Paris Nanterre University (), formerly University of Paris West, Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Hauts-de-Seine, France, in the Paris metropolitan area. It is one of the thirteen successor universities of the University of Paris. The university is located in the western suburb of Nanterre, in La Défense area, the business district of the Paris area.
Paris Nanterre University alumni include more than 15 cabinet officials, heads of state or government from France and around the world, like Emmanuel Macron, Nicolas Sarkozy and Dominique de Villepin. Alumni also include heads of central banks, legislators and business people, like Christine Lagarde, Dominique Strauss-Kahn or Vincent Bolloré.
History
The Nanterre campus of the University of Paris The Nanterre campus was built in the 1960s on the outskirts of Paris as an extension of the University of Paris. On November 2, 1964, the Nanterre Faculty of Arts and Humanities opened as an annex to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Paris (La Sorbonne), which it relieved. It became one of the largest teaching campuses in Paris.
Nanterre became famous shortly after its opening by being at the center of the May '68 student rebellion. The campus was nicknamed "Nanterre, la folie" (Mad Nanterre) or "Nanterre la rouge" (Red Nanterre, in reference to communism).
When it was founded in 1965, Nanterre “raised great hopes” and “was to be a place of experimentation for renewed teaching, the outline of tomorrow's university”, benefiting from the contribution of “famous professors” who “voluntarily left the University of Paris to take part in the Great Adventure”.. Henri Lefebvre, professor of sociology from 1965 to 1968, influenced the students who initiated the May 68 movement, and then provided an on-the-spot analysis of the events.
In 1964, Nanterre was home to 2,300 students, and by 1968 it was expected to absorb 12,000..
Paris-X, then the University of Paris West It was set up as an independent university in December 1970 as "University of Paris-X". Based on the American model, it was created as a campus (as opposed to the old French universities which were smaller and integrated with the city in which they were located). When the new autonomous university was created, the Ville-d'Avray University Technical Institute was attached to it.« L'université de Paris-X est érigée en établissement public à caractère scientifique et culturel à compter du 1er janvier 1971 », d'après le Décret n° 70-1290 du 23 décembre 1970 portant érection des universités de Paris-VI et Paris-X établissements publics à caractère scientifique et culturel - Légifrance. « Les statuts de l'université Paris-Nanterre (Paris-X) sont approuvés » par Arrêté du 24 décembre 1970 APPROBATION DES STATUTS DE L'UNIVERSITE DE PARIS-NANTERRE (PARIS X) - Légifrance.
In 1985 and 1989, decentralized branches were founded. In 1984, the promulgation of the Savary law, which created the current university departments (UFR), led to the opening of a satellite campus in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in 1985, followed in 1989 by the opening of another satellite campus in Cergy-Pontoise. In 1991, the University of Versailles - Saint-Quentin and the University of Cergy-Pontoise became full-authority universities.
In the 1980s and 2000s, the university was the scene of student protests. In 2008, the University of Paris-X became the "University of Paris West".
The Paris Nanterre University In 2016, it became "Paris Nanterre University". During the same year, the new Max Weber Humanities and Social Sciences Centre was inaugurated. It includes 1 amphitheater, several meeting rooms and 124 offices, mainly for teacher-researchers.
In September 2023, five "Youth with Macron" activists were attacked by a dozen militants from the ultra-left group La Jeune Garde, who had come to put up posters for a demonstration "against police violence".Shaya Baldassari, Université de Nanterre : cinq militants macronistes agressés par un groupuscule d’ultragauche, lefigaro.fr, 27 septembre 2023
In November of the same year, in reaction to the Gaza war, pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic tags proliferated on the university campus.Emma Ferrand, Jeanne Paturaud et Paul-Henri Wallet, «Mort aux Juifs» : à la fac de Nanterre, l'antisémitisme prospère, lefigaro.fr, 17 novembre 2023
Campus Nanterre is the second largest campus in France after Nantes, with its own Olympic-sized swimming pool and a stadium. It welcomes 35,000 to 40,000 students every year in all fields of studies: Social Sciences, Philosophy, Literature, History, Languages and Linguistics, Economics, Law and Political Sciences, as well as Teacher Training, Acting, Cinema, Physiology and Sports.
The university's facilities:
La Contemporaine Library and Museum; Le Pixel Library; the Bernard-Marie Koltès Theater; and the University Sports Centre.
The university is known for its speciality in the fields of Law and Economics. Even though French universities are required by law to admit anyone with a Baccalauréat, strain is put on the students from the start and the first year drop-out rate consistently hovers in the 60% region. At the postgraduate level, the university offers very competitive programs (highly selective master's degrees in Law and Business) and partnerships with some grandes écoles such as the Ecole Polytechnique, ESSEC, Ecole des Mines de Paris, and ESCP Europe among others.
The Rene Ginouves Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology (Maison de l'archeologie et de l'ethnologie Rene Ginouves) is another important institution on campus, merging the departments of the CNRS, Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne and Paris X-Nanterre.
As in most Parisian universities, there is a large minority of foreign exchange students.
