c. 1150University of Paris 1956University of Paris in Orsay 1971Paris-Sud University 2014As a community[1] 2019As a collegiate university, that replaces Paris-Sud University
Paris-Saclay University (French:Université Paris-Saclay,pronounced[ynivɛʁsitepaʁisaklɛ]) is a combinedtechnological research institute andpublicresearch university inOrsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technicalgrandes écoles, as well as several technological institutes, engineering schools, and research facilities; giving it fifteen constituent colleges with over 48,000 students combined.[4]
The Paris-Saclay University was established in 2015 as a universities community (ComUE) and in 2019 as acollegiate university, with the aim to become a top-ranking, research-focused French university.
As early as the 1940s, the French physicistsIrène Joliot-Curie andFrédéric Joliot-Curie, professors at the Faculty of Science at theUniversity of Paris, had already envisaged decentralising the university to the southern suburbs of Paris, nearVersailles. In 1942, Irène Joliot-Curie even informed the university's rector of the existence of a potential site nearOrsay, on theSaclay plateau.
In the 1950s, a number ofGrandes Ecoles and university research departments were set up in the immediate vicinity of theSaclay plateau. In 1954, France decided to combine its participation inCERN with the development of its ownnuclear physics research.
In 1955, theUniversity of Paris moved into the Saclay plateau with the purchase of 50 hectares of land inOrsay. Irène Joliot-Curie proposed the creation of the Orsay Institute of Nuclear Physics, and construction work began in 1955. She died in 1956, and Frédéric became the Institute's first director. At the same time, the Orsay Linear Accelerator Laboratory (LAL) of theUniversity of Paris was built.
The rapid increase of students and the teaching situation at theSorbonne (the main campus of the University of Paris) was becoming increasingly critical. So in 1958 it was decided to transfer some of the science teaching at the University of Paris toOrsay.
In 1965, the Orsay science campus officially became independent from theUniversity of Paris. After being theOrsay Faculty of Sciences of the University of Paris, separate from the Paris Faculty of Sciences, it became a full university, theUniversity of Paris-Sud (Paris XI) in 1971. The Faculty of Sciences was joined by the Faculty of Medicine atKremlin-Bicêtre, the Jean Monnet Faculty of Law and Economics atSceaux and the Faculty of Pharmacy atChâtenay-Malabry, creating a multidisciplinary university in the south of Paris.
The Château de Launay, former headquarters of the university, atOrsay, in June 2021.
In 2008, the University of Paris-Sud and the University of Versailles were among the 21 winning institutions of the France'sPlan Campus, with which theSaclay research and higher education hub is associated. These institutions then embarked on a larger-scale cooperation, namely the creation of a collegiate university: the Université Paris-Saclay. The university project was launched following its validation by theFrench Ministry of Higher Education and Research as part of the Campus Plan.[23]
TheCampus Paris-Saclay scientific cooperation foundation, chaired at the time byAlain Bravo, was set up to bring together the various academic and scientific establishments, manage theDigiteo andTriangle de la physique advanced research thematic networks (RTRA) and create the community.[24] With the planned development of theParis-Saclay technology hub, many institutions are planning to move there.[25][26]
In 2014, the various members adopted the statutes of the Paris-Saclay University system (ComUE), enabling it to award bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Ultimately, theuniversity system is to become a full university.
To be recognized as an entity of sufficient size and quality, the university regroups some of the topgrandes écoles in France with public universities under a single campus on theSaclay plateau. Each member institution will remain independent but share a significant portion of existing and newly invested resources. This follows a model similar to the one adopted byUniversity of Oxford andCambridge, where each constituent college keeps its independence while being grouped under a 'university'.[17] According to Dominique Vernay, chairman of the foundation developing Paris-Saclay, the university aims at a top-ten position in theAcademic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), but "the first goal is to be the top university in continental Europe".[5]
Confronted with disagreements between its members (between the schools and universities, or between their supervisory ministries), the project stagnated, as theCour des Comptes noted in its report of 8 February 2017, pointing in particular to a lack of housing and transport facilities, as well as a lack of strategic vision, despite the five billion euros planned (committed or envisaged).[28][29][30] In 2017, theUniversity of Paris-Sud proposed merging with theuniversity system (ComUE) to create the Paris-Saclay University as acollegiate university, and integrating the schools into the future institution as component institutions.[31] This stalemate led PresidentEmmanuel Macron to announce on 25 October 2017, during his inauguration ofCentraleSupélec's new buildings at Paris-Saclay, the separation of the various members into two university entities: the Paris-Saclay University and thePolytechnic Institute of Paris.[32][33][34]
On 25 October 2017, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron inaugurated the new Orsay Graduate School of Mathematics, which brings together the mathematics laboratory teams of the Paris-Saclay University and theCNRS, some of the teaching staff, and the Jacques Hadamard University Library.[35]
Every year since 2020, Paris-Saclay has achieved its best performance in theShanghai rankings, ranking 1st in the world in mathematics and 9th in physics.[39][40]
In April 2022, the Paris-Saclay University inaugurated the new 'Agro Paris-Saclay Campus', which covers 4.2 hectares in the commune ofPalaiseau, nearOrsay. It will be hosting nearly 2,000 students and 1,350 teacher-researchers, researchers, technicians and staff from theAgroParisTechGrande École of the Paris-Saclay University.[41][42]
On 18 April 2023, Paris-Saclay University opened France's largest academic research hub forpharmaceuticals, the Henri-Moissan Centre, bringing together its School of Pharmacy, its chemistry and biology departments and theOrsay Institute of Molecular Chemistry and Materials in a single centre. More than 3,000 students and 1,000 researchers-teachers and administrative staff have gradually moved in since the start of the new academic year in September 2022.[43]
Since October 2023, the university has been a partner of the French privateGrande ÉcoleIPSA for double degrees inaerospace.[44]
