Among the states of the Old World, only a few can boast of their successful educational system. It is not surprising that the Sorbonne University of Paris is the pride of France. Centuries-old established traditions of higher education elevate the homeland of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the rank of the best countries for studying. Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva and many other prominent names glorify the walls of the legendary educational institution.
Paris university is one of the best in Europe
Today, the priority principle of choosing a Parisian university can be called the provision of free access to the acquisition of knowledge for all students: both local and those who came from far abroad.
Undoubtedly the most prestigious university in France, the Sorbonne is home to millions of European school graduates. In addition, Universite de Paris is an institution of higher education with a rich history. Starting from the date of foundation, in 1215, its creators even then thought about making the universityacquired a truly global international scale. By the middle of the 13th century, not only the French, but also the Flemish, Germans and English were studying at each of the existing faculties (medicine, law, arts and theology).
The history of the university from the very beginning
The University of Paris has gone through several important periods in its history. The educational institution was opened in 1258. By the way, the original idea of creating a college for poor students belonged to Robert de Sorbon.
The name of the royal spiritual mentor was subsequently given to the university. Resembling a certain educational institute, it was an organization within the walls of which the entire teaching staff and students lived, worked and studied. In the near future, the college was reorganized into the theological university faculty, which received the name Sorbonne. From the beginning of the 17th century, the University of Paris became the center of philosophy and theology in Europe. He gained fame and glory.
In the same period, the Sorbonne was renovated and expanded. Meanwhile, the French Revolution brought scientific life to a h alt in Paris until the 1920s. For quite a long time, one of the leading universities in Europe was in a state of long and deep sleep. However, with the opening of the university, significant changes took place again. A couple of decades later, cardinal reforms have borne fruit: the French university has become a major educational center.
Dramatic reforms and structural features of the Sorbonne
The next historical step in the transformation of the Sorbonne was the events of 1968. Mass student strikes that arose as a result of the riots of the "May Revolution" led to a comprehensive optimization of the education system in the state. As a result, the largest university was divided into separate segments, each of which was given the status of an autonomous institution.
13 Parisian independent universities are the new structure of the Sorbonne, which has survived to this day. It is necessary to dwell in more detail on all elements of the main system of French higher education.
First university in Paris
Pantheon-Sorbonne. The Paris I University consists of many faculties in the humanities and mathematics. Every year, over 10,000 people graduate from the university in various speci alties:
- history;
- geography;
- economy;
- math;
- philosophy;
- management;
- archeology;
- tourism, etc.
A network of institutions providing professional training in the field of law, insurance, banking and customs is also successfully functioning here. With a bachelor's degree, a student has the opportunity to immediately enter the second year of the master's program.
In the Pantheon, training takes place in accordance with English-language qualification programs, while in-depth study of the French language is typical for any speci alty.
Assas, SorbonneNew and Rene Descartes
Pantheon-Assas. In the system of legal education, this university is the undisputed leader. Over the past few decades, it has confidently occupied a leading position among specialized legal universities in France.
New Sorbonne. Relatively modest size and fewer academic buildings do not play a big role in choosing the best linguistic university. At the moment, about 20,000 students wish to be fluent in several languages under the Sorbonne program. In addition, this university has no equal in terms of the quality of training in such humanitarian disciplines as film studies, theater studies, phonetics, media, literature, phonetics and much more.
Paris-Sorbonne. The University of Paris IV specializes in the areas of clergy and intellectuality. In addition to philosophy, religious studies, sociology and archeology, more than 20,000 students study foreign languages, study at the School of Innovative Management and Communications, as well as at the Institute of Physical Training and Sports.
Paris-Descartes. The next element of the central system of higher education, graduating medical professionals. The university, named after Rene Descartes, from year to year recruits for various specializations, accepting about 30,000 applicants. Everyone who indirectly or directly plans to connect their lives with medicine seeks to get here: dentists, medical law specialists, pharmacists, psychologists, homeopaths, etc.
Componentpart of the university is the Paris Museum of Medicine and the Institute of Technology. By the way, the main building of Paris-Descartes is a national treasure of the state.
Experiments and research at the Sorbonne
The following three universities in Paris, proudly bearing the name "Sorbonne", are rather large research centers. We are talking about the university of Pierre and Marie Curie, the University of Paris VII - Diderot and Vincennes - Saint-Denis. Their specializations are exact sciences, medicine, dentistry.
Among the economic and legal universities of the Sorbonne, Paris-Dauphine and Nanterre-la-Defense should be singled out separately. The first is an unconditional and practically the only educational institution of its kind that trains specialists only in areas of economics. Nanterre-la-Defense is an equally prestigious university in Europe, has a law faculty and is famous for the compulsory study of several foreign languages.
Paris-south. The best choice for entering a speci alty related to the exact sciences. Often ranked as the best educational institution in France.
Val de Marne. This university is known throughout Europe. It has 7 faculties for the training of professional administrators, managers and civil servants.
Paris-North. The last, 13th university in the capital of France. Includes 5 active faculties providing training in the humanities, social, economic and natural sciences, and the InstituteGalilee.
