The University of Poitiers (UP; french: Université de Poitiers) is a public university located in

Poitiers Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...

, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest student/inhabitant ratio in France by welcoming nearly 28,000 students in 2017. The University of Poitiers represents a global operating budget of around 150 million euros per year, one-third of which is for operating and investment costs and two-thirds for personnel costs. As of July 2015 it is a member of the regional university association

Leonardo da Vinci consolidated University Leonardo da Vinci consolidated University (Université confédérale Léonard de Vinci) is the association of universities and higher education institutions (ComUE) for institutions of higher education and research in the French regions of Centre ...

History

Founded in 1431 by Pope Eugene IV and

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

ed by King Charles VII, the University of Poitiers was originally composed of five faculties: theology, canon law, civil law, medicine, and arts. In the 16th century, the university exerted its influence over the town cultural life, and was ranked second only to Paris. Of the 4,000 students who attended it at the time, some were to become famous: Joachim Du Bellay, Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac,

François Rabelais François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and ...

, René Descartes, and Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, to name but a few. After temporary closure during the French Revolution when provincial universities were abolished, the University of Poitiers reopened in 1796. The reinstated university was merged from several schools and contained new faculties such as the faculty of science and the faculty of letters. They established the École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs de Poitiers, a department which trains engineers, in 1984 after having created the ''Institut de sciences et techniques de Poitiers'', its predecessor. The first Confucius Institute in France was created on the campus in 2005 with the cooperation of

Nanchang University Nanchang University (NCU; ) is a public research university located in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. NCU has also been recognized as a National Key University in the nation. Based on the new plan initiated by Chinese Ministry of Education in 2017, N ...

and Jiujiang University. After having managed its payroll and budget since January 1, 2010, the University of Poitiers is the third university in France to have its premises. In late 2011 the university changed its logo. They submitted four so that students and the staff were able to decide. The up-to-date logo is based on the original coat of arms while the former was something modern. Over 9,000 people participated in the selection of the new logo. In 2012, the university launched a blogging platform where the teaching staff and researchers deal with topical subjects, each in their area of expertise. The slogan is ''the word of experts''.

Organization

The university covers all major academic fields through its 14 teaching and research departments, institutes and schools: *Teaching and Research Departments **Department of Law and Social Sciences **Department of Economics **Department of Basic and Applied Science **Department of Literature and Languages **Department of Human Sciences and Arts **Department of Sports Sciences **Department of Medicine and Pharmacy *School **Graduate Engineering School - École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs de Poitiers (ENSIP) *Institutes **Polytechnic of Poitiers (IUT) **Polytechnic of Angoulême (IUT) **IAE University Business School ( IAE Poitiers) **Institute of Communication and New Technologies (ICOMTEC) **General Administration Preparatory Institute (IPAG) **Institute of Industrial, Insurance and Financial Risks (IRIAF)

Research

In the scientific domain, it has these laboratories, where ENSIP is part of: * LIAS: automatics * IC2MP: chemistry and materials * Institut Pprime: physics In the legal domain, th
Center for Studies on International Legal Cooperation
(CECOJI) is a joint research unit (UMR) involving the University of Poitiers and the National Center for Scientific Research (

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

Life on campus

Students can play in athletic teams, or just enjoy all the sports proposed. It is also possible to play golf at the north of the campus of Poitiers and sail in La Rochelle.Centre golfique des Chalons
University of Poitiers The Bitards are also known as the university's most famous student association.

Notable people

Medieval

* Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522) - Greek and Hebrew scholar *

(c.1490-1553) - writer *

Hubert Languet Hubert Languet (1518 – 30 September 1581, in Antwerp) was a French diplomat and reformer. The leading idea of his diplomacy was that of religious and civil liberty for the protection and expansion of Protestantism. He did everything in his pow ...

(1518-1581) - diplomat * Joachim du Bellay (c.1522-1560) - poet, critic * Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) - poet * François Viète (1540-1603) - mathematician * Robert Hayman (1575-1629) - poet and colonist *

Georg Anton von Rodenstein Georg Anton von Rodenstein (29 September 1579 – 30 October 1652) was the Prince-Bishop of Worms from 1629 to 1652. Biography Georg Anton von Rodenstein was born in Rodenstein on 29 September 1579. He became a canon of Speyer Cathedral in 1 ...

(1579-1652) - bishop * René Descartes (1596-1650) -

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Joseph-François Lafitau Joseph-François Lafitau (; May 31, 1681 – July 3, 1746) was a French Jesuit missionary, ethnologist, and naturalist who worked in Canada. He is best known for his use of the comparative method in the field of scientific anthropology, the disco ...

