end of the World War II, the University of Paris was faced with its own problems, which had been exacerbated by the war and foreign occupation. Students were crammed into overcrowded classrooms and lecture theatres, and the teaching staff, who were too few in number, did not have the resources to monitor and supervise them properly.
The decentralisation of university campuses and centres in and around the capital was mainly the work of the Fifth French Republic in the early years of its existence. This policy achieved its objectives, in particular by responding to the problems posed by student numbers. The government also believed it could control student access to university, by organising a strict selection process at the entrance to faculties and creating university technical institutes (IUT) in the Paris suburbs. As this reform had not been negotiated with all the interested parties, it was rejected by students in an unfavourable political and social climate, and provoked a veritable insurrection in faculties in Paris and the other regions.[8]
During the French May and following months of conflict between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration shut down that university on 2 May 1968. Students of the University of Paris protested the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre on 3 May 1968.
In Paris, where the university had become very difficult to manage due to the sheer number of professors and students, the law of 12 November 1968 led to the creation in 1969 of thirteen universities to succeed the University of Paris (nicknamed "the Sorbonne"), which ceased to exist.
At the instigation of professors François Luchaire (public law), Henri Bartoli (economics) and Hélène Ahrweiler (humanities), the three official co-founders of the university, the Paris 1 "Panthéon-Sorbonne" University was created in 1971 from the merger of part of the Faculty of Law and Economics (Panthéon) and part of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sorbonne).
The majority of the law professors from the faculty of law and economics at the University of Paris desired to restructure their faculty into a university.[11] However, most of the faculty's economists and political scientists, whose disciplines were secondary in the Faculty of Law of Paris, wanted to join a multidisciplinary university[12] they hurried ahead of their colleagues and established Paris I and were joined by professors of the faculty of humanities and few professors of the faculty of law and economics.[13]
The name of the university show this interdisciplinarity: the Sorbonne building is the traditional seat of the Humanities studies in Paris (hence it is also used by Sorbonne Nouvelle and Sorbonne University), and the Panthéon Centre is, with the Assas Centre,[14] the traditional seat of the law studies (hence it is also used by Panthéon-Assas University).
(5th arrondissement of Paris)
Centre shared with Panthéon-Assas University.
It houses the University Head Office, the Presidency, the Sorbonne Artgallery and third-year undergraduate (L3) and master's-level courses of:
the Sorbonne Law School (and the Sorbonne's Economic, Social Administration Institute and Paris Insurance Institute)
Pierre Mendès-France Centre, commonly known as "Tolbiac"[15]
(13th arrondissement of Paris)
This centre is home to the majority of first (L1) and second-year undergraduates (L2). It is the obligatory step for many students before accessing third-year (L3) and masters courses.
1st and 2nd year students of:
the Sorbonne School of Management
the Sorbonne School of History
the Sorbonne School of Economics
the Sorbonne Department of Philosophy
the Sorbonne Department of Sociology
the Sorbonne Department of Geography
the Sorbonne School of Political Science
the Sorbonne School of Art History and Archaeology
the Sorbonne Mathematics and Computer Science Department
The Panthéon Centre, which should not be confused with the Panthéon itself, was the building of the Faculty of Law of the former University of Paris and is located opposite the Pantheon. It was designed by Jacques-Germain Soufflot in 1760 as part of a new architectural ensemble for the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève. The Faculty of Law building was completed in 1744.
At the end of the 19th century, when the Sorbonne was undergoing major reforms, an extension was planned for the Panthéon Centre, designed by Louis-Ernest Lheureux. The extension took place in two phases, 1876-1878 and 1891–1899, and gave rise to the construction of a large new building connected to the 18th century facade. Together, they now occupied the entire city block. The construction of the Cujas wing, an 8-storey building on rue Cujas designed by the architect Jacques Becmeur, comprising a car park, an amphitheater and 4 floors of offices, is connected to the historic buildings by a monumental staircase which was later decorated by the students of the Sorbonne Fine Arts Department (UFR d'Arts Plastiques). The main courtyard and the facades of the original building were listed as Historic Monuments in 1926.
The Sorbonne Centre houses multiple departments of Panthéon-Sorbonne University, including department of Management (École de Management de la Sorbonne),[16] History (École d’histoire de la Sorbonne),[17] Philosophy (UFR de Philosophie),[18] Political Science (UFR de Science Politique)[19] and part of the Economics and Law departments. It is one of the main campuses of the university. It is shared with Sorbonne University.
Institute of Geography
The Institute of Geography was built between 1914 and 1926 by Henri-Paul Nénot. The institute was designed to bring together in a single building the collections, teaching and research in geography, hitherto divided between the faculties of arts and sciences. The building is connected to the neighboring Oceanographic Institute by a double arch to form the Curie campus.