In February 2024, Paris-Saclay, which brings together nearly 50,000 students, is facing a leadership crisis. The Board of Administrators has still not been able to elect its future chairman and has been under the supervision of a provisional administrator for several months.[45][46] After several months of crisis, the former provisional administrator Camille Galap was elected to head the flagship French university on 11 June 2024, with the promise of getting the institution out of the institutional difficulties it is going through. Indeed, the greater presence of qualified external figures on the board of directors, than representatives of teachers, researchers or students, has caused an institutional blockage. A situation made possible because of the university's exceptional statuses.[47]
The Paris-Saclay University consists of five faculties in Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy, Law-Economics-Management, and Sports Sciences; an Engineering school; three technical institutes specialised in scientific and technical subjects inCachan,Orsay, andSceaux; and an undergraduate university school.[48]
It combines resources from the following French universities andgrandes écoles, as well as partial resources from various research organizations and theSystematic Paris-Region cluster:[49]
The following research organizations have established research centers within the Paris-Saclay University. The resources contributed by these organizations will remain largely independent from other member institutions. Once the University of Paris-Saclay is fully integrated, its research centers are expected to achieve a profile similar to theJet Propulsion Laboratory ofCaltech:
CEA (Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission)
CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research)
Inria (French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation)
INSERM (French Institute of Health and Medical Research)
The Henri Moissan building, on theSaclayPlateau, which houses the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Biology and Chemistry departments of theFaculty of Sciences of the university.
The mainParis-Saclay campus, covering 495 acres (200 ha), is centered on theSaclayPlateau and itsQuartier de Moulon ("the Urban Campus") inOrsay, around 20 km south of downtown Paris, and extends into the surrounding areas ofGif-sur-Yvette andPalaiseau. ThePlateau is home to the new buildings of the Faculty of Pharmacy, the departments of chemistry, biology and physics of theFaculty of Sciences, TheLumen, the university's main library, theÉcole normale supérieure, theCentraleSupélec engineeringgrande école.
The adjacent areas of thePlateau, in the neighboring commune ofPalaiseau, include the main buildings ofAgroParisTech, the university's Institute of Life Sciences and Industries and the Environment, and the university'sCenter for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (C2N).
Also, the campus historically extends to the south of theBois de la Guyonnerie, in the Valley. Close to the city center of Orsay and theRER stationOrsay-Ville, the Valley campus is centered around theChâteau de Launay. It houses the other departments of the Faculty of Sciences, the university science libraries such asHadamard Library, and the main laboratories.
The building of the university's Agro Campus, on theSaclayPlateau, in the town ofPalaiseau.
J. Monnet Law School is located on a 4.5-acre campus in the town ofSceaux, 6 kilometers south of Paris. It is the successor to theUniversity of Paris's Sceaux Center for Legal Studies, which opened in 1968. A few meters to the south is theIUT of Sceaux, a professional school of the university which offers bachelor's level programs very focused on practice.
The Faculty of Medicine is located on the site of theBicêtre University Hospital, a few meters from the metro stationHôpital Bicêtre. It has historic buildings and a new 8,000 square meter building dedicated to research.
Each member school of the Paris-Saclay University organizes training in a given scientific field. Depending on the needs of their registered program, a student enrolled in a particular graduate school will have access to academic resources from other schools.
The various fields of study available at Paris-Saclay University are broadly categorized into the following:
Biodiversity, Agriculture and Food, Society, Environment (Biodiversité, Agriculture et Alimentation, Société, Environnement);
Paris-Saclay Graduate Schools – Master's degrees are taught in both French and English. Altogether, 49 Master's degree are offered.[58]
Paris-Saclay Research or Doctoral Schools – PhD programs are offered through 20 doctoral schools.[27] Doctoral degrees received after 30 September 2015, are awarded under the name "Paris-Saclay University", with a mention of the student's associated university orgrande école.
Multidisciplinary Higher Education Program (CPES) Data Science, Society and Health
Recognized by the French Ministry of Higher Education, it confers the national grade de licence (bachelor’s level), awarded jointly by Université Paris-Saclay, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, and HEC ParisDecree No. 2023-937. CPES graduates will have access to prestigious postgraduate pathways in national or international master’s programs, engineering or business schools, or other grandes écoles tracks.
This three-year curriculum combines foundational training in mathematics, computer science, and statistics with courses in economics, social sciences, or biology, depending on the chosen specialization, as well as training on contemporary societal and health challenges.Paris-Saclay University presenting the CPES
Students attend courses across the three institutions and complete several applied interdisciplinary projects (Hi! PARIS, a social and solidarity entrepreneurial project during first and second years, and the HEC Capstone project in the final year).
It is also connected with two grande écoles:École polytechnique andCentraleSupélec, which are known as the top 2 engineering schools in France.
In August 2024, Paris-Saclay University ranked 12th inShanghai Ranking's top 1000 universities in the world, and 2nd worldwide for Mathematics byAcademic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and 3rd worldwide for Physics (1st in Europe).[66]
^abcdefThe three longest established and most influential global rankings
Paris-Saclay University formally replaced several pre-existing Parisian universities, grande écoles and research institutes. These continue to exist as departments within the broader structure of Paris-Saclay. The list below therefore includes those pre- and post-2019 laureates whose institutions were later subsumed by the university.
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