" Initiative d'excellence " confirmed for PSL University

november 6, 2020

On November 4, 2020, Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Education, Research and Innovation, and Guillaume Boudy, Secretary General for Investment, confirmed the continuation of the Initiative d'Excellence (IdEx) for the Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), of which the Collège de France is an associate member.

This confirmation, which underlines the excellence of research and training within PSL and the commitment of its community to the development of a new university model bringing together grandes écoles and universities, follows the conclusions reached by the international jury for the Initiatives of Excellence, which also approved the continuation of the Université de Paris-Saclay.

Collège de France has been a stakeholder in Université PSL since the creation of the Fondation Paris Sciences et Lettres, which prefigured its scope, in April 2010. It plays an active role in the new university's governing bodies and scientific excellence, while maintaining the specific features of its governance and missions.

PSL is the result of the merger of nine component institutions (Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique, École nationale des chartes, École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris, École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, École normale supérieure, École pratique des hautes études, ESPCI Paris, Observatoire de Paris, Paris-Dauphine), two associate members (Collège de France, Institut Curie) and three research organizations (CNRS, Inserm, Inria).

Located in the heart of Paris, Université PSL brings together all areas of knowledge, innovation and creation in the sciences, humanities and social sciences, engineering and the arts. Selective and committed to equal opportunity, it trains researchers, artists, entrepreneurs and managers who are aware of their individual and collective social responsibilities. With 2,900 professors-researchers, 17,000 students, 140 laboratories and a dozen incubators, fablabs and coworking spaces, PSL is a university on a human scale. It ranks among the world's top 50 universities in the Shanghai (ARWU), THE (Times Higher Education), CWUR and QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) rankings.