Paris-Saclay University


The Paris-Saclay University is a research university in France. It is part of the Paris-Saclay project, which is a research-intensive academic campus and business cluster being developed on the Plateau de Saclay near Paris, and is expected to become the main center for training and research within the technology cluster of Paris-Saclay. The University integrates several leading grandes écoles, leading public universities, and research centers that are part of the world's top research organizations in various fields.
The University System's first academic year started in September 2015. In January 2020, it replaced University of Paris-Sud and in 2025, Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and Université d’Évry-Val-d’Essonne will merge with it as well.

Establishment

The Paris-Saclay University was established in 2015, with the aim to become a top-ranking, research-focused French university. In order to be recognized as an entity of sufficient size and quality, the university regroups some of the top grandes écoles in France with public universities under a single campus on the Saclay Plateau. Each member institution will remain independent but share a significant portion of existing and newly invested resources. This follows a model similar to the one adopted by University of Oxford and Cambridge, where each constituent college keeps its independence while being grouped under a 'university'.
According to Dominique Vernay, chairman of the foundation developing Paris-Saclay, the university aims at a top-ten position in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, but "the first goal is to be the top university in continental Europe".
Furthermore, the university aims to contribute to maximizing the economic and business potential of the Paris-Saclay project through research, via university and research spin-offs, as well as industrial research collaboration with established companies.

Setup

The Paris-Saclay University comprises 13 institutions. It combines resources from the following French universities and grandes écoles, as well as partial resources from various research organizations and the Systematic Paris-Region cluster:
Initially, the community of universities also included five other grandes écoles: École Polytechnique, Télécom Paris, Telecom SudParis, ENSTA Paris and ENSAE Paris. However, due to differences in University set-up, these five schools created their own separate cluster . This was announced by French President Emmanuel Macron during a speech in Paris-Saclay. Both of these clusters plan to co-operate and they engage in organization of several master's degrees with the University of Paris-Saclay.

Faculties and schools

NameFoundationFieldStudentsCampus
Faculty of Sciences1971Science10,000Paris-Saclay
Faculty of Law, Economics and Management1968Law and economics6,000Sceaux, Paris-Saclay
Pharmacological faculty1972Medicine3,500Châtenay-Malabry
:fr:Faculté de médecine de l'université Paris-Saclay|Medical School1971Medicine3,400Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, Paris-Saclay
Faculty of Sports Sciences1985Science1,500Paris-Saclay
:fr:École polytechnique universitaire de l'université Paris-Saclay|Paris-Saclay Polytechnic School2004Engineering820Paris-Saclay
Orsay University Institute of Technology1971Science and engineering440Paris-Saclay
Sceaux University Institute of Technology1970Science and engineering1,500Sceaux
Cachan University Institute of Technology1971Science and engineering1,000Cachan

Grandes Écoles

NameFoundationFieldStudentsCampus
AgroParisTech1826Life sciences2,420Paris-Saclay
CentraleSupélec
1829 and 1894Science and engineering4,480
Paris-Saclay, Rennes, Metz
ENS Paris-Saclay1892Science1,360Paris-Saclay
Institut d'optique Graduate School1917Optics440Paris-Saclay

Associated universities

Research organizations

The following research organizations have established research centers within the Paris-Saclay University. The resources contributed by these organizations will remain largely independent from other member institutions. Once the University of Paris-Saclay is fully integrated, its research centers are expected to achieve a profile similar to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Caltech:
Each member school of the Paris-Saclay University organizes training in a given scientific field. Depending on the needs of their registered program, a student enrolled in a particular school will have access to academic resources from other schools.
The various fields of study available at Paris-Saclay University are broadly categorized into the following:
The academic programs in each of the 8 schools is expected to follow the Anglo-American model:
The Paris-Saclay University will gather more than 300 research units, organized into 10 departments:
In an independent simulation performed by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2014, the Paris-Saclay University scored 39.8, ranking the university in the 27th position. On October 19, 2016, the executive director responsible for the annual update and new development of the ARWU visited the Paris-Saclay cluster.
The Paris-Saclay University appears in the 2020 Academic Ranking of World Universities rankings. It replaces University of Paris-Sud in January 2020 which currently ranks 37 globally.
University Paris-Saclay was included in the 2019 edition of U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking. University Paris-Saclay was ranked 30 globally, 7th in Europe and 1st in France. It was ranked 1st in Europe for physics and 1st internationally for mathematics. In the 2020 Edition of the ranking, University Paris-Saclay was downgraded to the 274th position worldwide.
In the future, the Paris-Saclay cluster is expected to help France to secure a space among the world's top ten universities and to bring the French education and research into limelight.