University of Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris VI)

About UPMC

Pierre and Marie Curie University (French: Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie; abbreviated UPMC), also known as University of Paris VI, is a public research university and was established in 1971 following the division of the University of Paris (Sorbonne), and is a principal heir to Faculty of Sciences of the Sorbonne (French: Faculté des sciences de Paris), although it can trace its roots back to 1109 and the Abbey of St Victor.

The university is located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. The French cultural revolution of 1968, commonly known as "the French May", resulted in the division of the world's second oldest academic institution, the University of Paris, into thirteen autonomous universities.

UPMC is the largest scientific and medical complex in France, active in many fields of research with scope and achievements at the highest level, as demonstrated by the many awards regularly won by UPMC researchers, and the many international partnerships it maintains across all five continents. Several university rankings have regularly put UPMC at the 1st place in France, and it has been ranked as one of the top universities in the world. The ARWU (2014) has ranked UPMC as the 1st in France, 6th in Europe and 35th in the world and also 4th in field of mathematics, 25th in field of physics, 14th in field of natural sciences and 32nd in field of engineering, technology and computer science.

It has more than 125 laboratories, most of them in association with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Some of its most notable institutes and laboratories include the Institut Henri Poincaré, Institut d'astrophysique de Paris, Laboratoire d'informatique de Paris 6 (LIP6), Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu (shared with University Paris-Diderot) and the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel (shared with École Normale Supérieure).

The University's Faculty of Medicine Pierre and Marie Curie is located in the teaching hospitals Pitié-Salpêtrière and Saint-Antoine (the latter itself being the successor to Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Abbey).

UPMC delivers a diploma in physics in English, since September 2013 for Université Paris-Sorbonne Abou Dhabi.

History of UPMC

The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was reorganized in 1970 as 13 autonomous universities after the student protests of the French May.

Following months of conflict between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration shut down that university on 2 May 1968.

Students of the Sorbonne protested the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre on 3 May 1968. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. While the crowd dispersed, some began to create barricades out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones, forcing the police to retreat for a time. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again.

Hundreds more students were arrested. Negotiations broke down and students returned to their campuses after a false report that the government had agreed to reopen them, only to discover the police still occupying the schools. The students now had a near revolutionary fervor. Another protest was organized on the Rive Gauche by students on 10 May. When the riot police again blocked them from crossing the river, the crowd again threw up barricades, which the police then attacked at 2:15 in the morning after negotiations once again foundered.

The confrontation, which produced hundreds of arrests and injuries, lasted until dawn of the following day. Well over a million people marched through Paris on Monday, 13 May; the police stayed largely out of sight. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. However, the surge of strikes did not recede. Instead, the protesters got even more active.

When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university." Approximately 401 popular action committees were set up in Paris, including the Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne, and elsewhere in the weeks that followed to take up grievances against the government and French society. With the fall of the French Fourth Republic in 1958, and after the tumultuous events of May 1968, the French Fifth Republic proposed various drastic reforms of the French university system.

In 1971, the five ancient faculties of the former University of Paris (Paris 6 as the Faculty of Sciences) were split and then re-formed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities by the Faure Law. The campus was built in the 1950s and 1960s, on a site previously occupied by wine storehouses.

The Dean, Marc Zamanski, saw the Jussieu campus standing as a tangible symbol of scientific thought in the heart of Paris, with the Faculty of Science, set in the Latin Quarter, as part of an intellectual and spiritual continuum linked to the university history of Paris. In 1968, the Paris Faculty of Science was divided into a number of different universities.

The University of Paris 6 became the scientific center and was set up in 1971; it shared the Jussieu campus with the University of Paris 7 and the Paris Geophysical Institute (Institut de Physique du Globe).

In 1974, the University of Paris 6 chose prestigious champions when it adopted the name Université Pierre et Marie Curie, after Pierre and Marie Curie, and ever since has endeavored to perpetuate the scientific legacy of these forebears.

UPMC is now the largest scientific and medical complex in France, active in all fields of research (see "University Rankings").

In 2008 the university joined the association Paris Universitas changing its logo accordingly and adding the name of the association after its own.

Two years later the association dissolved and reformed as PRES (pôle de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur) Sorbonne Universités, including the Pantheon-Assas University, the Paris-Sorbonne University, the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, the INSEAD and the Université Technologique de Compiègne and the Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University; for this occasion the logo were changed again.

Accreditation

Institutional Accreditation or Recognition - Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche, France

Rankings

• The university is ranked 35th in the world, 6th in Europe and 1st in France by the 2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities.
• It was ranked 4th in the world in the field of mathematics by the same study.
• The 2013 QS World University Rankings ranked the university 112th overall in the world and 3rd in France.
• In 2013, according to University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP),Pierre and Marie Curie University is the 1st ranked university in France and 44th ranked university in the world. The UPMC is a member of Sorbonne Universités.

Student life @UPMC

On arriving at UPMC, you join a university community of over 40,000 people, composed of 5 600 teacher-researchers and researchers, 4 400 staff and 31 000 students, including 6 000 international students.

While the university is, above all, a place of study and work, your timetable leaves you a great deal of freedom.  This is a unique opportunity to join an association and get involved in the university.  You can join one of the existing associations, but if you wish, you can create your own!

Student representation is also student involvement in the various democratic bodies that govern the university.  The elected students and the student vice-president are your voice and continuously work toward improving your living conditions at UPMC. This civic engagement is essential; so, are you ready?

Civic engagement

Student elections are held at UMPC every two years.  All students vote to appoint student representatives on the university's three central bodies (Board of Trustees, Academic Programmes and Student Life Council and the Scientific Council).

A student vice-president is elected at a meeting of the three bodies on the proposal of the chancellor.  The elected members keep the central bodies informed regarding the problems that students may encounter.  They represent you at council and board meetings and work for your living and studying conditions to be as satisfactory as possible.  They are your spokespeople; so, at the next elections, make your voices heard!

Sport

Physical and sports activities at UPMC are provided by two different but complementary structures:
the Department of Physical and Sports Activities (DAPS; Département des Activités Physiques et Sportives), a UPMC teaching department, organises personal training courses for all, traineeships and approved certificate courses, supervised by physical and sports education teachers who are also responsible for the majority of competition training;
the UPMC Sports Association (AS; Association sportive) [AS-UPMC], a non-profit association, manages university competitions with the French Federation of University Sports (FFSU; Fédération française du sport universitaire) and organises recreational activities.

Health and solidarity

Because your academic success is dependent on your good health, it is essential that you join the student social security scheme, and even a top-up health insurance scheme.

The university provides you with the means to stay in good health: at the University Preventive Medicine Service you can see general practitioners, specialists and psychiatrists.  This service also carries out health education and promotion initiatives. Look about you; the staff from this service are often on Jussieu campus!