The occupation of the Institute of Geography results from a decree of 1 December 1980, concerning joint ownership between the three universities Paris 1, Paris 4 (today Sorbonne University), Paris 7 (today Paris Cité University) and the Sorbonne Library. Today, the building houses students of Geography department from 3rd year of bachelor's degree.[20]
The Institute of Art and Archeology was built on the site of the former Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Faculty of Sciences by the architect Paul Bigot (1870-1942). The building offers in particular to the gaze of walkers, at the base of the large arcades, a frieze formed of terracotta bas-reliefs reproducing famous works of world art (Parthenon, Ara Pacis Augustae, etc.). The syncretism desired by Paul Bigot gives the Institute of Art and Archeology an educational virtue that resonates with the function of the building. Inside, the entrance vestibule, the amphitheater and the large reading room of the library, which occupies the heart of the building, have retained their volumes, but, on the floors, the galleries which housed the collections The heritage structures constituted in the Sorbonne and Paul Bigot's plan of Rome were abolished in the 1970s in favor of a partitioning of spaces into classrooms and teachers' offices, following the massification of higher education.
Initially designed for 200 students and 3 professors, the building now houses, equally, the Sorbonne School of Art History and Archeology of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Art History and Archeology Department of Sorbonne University (formerly Paris 4), several thousand students and nearly 150 tenured teacher-researchers. Property of the French Government, the Institute of Art and Archeology is assigned, by ministerial decree of 30 June 1983, in endowment to the two universities Paris 1 and Paris IV and registered in this form in the registers of the State. It has been classified as a Historic Monument since 9 September 1996.
Port-Royal Campus
The brand new Port-Royal Campus is spread over two neighboring sites: the René-Cassin building located at 17 rue Saint-Hippolyte and, on the other side of the street, the former Lourcine barracks, which covers the entire block between boulevard de Port-Royal and rue de la Glacière, Broca and Saint-Hippolyte.
The René-Cassin site is made up of two buildings: a 19th-century building acquired by the Ministry of National Education in 1957 and restructured in 1987, but above all a new building built between 1987 and 1990 by the architects Jacques Ripault and Denise Duhart.
The former Lourcine barracks, located at 37 boulevard Port-Royal, is one of the oldest military sites in Paris. Matured since 2011, the project to create a new law campus was entrusted in 2014 to the Public Establishment for University Development of the Ile de France region (EPAURIF) with a contracting authority mandate. The architectural challenge of the project was to preserve this heritage, testimony of the urban history of this district by touching it as little as possible, while developing it in an optimal way.
In addition to the three buildings on the Lourcine block, the current René-Cassin center has been attached to the new site to give birth to the Port-Royal Campus from the start of the 2019 academic year. This new center of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne allows, between others, the grouping of sites dedicated to legal disciplines. It welcomes students, teachers, researchers and staff in exceptional working conditions. More than 2,400 people now occupy this new campus.
Pierre Mendès-France Centre (Tolbiac)
In November 1970, Olivier Guichard, then Minister of National Education, decided to build a new university education center at the corner of rue de Tolbiac and rue de Baudricourt in the 13th arrondissement. In January 1971, the architects Michel Andraut and Pierre Parat were entrusted with the construction of the new building. The model of the project was presented by the architects on November 16, 1971. After two years of construction, the new university center opened its doors in the fall of 1973 under the name of "Multidisciplinary Center of Tolbiac".
Renamed in 1983 in honor of the French politician Pierre Mendès France, the Center Pierre-Mendès-France was built in the context of post-68 university programs and the urban renewal of the Italy XIII sector undertaken since 1964. The site – a cramped triangular plot of 7,500 m2 hitherto occupied by a deposit of cobblestones – led to the original and ambitious choice of vertical development, which is quite unusual in terms of university architecture. The architects imagined a high-rise building (IGH) composed of three towers of unequal heights built around a central reinforced concrete core: tower A is nine stories high, tower B sixteen, and tower C of twenty-two. Andrault and Parat worked on the building in a quest for functionality and formal expressiveness which involves deconstructing the volumes, vigorously linking the lift towers ensuring vertical circulation in the building, "urban modules" which are these “suspended” cubic volumes sheltering the offices and the classrooms, and the amphitheatres which unfold in a corolla at the base of the building. This sculptural work is extended by a brutalist aesthetic based on the association of rough concrete, smoked glass, bricks, pebbles or even by the moving "landscape" imagined within the framework of the 1% artistic by Bernard Alleaume and Yvette Vincent-Alleaume at the base of the building to enliven the spaces overlooking rue de Tolbiac.
The Pierre-Mendès-France Campus currently welcomes around 6,000 first and second year undergraduate students in human sciences, economics and management.