The University of Paris has a peculiar structure in which the place of honor belongs to higher schools. The diploma of such institutions is highly valued throughout the state. The first schools were institutions established long before the start of the French Revolution. At the end of the 18th century, the Mining School was established, and a little later, the school of road construction. It is believed that you can get into politics or big business only after going through these stages of learning and becoming a modern successful person. The highest pedagogical (Ecole Normal) and agronomic school are considered honorary. An institution that trains politicians and government officials, the National School of Administration, is the most prestigious educational institution of this type.
University Library
It is impossible not to say about the library of the Sorbonne. In 1770, for the first time, she met in her own reading rooms everyone who was thirsty for knowledge. Since the opening, the accessibility of the library has made it possible to be regular visitors not only to representatives of the student body and members of the teaching staff, but also to ordinary people who have nothing to do with studying at the Sorbonne. The initial fund of the book treasury was quite an impressive number of different volumes - about 20 thousand copies. The regularly updated list of literature in the library made it possible to sum up the results of positive dynamics - by 1936, about a million volumes were stored on its bookshelves.
An interesting fact from historyThe existence of the book depository can be called the fact that during the same period the administration of the institution decided to replace the comfortable cozy chairs in the reading rooms with less comfortable wooden benches. This, in their opinion, helped to make up for the missing space, since every year the number of visitors grew exponentially. To date, the collection of intellectual works at the Sorbonne is the largest in the world.
Features of the education system in Paris
You should also pay attention to the mechanism for the implementation of educational activities, which is equal to the Sorbonne. The university functions according to other rules, absolutely different from the Russian scheme of education and students' transition to the next qualification stages. For example, the meaning of the term "higher education" in the French state is interpreted differently. To enter a university, you must have a bachelor's degree in your hands, while in Russia you can reach this educational level only after 4-5 years in a university. In comparison with the understanding of a Russian student that a bachelor's degree only indicates incomplete higher education, in France the equivalent of this concept is a licentiate. The so-called diploma of mastery - Maitrise - can be compared with a master's degree in Russia. However, the master's qualification also exists in France. At the same time, it can be conditionally divided into two types - a classic version of general education and one with a professional orientation.
Famous philosophers who graduated from the Sorbonne
Today and for almostmillennia, the Sorbonne has been of great importance in the system of higher education of the country, Europe and the entire world community. Allowing only the best of the best to enter her halls and auditoriums, she gave an excellent start for creativity and a worthy development for many talented individuals. Famous graduates of the university confirm the correctness of the educational strategy of the university, being a personal example of this.
Through the centuries, great outstanding names that have survived to this day convince once again that the Sorbonne is a university worthy of the title of “the most prestigious.”
Among the representatives of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, one cannot fail to mention Thomas Aquinas. The creator of the "five proofs of the existence of the Lord God" is probably the most famous theologian and philosopher of his time. The Sorbonne graduate was an open opponent of the Christian Church, which is issuing indulgences.
The world-famous Erasmus Mundus international student exchange program was named after one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance, Erasmus of Rotterdam.
Outstanding figures of art and literature
Gumilyov Nikolai Stepanovich is a representative of Russian poetry of the early 20th century. The periods of creativity of the author of hundreds of works coincided with the Silver Age in the Russian Empire. Gumilyov Nikolai was the founder of the school of acmeism, which was attended by other Russian poets - graduates of the Paris Sorbonne (Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva). Among the outstanding French writers who received a diploma from this university, the whole world knows about Honore de Balzac. Having had a significant influence on the birth of the school of realism, Balzac worked in the modern era. His work left an indelible imprint on the literature of the last century as a whole and was reflected in the works of Dostoevsky, Emile Zola and others.
In modern times, Sorbonne graduates continue to win pedestals of fame and popularity. For example, artists and cinematographers have replenished their ranks with a whole list of famous names. Andre Breton is a poet and prose writer, one of the first authors who revealed the direction of surrealism. Jean-Luc Godard is also a graduate of the University of Paris. The legendary film director was considered quite an influential person in the world of cinema in the 60s of the last century. Susan Sontag, also a Sorbonne graduate, is known in Europe for her commitment to helping people with HIV.
Great scientists come from the Sorbonne
University Paris VI is named in honor of the graduates who turned people's ideas about the exact and natural sciences. Pierre Curie and Marie Skłodowska-Curie graduated with honors from the Sorbonne. Having revealed the secret of radioactivity to the world in 1903, they won the Nobel Prize in 1903. The spouses worked together, and all the merits were considered common, however, Maria Sklodowska-Curie is considered the discoverer of the properties of chemical elements (polonium and radium).
One of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Henri Poincaré, also graduated from the Sorbonne. He managed to become famous thanks to the authorship of The Theory of Relativity and the Poincare Hypothesis.
Because the doors of the university are openstudents from anywhere in the world, the policy of the institution is sympathetic to the difficulties that often arise in the learning process. A kind of orientation and information centers will help students from different countries get used to a multi-level educational system. In addition, you can get an adaptation in France as soon as possible by contacting the International Center for Students and Interns.
The support of students and teachers from the university is obvious: every year more than 15 scholarships for postgraduate students in the amount of 80 thousand francs and up to 60 thousand francs for the rest are established in the office of the university.
