University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne - History

History

After the ideological, cultural and social fever which took hold of France in May and June 1968, a new university scene emerged; the law of 12 November 1968 instituted autonomous, pluridisciplinary universities.

The University Paris 1 was founded on the basis of a profound wish for change to produce an original academic project bringing together the humanities, law and economics. Instead of having separate faculties of laws, economics or humanities, the university was divided into much more specialised UFRs. For instance the UFR of international law has the same relationship with the UFR of geology as with the UFR or commercial law. This was a revolutionary change, as those subjects had previously been taught in highly distinct and hierarchal faculties. To the traditional degree courses in France in history, geography, philosophy, art history, archaeology, economics, law and political science, new disciplines were gradually added, including the visual arts, mathematics applied to social sciences, business management, tourism, culture and communications.

The name of the university embodies this triple tradition : the Sorbonne is the traditional seat of the Humanities studies in Paris (hence it is also used by Paris III and University Paris-Sorbonne, and the Place du Panthéon Building is the seat of the Law studies (hence it is also used by Pantheon-Assas). Economics Studies had no traditional seat, as they were taught by law faculties.