Tolbiac Center: a secondary building[citation needed] of the Mendès-France Center (which confusingly is also called Tolbiac).
List of other campuses in the Paris region
There are other campuses of Paris 1 in the Parisian areas:
Condorcet Campus: a new inter-university campus shared with other universities, in Aubervilliers.
Albert Châtelet Campus: commonly called Calvin, it is a secondary building[citation needed] of the Sorbonne.
Rue d'Ulm Campus: like Calvin, a secondary building[citation needed] of the Sorbonne.
Institute of Philosophy of Sciences and Techniques (IHPST) : located in the Rue du Four.
Mahler Campus: located in the 4th arrondissement, it houses the Sorbonne School of Art History and Archeology.
Saint-Charles Campus: located in the 15th arrondissement. Founded in 1973, it houses the Sorbonne School of Arts (arts and cinema).
Sorbonne Economic Sciences House: located in the 13th arrondissement. It houses the Sorbonne School of Economics.
Broca Campus: Located in the 5th arrondissement. It houses the Sorbonne School of Management.
International Building : located in the Boulevard Arago, commonly called Arago. It houses the International Relations Institute.
Fontenay Campus: located in the suburban town of Fontenay-aux-Roses, in the old buildings of the École Normale Supérieure. It houses the Sorbonne Institute of Social Sciences of Work:
Sceaux Campus: in the suburban town of Sceaux, it is a secondary building of the Fontenay Center.
Bourg-la-Reine Campus: located in Bourg-la-Reine, it is a secondary building of the Fontenay Center.
Nogent Campus: located in Nogent-sur-Marne, it is a secondary building of the Fontenay Center.
Teaching and research are spread over several sites in Paris: on the left bank, in the Latin Quarter (Sorbonne, Panthéon, Centre rue du Four) and in the Pierre Mendès France Centre (Tolbiac); on the right bank (Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Centre rue Malher, and the Condorcet Campus on the La Plaine, Aubervilliers site, and in 2024 on the La Chapelle, Paris site). The School has 17 specialized libraries, among the richest in the world in their scientific fields, for books and document collections and for access to digital holdings. The Sorbonne Library is an additional resource.
Sorbonne School of Arts
The Sorbonne School of Arts (École des arts de la Sorbonne, EAS) is the Plastic Arts and Art Sciences Departement (UFR 04) of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, teaches art through its most contemporary issues, through practice, but also the analysis of works and their mediation. The school offers a variety of courses ranging from Visual Arts, Cinema and Audiovisual, to Cinema/Management, as well as Aesthetics and Art Sciences, Design, Arts and Media, Arts and Culture and a Preparatory Course for the Teaching Profession (PPPE) specialized in Plastic Arts.
Located in the heart of the 15th arrondissement, at 47 rue des Bergers, in a building of more than 7000 square meters entirely dedicated to it - the Saint Charles Centre - the EAS welcomes nearly 3000 students. It has a university library specifically dedicated to art and creation, an amphitheater, a contemporary art gallery, classrooms for theoretical courses, workshops for artistic practices (sculpture, painting, ceramics, silk-screen printing, engraving, a silver and digital photography laboratory, a Fab Lab... ), an office for the loan of audiovisual material, computer rooms, editing rooms, etc. .[22]
Panthéon-Sorbonne united in 2009 all legal studies in the university and gave that new department the name of École de droit de la Sorbonne ("Sorbonne Law School").
Since 7 March 2022, Chantal Arens, First President of the Court of Cassation signed a partnership agreement between the Court of Cassation and the Panthéon-Sorbonne University. This partnership will result in the organization of colloquiums, the development of research projects involving judges of the Court of Cassation and will allow the hosting of student interns within the Court.[24]
Sorbonne School of Economics
The Sorbonne School of Economics (EES, formerly UFR02 - Economics) was created in 1971.
Other
Sorbonne School of Art History and Archeology
Sorbonne School of Management
Sorbonne Department of Geography
Sorbonne Department of Philosophy
Sorbonne School of Political Science
Sorbonne Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science
It has published over 700 books since 1971 and publishes approximately 50 new titles a year.[26]
Academics
Undergraduate admission
Panthéon-Sorbonne receives the most applications, with more than 113,000 applicants for only 6,164 places.[27] More than 22.84% of students accepted by the university having received highest honors ("mention très bien") in high school during the 2019 session (first of France).[28]
In Law, in 2021, the rate of "with honors" and "with highest honors" mentions among the admitted students reached a high of 91% (second of France, after Panthéon-Assas).[29]
Teaching and learning
Research
Every year around 400 PhD theses are defended and 1,700 pre-PhD post-graduate degrees are awarded in 74 subjects divided between 15 graduate schools.
