This list of universities and colleges in France includes universities and other higher education institutes that provide both education curricula and related degrees up to doctoral degree and also contribute to research activities. They are the backbone of the tertiary education institutions in France. They are listed as different categories, depending on their administrative status, size and extents of research activity compared to educational activities.
Aside from the nationally funded public education system that provides recognised degrees to the vast majority of students in France and that keeps tuition fees low, there exist private institutes.
French public universities (see List of public universities in France for a detailed list) are as of 2015 in the process of reorganization according to the Law on Higher Education and Research passed in July 2013. This includes some merging of institutions, and the previous high-level organization under Pôle de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur (PRES) has been dissolved for Communities of Universities and Institutions (COMUE).
The Établissements publics à caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel (EPCSP) that are not listed as universities in the list above operate as university-grade institutes.
A grande école is a specialized top-level educational institution in France and some other previous French colonies such as Morocco and Tunisia. Grandes écoles are part of an alternative educational system that operates alongside the mainstream French public university system, and take the shape of institutes dedicated to teaching, research and professional training in either pure natural and social sciences, or applied sciences such as engineering, architecture, business administration, or public policy and administration.
An école normale supérieure or ENS is a type of elite publicly funded higher education institution in France. A portion of the student body, admitted via a highly-selective competitive examination process, are French civil servants and are known as normaliens. ENSes also offer master's and PhD degrees, and can be compared to "Institutes for Advanced Studies". They constitute the top level of research-training education in the French university system.
Mines Paris – PSL, officially École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, is a French grande école and a constituent college of PSL Research University. It was originally established in 1783 by King Louis XVI.
The University of Lyon is a university system (ComUE) based in Lyon, France. It comprises 12 members and 9 associated institutions. The 3 main constituent universities in this center are: Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, which focuses upon health and science studies and has approximately 47,000 students; Lumière University Lyon 2, which focuses upon the social sciences and arts, and has about 30,000 students; Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, which focuses upon the law and humanities with about 20,000 students.
The University of Toulouse is a community of universities and establishments (ComUE) based in Toulouse, France. Originally it was established in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the French Revolution in 1793, it was refounded in 1896 as part of the reorganization of higher education. It was finally abolished in 1969, giving birth to the three current universities: Toulouse 1 Capitole University, University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès and Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University. The ComUE in the Toulouse region was known as Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées. On January 1, 2023, the university was renamed as the University of Toulouse.
The grands établissements are French public institutions under ministerial charter within the administrative category referred to as Établissements publics à caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel (EPCSP).
French university associations known as "pôles de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur" were a form of higher-level organization for universities and other institutions established by French law in effect from 2007 to 2013. The 2013 Law on Higher Education and Research (France) discontinued the PRES; these have been largely replaced by the new Communities of Universities and Institutions. The list below indicates the status of those institutions designated as PRES or related associations before the 2013 law took effect. See the list of public universities in France for the current status of these institutions.
In French law, établissement public à caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel is a formal category of more than one hundred and thirty public higher education institutes in the fields of sciences, culture and professional education. EPSCP have legal, administrative and financial autonomy in the French education system.
IONIS Education Group is a private, for-profit, higher education group in France. It was created in 1980 and by 2023 had more than 35,000 students and 100,000 alumni. There are 29 further education colleges in the group.
Paris Sciences et Lettres University is a public research university and Grand établissement based in Paris, France. It was established in 2010 and formally created as a university in 2019. It is a collegiate university with 11 constituent schools, with the oldest founded in 1530. PSL is located in central Paris, with its main sites in the Latin Quarter, at the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève Campus, at the Jourdan Campus, at Dauphine Campus, at Condorcet Campus, and at Carré Richelieu.
The Conférence des Grandes Écoles, is a French national institution, created in 1973. It mainly acts as an association of Grandes Écoles, providing representation, research and accreditation. A Grande école is a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and often connected to, the main framework of the French public university system.
Toulouse Tech, also called the Toulouse Institute of Technology, is one of the grandes écoles network in France. Created in 2007, it gathers 16 French grandes écoles, covering engineering science, management, architecture and veterinary, aiming to be of comparable status to the most famous universities of technology around the world.
Haute École Léonard de Vinci is a Catholic institution of higher education of the French Community of Belgium, based on 3 campus. It offers short-type courses (bachelor), long type (master) and specializations in these three sectors:
Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées is the association of universities and higher education institutions (ComUE) for institutions of higher education and research in the French region of Midi-Pyrénées. On 1 January 2023 it was renamed as the University of Toulouse.
COUPERIN is an academic consortium in France. Formed in 1999, it includes more than 250 universities, research organizations, Grandes écoles (schools), COMUE, and others. The consortium negotiates with publishers the prices and conditions of access to scientific publications and other digital resources for the benefit of its members. It promotes open science, particularly with regard to scientific publications, both nationally and internationally. It is headquartered in Paris.
The Hautes Écoles Sorbonne Arts et Métiers University or HESAM University, located in Paris and in multiple campuses in France, is a center for higher education and research as a group of universities and institutions comprising 11 members and 4 associated institutions.
The Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Hauts-de-France or INSA Hauts-de-France is one of the 210 Grande Ecole d’Ingénieurs, an engineering school, under the authority of the French Ministry of Education and Research. Situated in Valenciennes, this school is one of the public engineering institutes that make up the INSA's network.
The Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Centre Val de Loire or INSA CVL is one of the 210 Grande Ecole d’Ingénieurs, an engineering school, under the authority of the French Ministry of Education and Research. Situated in the French province of Centre Val de Loire, this school is one of the public engineering institutes that make up the INSA's network.
The Chancellerie des Universités de Paris is the public institution under the French Ministry of Higher Education that inherited the administration of the assets of the University of Paris, which was split into thirteen autonomous universities in 1971. It administers the Sorbonne, the Villa Finaly in Italy, the Château de Ferrières, the Domaine de Richelieu in Indre-et-Loire, the Jacques Doucet Library and other assets bequeathed to the former University of Paris. The chancellery also represents the eleven universities that own the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris. The Sorbonne building and The Sorbonne brand name are owned by the chancellery. It also manages the official store of the Sorbonne and the universities of Paris.
The Udice Group is a self-selected association of thirteen public research universities and their seventeen Grandes Écoles in France. The group is headquartered in Paris and was established in 2020. It is the partial successor to the CURIF Group created in 2008 and dissolved in 2020. It is chaired by Michel Deneken, president of the University of Strasbourg.