University of Paris

The University of Paris (French: L'Université de Paris), often known as the Sorbonne or la Sorbonne, was noted as one of the first universities to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid-12th century in Paris, France, officially recognized between 1160 and 1250.[1] Following the French Revolution, its activities were suspended from 1793 to 1896. With the growth of higher education in the postwar years in France, in 1970 the university was divided into thirteen autonomous institutions. The university is often referred to the Sorbonne after the collegiate institution (Collège de Sorbonne) founded around 1257 by Robert de Sorbon, but it was always larger than the Sorbonne. Of the thirteen current successor universities, four have premises in the historical Sorbonne building, and three of them include "Sorbonne" in their names.

The universities in Paris are independent from each other. Some of them fall within the Créteil or Versailles education authorities instead of the Parisian one. Some residual administrative functions of the thirteen universities are formally supervised by a common chancellor, the rector of the Paris education authority, whose offices are at the Sorbonne. Recently, those universities have coalesced as two university groups: Sorbonne Paris Cité and Sorbonne University.