Innovative programs Over the years, Nanterre has developed innovative programs such as the double bilingual courses in French Law and Anglo-American, Spanish, Russian, German or Italian law; in Economics & Management (with half of the courses in French and half of the courses in another foreign language); and in History (with half of the courses in French and half of the courses in another foreign language). These programs have inspired many universities and grandes écoles throughout the country and are now renowned on a national level.
Nanterre Network The Franco-German Summer and Winter Universities with higher education institutions of third countries (Nanterre Network) are an expression of the increasing internationalization of studies and research (Erasmus program; Bologna process, EU enlargement). In legal sciences, the management of the Franco-German studies at the University of Paris NanterreStephanie Rohlfing-Dijoux (2015): Internationalization of studies and research: the example of the integrated Franco-German-Law curriculum at the University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense, in: Miscellanea Historico+Iuridica on the legal education 2015, University of Bialystok, pp. 159-170, online http://pbc.biaman.pl/Content/46865/Mis_Tom_XIII.pdf; Joachim Gruber (2013): Der deutsch-französische Studiengang der Universitäten Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense und Potsdam, in ZEuP, pp. 205–209; Otmar Seul (2003): Les cursus binationaux - une étape vers l’harmonisation des études en Europe. Le cas des cursus intégrés Paris X / Potsdam en sciences juridiques, in O. Seul, B. Zielinski, U. Dupuy (eds): De la communication interculturelle dans les relations franco-allemandes, Ed. Peter Lang, Bern, Frankfurt a. M., New York, Oxford, Wien 2003, pp. 285–310, online https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwS6msy80fPZNTczOGNiZTUtOTBjMC00MDEyLWFhZTItMTE3ZmUyODk3ZjBh/view?pli=1; Otmar Seul (2006): Interkulturelles Management im Dienste der Europäisierung von Lehre und Forschung, in : Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft für Wissenschaft und Technik (DFGWT) (ed.): Wissenschaftliche Karrieren in Deutschland und Frankreich, Tagungsband zum gleichnamigen Kolloquium, Berlin 21./22. Oktober 2006, Bonn, DFGWT, 2006, 16 pages, online https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwS6msy80fPZMTRjN2JlYzYtNGVlZC00MmZiLTk0NGMtMGI2YmY0N2FjNzI0/view?pli=1; Otmar Seul (2010): 25 ans de formations franco-allemandes en sciences juridiques à l’Université de Paris Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense – Historique et impact international. Speech of March 18, 2010 in Paris, German translation, online http://www.uni-potsdam.de/db/dfs-jura/html/joomla/images/stories/pdf/bundesverdienstkreuz_oseul_danksagung.pdf; Otmar Seul (2013): La réussite d’un cursus intégré franco-allemand ouvert sur le monde, l’implication de toute une vie – Interview de l’ACFA (Association des Cursus Franco-Allemands des Universités Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense / Potsdam), online https://acfananterre.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/interview-otmar-seul-co-fondateur-du-cursus plays a pioneering role in the establishment of Summer and Winter Universities. Thus, within the framework of its Europe-wide network for university cooperation (Nanterre Network), in collaboration with German and other foreign partners, Summer and Winter universities have been emerging since 2004 in Central and Eastern Europe, in the Balkans and in the Mediterranean regionActivités en matière d’internationalisation des études et de la recherche depuis 1989, online https://www.parisnanterre.fr/m-otmar-seul--698797.kjsp; Otmar Seul (2017) : Opening speech, Annual Meeting Nanterre network, Porto, online http://www.uceditora.ucp.pt/resources/Documentos/UCEditora/PDF%20Livros/Porto/LAW%20AND%20INTERCULTURALISM.pdf (p. 8-11); Otmar Seul (2015): Un ́réseau international de coopération universitaire: la réussite d’un cursus intégré franco-allemand ouvert sur le monde, in Miscellanea Historico+Iuridica on the legal education 2015, University of Bialystok, p. 170-180, online http://pbc.biaman.pl/Content/46865/Mis_Tom_XIII.pdf; Un réseau international de coopération universitaire en sciences juridique et politique, online https://www.campus-mundus.eu/cooperation-universitaire-internationale, chapitre 1°. − with financial support from the German-French University (DFH/UFA), the Franco-German Youth Service and the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (Parceco-Program). Since 2013, these tri-national Summer and Winter Universities have also extended to non-European countries.
Objectives, function and functional principles of the Summer and Winter Universities In September 2012, Bernard Cazeneuve, France's Deputy Minister for European Affairs and patron of the 2nd Franco-German Summer University for Energy and Environmental Law at the University of Paris Nanterre, saw in this type of Summer University a “successful” approach to bridge the lecture-free period; approach which can even be “exported” and is therefore “conducive to the prestige of Franco-German cooperation in Europe”.Message from the Ministre délégué chargé des affaires européennes, Paris, from September 18, 2012 to Professor Otmar Seul, Université Paris Nanterre.Universités d’été et universités d’hiver franco-allemandes en sciences juridiques en partenariat avec des Etats tiers, online https://acfananterre.wordpress.com/les-seminaires-et-publications/les-universites-dete/; Universités d’été/d’hiver tri-nationales des cursus franco-allemands en sciences juridiques, organisées en partenariat avec des établissements allemands et des établissements de pays tiers, online https://www.campus-mundus.eu/cooperation-universitaire-internationale, Chap. no. 3.
Lithuania