In 2019, the Paris-Saclay University succeeded
University of Paris-Sud founded in 1971, which itself succeeded to
University of Paris (in
Orsay), founded . The Paris-Saclay University was established in 2015 as a universities community (ComUE) and in 2019 as a
collegiate university, with the aim to become a top-ranking, research-focused French university.
20th century University of Paris research centres in Orsay, on the Saclay plateau After
World War II, the rapid growth of nuclear physics and chemistry meant that research needed more and more powerful accelerators, which required large areas. The
University of Paris, the
École Normale Supérieure and the
Collège de France looked for space in the south of Paris near
Orsay. As early as the 1940s, the French physicists
Irène Joliot-Curie and
Frédéric Joliot-Curie, professors at the Faculty of Science at the
University of Paris, had already envisaged decentralising the university to the southern suburbs of Paris, near
Versailles. In 1942, Irène Joliot-Curie even informed the university's rector of the existence of a potential site near
Orsay, on the
Saclay plateau. In the 1950s, a number of
Grandes Ecoles and university research departments were set up in the immediate vicinity of the
Saclay plateau. In 1954, France decided to combine its participation in
CERN with the development of its own
nuclear physics research. In 1955, the
University of Paris moved into the Saclay plateau with the purchase of 50 hectares of land in
Orsay. 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 the
University of Paris was built. The rapid increase of students and the teaching situation at the
Sorbonne (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 to
Orsay.
The University of Paris-Sud In 1965, the Orsay science campus officially became independent from the
University of Paris. After being the
Orsay Faculty of Sciences of the University of Paris, separate from the Paris Faculty of Sciences, it became a full university, the
University of Paris-Sud (Paris XI) in 1971. The Faculty of Sciences was joined by the Faculty of Medicine at
Kremlin-Bicêtre, the Jean Monnet Faculty of Law and Economics at
Sceaux and the Faculty of Pharmacy at
Châtenay-Malabry, creating a multidisciplinary university in the south of Paris.
21st century The Campus Paris-Saclay scientific cooperation foundation (FCS) In 2007, a research and higher education hub was created in
Orsay and
Saclay. The hub has three founding members: the
University of Paris-Sud, the
University of Versailles and the École normale supérieure de Cachan, the future ‘
ENS Paris-Saclay’. , in June 2021. In 2008, the University of Paris-Sud and the University of Versailles were among the 21 winning institutions of the France's
Plan Campus, with which the
Saclay 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 the
French Ministry of Higher Education and Research as part of the Campus Plan. The
Campus Paris-Saclay scientific cooperation foundation, chaired at the time by
Alain Bravo, was set up to bring together the various academic and scientific establishments, manage the
Digiteo and
Triangle de la physique advanced research thematic networks (RTRA) and create the community. With the planned development of the
Paris-Saclay technology hub, many institutions are planning to move there.
The university system 'Université Paris-Saclay' 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, the
university system is to become a full university. The
university system's first academic year started in September 2015. To be recognized as an entity of sufficient size and quality, the university regroups some of the top
grandes écoles in France with public universities under a single campus on the
Saclay 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 by
University of Oxford and
Cambridge, where each constituent college keeps its independence while being grouped under a 'university'. In 2017, the
University of Paris-Sud proposed merging with the
university system (ComUE) to create the Paris-Saclay University as a
collegiate university, and integrating the schools into the future institution as component institutions. This stalemate led President
Emmanuel Macron to announce on 25 October 2017, during his inauguration of
CentraleSupélec's new buildings at Paris-Saclay, the separation of the various members into two university entities: the Paris-Saclay University and the
Polytechnic Institute of Paris. On 25 October 2017, French President
Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the new Orsay Graduate School of Mathematics, which brings together the mathematics laboratory teams of the Paris-Saclay University and the
CNRS, some of the teaching staff, and the Jacques Hadamard University Library.
The collegiate university In January 2020, it replaced
University of Paris-Sud and in 2025,
University of Versailles and
University of Evry will merge with it as well. They should evolve towards the status of an ‘integrated university’, and be renamed
Paris-Saclay University in Versailles and
Paris-Saclay University in Évry. Every year since 2020, Paris-Saclay has achieved its best performance in the
Shanghai rankings, ranking 1st in the world in mathematics and 9th in physics. In April 2022, the Paris-Saclay University inaugurated the new '''Agro Paris-Saclay Campus',
which covers 4.2 hectares in the commune of Palaiseau, near Orsay. It will be hosting nearly 2,000 students and 1,350 teacher-researchers, researchers, technicians and staff from the AgroParisTech Grande École'' of the Paris-Saclay University. On 18 April 2023, Paris-Saclay University opened France's largest academic research hub for
pharmaceuticals, the Henri-Moissan Centre, bringing together its School of Pharmacy, its chemistry and biology departments and the
Orsay 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. Since October 2023, the university has been a partner of the French private
Grande École IPSA for double degrees in
aerospace. 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. 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. == Organisation ==