(1681-1746) -

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

missionary, ethnologist, and naturalist

Modern

Humanities

* Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936) - anthropologist * Alfred Jeanroy (1859-1953) - linguist *

José Fernández Montesinos José Fernández-Montesinos LustauHis name usually appears in bibliographies as F. Montesinos, José. (Granada, 5 December 1897–Berkeley, 8 June 1972) was a Spanish historian and literary critic belonging to the so-called ''Generación del 27'' ...

(1897-1972) - historian and literary critic * Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) - philosopher * Edmond-René Labande (1908-1992) - archivist and historian * Mikel Dufrenne (1910-1995) - philosopher * Roger Garaudy (1913-2012) - philosopher * John Howard Griffin (1920-1980) - American journalist and author *

Jean Foyer Jean Foyer (21 April 1921, Contigné, Maine-et-Loire – 3 October 2008, Paris) was a French politician and minister. He studied law and became a law professor at the university. He wrote several books about French Civil law. Political care ...

(1921-2008) - lawyer and politician *

Pierre Bec Pierre Bec (; oc, Pèire Bèc; 11 December 1921 – 30 June 2014) was a French Occitan-language poet and linguist. Born in Paris, he spent his childhood in Comminges, where he learnt Occitan. He was deported to Germany between 1943 and 1945. Af ...

(1921-2014) - poet and linguist * Michel Clouscard (1928-2009) - philosopher and sociologist * Jean-Claude Coquet (1928-2023) - linguist and semiotician * Samir Amin (1931-2018) - economist *

Kweku Etrew Amua-Sekyi Kweku Etrew Amua-Sekyi (5 July 1933 – May 17, 2007) was a Ghanaian Supreme Court Judge. He served on the bench of the Supreme Court of the Gambia and the Supreme Court of Ghana. He was the chairman for the National Reconciliation Commission tha ...

(1933-2007) - Ghanaian

Supreme Court Judge A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Claude Hagège Claude Hagège (; born 1 January 1936) is a French linguist. Biography He was elected to the Collège de France in 1988 and received several awards for his work, including the Prix de l' Académie Française and the CNRS Gold medal. Famous for ...

(b. 1936) - linguist * Joaquim Chissano (b. 1939) - Mozambican politician * Pascal Salin (b. 1939) - economist * Pascoal Mocumbi (1941-2023) - Mozambican politician * Jean-Pierre Arrignon (1943-2021) - historian * Jean-Luc Marion (b. 1946) - philosopher * François-Bernard Huyghe (1951-2022) - political scientist * Pascale Ballet (b. 1953) - Egyptologist

Science

* Jules Gosselet (1832-1916) - geologist * Édouard Louis Trouessart (1842-1927) - zoologist * Noël Bernard (1874-1911) - botanist * Henri Lebesgue (1875-1941) - mathematician *

René Maurice Fréchet René Maurice Fréchet (; 2 September 1878 – 4 June 1973) was a French mathematician. He made major contributions to general topology and was the first to define metric spaces. He also made several important contributions to the field of stati ...

(1878-1973) - mathematician * Paul Becquerel (1879-1955) - biologist *

Albert Maige Albert Maige (26 November 1872 – 29 November 1943) was a French botanist. Among his works was on the forest flora of Algeria. A major contribution was on the synthesis, movement and storage of starch examining the role of the leucoplast, and the ...

(1872-1943) - botanist * Michel Lazard (1924-1987) - mathematician *

Michel Brunet Michel Brunet may refer to: * Michel Brunet (historian) (1917–1985), Canadian historian * Michel Brunet (paleontologist) (born 1940), French paleontologist * Michel Brunet (figure skater) (born 1970), Canadian skater {{hndis, Brunet, Michel ...

(b. 1940) - paleontologist * Mostafa Mir-Salim (b. 1947) - engineer *

Abderrazak El Albani Abderrazak El Albani is a French-Moroccan sedimentologist, Professor at University of Poitiers at the Hydrasa laboratory (IC2MP - CNRS). He is significant for having discovered the oldest known fossils of multicellular organisms in the 2.1 billio ...

- sedimentologist

Points of interest

Jardin botanique universitaire de Poitiers The Jardin botanique universitaire de Poitiers (33 hectares) is a botanical garden and arboretum maintained by the University of Poitiers. It is located at 443 Route du deffend, Mignaloux-Beauvoir, Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, and open daily ...

Notes and references

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poitiers, University of Public universities in France Universities and colleges in Poitiers 1431 establishments in Europe 1430s establishments in France Educational institutions established in the 15th century