The Excellent Initiative endowment confirms Sorbonne University’s successful merger

The definitive award of the Excellence Initiative’s endowment is in recognition of the establishment of a world-class, comprehensive university. This new French university draws on centuries of tradition in research and education.

By joining two leading Paris universities, Paris-Sorbonne and Pierre & Marie Curie Universities, an exceptional centre of knowledge has been recreated under the world-renowned Sorbonne name.

The merger, completed on 1 January, 2018, was supported through national a call for initiatives of excellence in higher education and research. An international jury convened to judge the viability of numerous projects, and Sorbonne University is currently the only Parisian group to be awarded the Excellence Initiative Endowment.

Now a multidisciplinary research-intensive university, Sorbonne University presenting the comprehensive disciplinary range of arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, engineering and medicine. Sorbonne University’s approach to education and research is designed for the intellectual and scientific challenges of the 21st century.

The University offers its 53,400 students the best educational opportunities for the success of each of their personal and professional projects, through monodisciplinary, bi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary programs. 10,200 of its students are international and 4,400 are in doctoral programs. With its three main faculties, it offers varied and original opportunities across disciplines.

Sorbonne University research has more than 3,400 professor-researchers in its laboratories with an additional 3,300 research partners from major French research organizations. The university has exceptional transdisciplinary institutes and is also the headquarters for the European Marine Biological Research Centre.

International co-operation is facilitated at Sorbonne University because it is more visible and comprehensive, enabling its students, academic staff and researchers to increase their exchanges with the rest of the world.

This endowment is also in recognition of the larger Sorbonne University association, which has dynamic and fruitful partnerships with the National Museum of History (MNHN), Compiegne University of Technology (UTC), INSEAD, Paris Boulogne-Billancourt (PSPBB), the CIEP, as well as national research agencies: the CNRS, INSERM, INRIA and IRD.

This release was first published 19 March 2018 by Sorbonne University