Documentary resource centers
In Economics, the library at the Centre Pierre Mendès France offers students free access to its large collection.
In Law, the Cujas Library, co-administered with Panthéon-Assas, with its computerized documentation service, provides access to over 500 data banks and is the largest law and economics library in France.
In Humanities, The Sorbonne Library, a common library of Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, Sorbonne University, and Paris Cité University. It is administered by Panthéon-Sorbonne University as per a governing agreement signed among these universities in 2000.[30] It has a collection of almost three million books, 100,000 of which are more than 200 years old, and 17,500 periodicals covering all the humanities. The library and map collection of the Geography Institute are the oldest such collection in France. In addition, the 400,000 volumes in the specialist libraries offer users one of the largest collections in France and Europe.
International
Panthéon-Sorbonne has signed over 150 conventions with foreign universities across five continents. These exchanges revolve around international networks such as Europaeum which bring together Oxford, London, Bologna, Bonn, Geneva, Helsinki, Leiden and Prague. The University of Paris I also heads a number of consortia which bring together French universities and professional organisations. The consortia are responsible for major international projects in Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Istanbul (Galatasaray), and Moscow.
Every year some 130 academics from foreign universities come to teach and do research at the University of Paris I. Many researchers and members of faculty take part in major international research programs abroad; the university also hosts many annual international conferences. Six thousand international students, mainly from Europe, come to study as part of the SOCRATES or TEMPUS programmes. African students are joined by increasing numbers from Asia and America, and take part in specific programs organised in conjunction with universities across the world.
Dual and double degree programs
At Panthéon-Sorbonne, students can apply for admission to one of the dual degree or double degree programs designed in conjunction with partner universities in France and abroad. Double degree programs confer two degrees to students, whereas dual degrees confer a degree from the host university only.
In 2021, Panthéon-Sorbonne was globally ranked 287th (9th of France) by QS World University Rankings[33] and 601-800th (32nd of France) by The Times Higher Education.[34] It does not currently appear in the latest US News ranking of world universities.[35] Regarding world reputation, it was ranked 101-125th in The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings of 2021.[36]
In Economics, its undergraduate program is ranked second of the French universities by Eduniversal.[39] Its masters programs are ranked 4th of the French Universities or academic institution by Eduniversal.[40]
In Business, Panthéon-Sorbonne is ranked 14 by Eduniversal, second of the universities, behind Paris Dauphine University.[41]
Law
Panthéon-Sorbonne law programs are globally ranked second by Eduniversal.
Panthéon-Sorbonne undergraduate law program are ranked as follow:[42]
The Tolbiac center of Paris 1, which previously hosted the undergraduate lectures in law, is regularly subject to blockades, which cause cancellation of all lectures up to several months, including in 1995, 1997, 2006, 2007–09, 2010 and 2018.
Attempts of automatic pass for students
Student unions regularly demand that the university grant student an automatic pass, in particular at each blockade or strike.[45] In 2020, during the covid crisis, the committee at Paris I in charge of exams decided to grant that right (i.e. to cancel marks under 10), but some professors asked the courts to cancel this decision[46] A first court validated the decision of the committee,[47] but a second one cancelled its decision.[48]
People
This list includes notable people affiliated with the Panthéon-Sorbonne University. For people affiliated with the University of Paris which ceased to exist in 1970, see List of University of Paris people.
Notable academics
Michèle Alliot-Marie: State doctorate in political science, former director of the Faculty of Political Science, former Minister (Defense, Interior, Justice and Foreign Affairs) and former UMP MP in the National Assembly.
Rosi Braidotti, contemporary philosopher and feminist theoretician, distinguished Professor in the Humanities at University of Utrecht[49]
Jorge Castañeda: Professor at New York University and former Foreign Minister of Mexico.
Luc Chatel: Master of Science in management, Master of Marketing, Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs and Tourism to the Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment and spokesman for the UMP, former Minister of National Education
Alpha Condé: politician and current President of the Republic of Guinea.
Olga Kisseleva: PhD in Arts and Art Sciences, international artist, Professor at the Sorbonne Art School.
Fabrizio Marrella: PhD in International Law, Full Professor of International Law (Venice and Rome, Italy). Arbitrator and Counsel. Honorary Dean HRV of the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights.
Vincent Peillon: Bachelor, CAPES, aggregation and doctorate in philosophy. Former MEP, former member of the Somme and the current Minister of National Education.
Conac, Gérard (2005). "La fondation de l'université Paris I : François Luchaire, pilote d'une transition institutionnelle". In Bougrab, Jeannette; Maus, Didier (eds.). François Luchaire, un républicain au service de la République (in French). Publications de la Sorbonne. ISBN978-2859445157.
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