In the early 9th century, the emperorCharlemagne mandated all churches to give lessons in reading, writing and basic arithmetic to their parishes, and cathedrals to give a higher-education in the finer arts of language,physics,music, andtheology; at that time,Paris was already one of France's major cathedral towns and beginning its rise to fame as a scholastic centre. By the early 13th century, theÎle de la CitéNotre-Dame cathedral school had many famous teachers, and the controversial teachings of some of these led to the creation of a separate Left-BankSainte-Genevieve University that would become the centre of Paris's scholasticLatin Quarter best represented by theSorbonne university.
Twelve centuries later, education in Paris and the Paris region (Île-de-Francerégion) employs approximately 330,000 people, 170,000 of whom are teachers and professors teaching approximately 2.9 million children and students in around 9,000 primary, secondary, and higher education schools and institutions.[1]
Paris is home to several of France's most prestigious high-schools such asLycée saint Louis de Gonzague,Lycée Stanislas,Lycée Louis-le-Grand andLycée Henri-IV. Other high-schools of international renown in the Paris area include theLycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye and theÉcole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel.
TheKingsworth International School along with theInternational School of Paris, are within the city. TheInternationale Deutsche Schule Paris, theAmerican School of Paris, theBritish School of Paris, the German international school andÉcole Japonaise de Paris, along with theJapanese international school are located in nearby suburbs.
In the academic year 2004–2005, the Paris Region's 17 public universities, with its 359,749 registered students,[2] comprised the largest concentration of university students in Europe. The Paris Region's prestigiousgrandes écoles and scores of university-independent private and public schools have an additional 240,778 registered students, that, together with the university population, creates a grand total of 600,527 students in higher education that year.[2]
The cathedral ofNotre-Dame was the first centre of higher-education before the creation of theUniversity of Paris,Le Sorbonne, which was founded in about 1150.[3] Theuniversitas was chartered by KingPhilip Augustus in 1200, as a corporation granting teachers (and their students) the right to rule themselves independently from crown law and taxes. At the time, many classes were held in open air. Non-Parisian students and teachers would stay in hostels, or "colleges", created for theboursiers coming from afar.
Already famous by the 13th century, the University of Paris had students from all of Europe. Paris'sRive Gauchescholastic centre, dubbed "Latin Quarter" as classes were taught in Latin then, would eventually regroup around the college created byRobert de Sorbon from 1257, theCollège de Sorbonne.[4] The University of Paris in the 19th century had six faculties: law, science, medicine, pharmaceutical studies, literature, and theology. Following the1968 student riots, there was an extensive reform of the University of Paris, in an effort to disperse the centralised student body. The following year, the former unique University of Paris was split between thirteen autonomous universities located throughout the city of Paris and its suburbs. Each of these universities inherited only some of the departments of the old University of Paris, and are not generalist universities.Panthéon-Assas University,Panthéon-Sorbonne University,Paris-Descartes University andParis-Nanterre University inherited the law faculty; Paris Descartes University,Paris-East Créteil University,Paris-Diderot University andPierre-and-Marie-Curie University inherited the medicine faculty, and the latter two inherited the scientific departments;Paris-Sorbonne University,Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis,Sorbonne Paris North University andSorbonne Nouvelle inherited the arts and humanities.[5]Paris Dauphine University inherited the economy.
In 1991, four more universities were created in the suburbs of Paris, reaching a total of seventeen public universities for the Paris (Île-de-France)région. These new universities were given names (based on the name of the suburb in which they are located) and not numbers like the previous thirteen:Cergy-Pontoise University,University of Évry Val d'Essonne,University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée andUniversity of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
In the years 2010/2020 universities merger took place. Paris-Descartes University and Paris-Diderot University becameParis Cité University, Paris-Sorbonne University and Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University becameSorbonne University, and Cergy-Pontoise University becameCY Cergy Paris University.Paris Sciences et Lettres University is created in 2010 from 11 constituent schools and universities.Paris-Saclay University is established in 2019 fromParis-Sud University and the merger of four technicalgrandes écoles, as well as several technological institutes, engineering schools, and research facilities.Gustave Eiffel University starts in 2020 from the former University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée.
Students also have the opportunity to study abroad in North America via theMICEFA[6] program.
The Paris region hosts France's highest concentration of the prestigiousgrandes écoles – specialised centres of higher-education outside the public university structure. The prestigious public universities are usually consideredgrands établissements. Most of thegrandes écoles were relocated to the suburbs of Paris in the 1960s and 1970s, in new campuses much larger than the old campuses within the crowded city of Paris, though theÉcole Normale Supérieure has remained on rue d'Ulm in the5th arrondissement.[7]
The Paris area hosts 55 grandes écoles, including a high number of engineering schools, some of them led by the prestigious Paris Institute of Technology (ParisTech) which comprises several colleges such asArts et Métiers ParisTech,École Polytechnique,École des Mines,AgroParisTech,Télécom Paris, andÉcole des Ponts et Chaussées. Other prestigious engineering schools are located in Paris, includingCentraleSupélec, considered one of the top 3 in France, andENSTA. In 2019, five engineeringgrandes écoles (École polytechnique,ENSTA,ENSAE,Télécom Paris andTelecom SudParis) grouped together in thePolytechnic Institute of Paris. There are also many business schools, includingINSEAD,ESSEC,HEC andESCP. The administrative school such asENA has been relocated toStrasbourg, the political science schoolSciences Po is still located in Paris'sleft bank7th arrondissement. The Parisian school of journalismCELSA département of theSorbonne University is located in Neuilly-sur-Seine.[8]
Thegrandes écoles system is supported by a number of preparatory schools that offer courses of two to three years' duration calledClasses Préparatoires, also known asclasses prépas or simplyprépas. These courses provide entry to the grandes écoles. Many of the best prépas are located in Paris, includingLycée Louis-le-Grand,Lycée Henri-IV,Lycée Saint-Louis,Lycée Janson de Sailly, andLycée Stanislas.[9] Two other top-rankingprépas (Lycée Hoche andLycée privé Sainte-Geneviève) are located inVersailles, near Paris. Student selection is based on school grades and teacher remarks.Prépas are known to be very demanding in terms of work load and psychological stress.[10]
ThePasteur Institute (French: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines.
TheÉcole de langue japonaise de Paris (パリ日本語補習校Pari Nihongo Hoshūkō), asupplementary Japanese education programme, is held at theÉcole Maternelle et Primaire Saint Francois d'Eylau in the16th arrondissement of Paris.[11][12] The school has its offices at theAssociation Amicale des Ressortissants Japonais en France (AARJF) in the8th arrondissement.[13]
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