Paris Descartes University, also known as Paris V, was a French public research university located in Paris. It was one of the inheritors of the University of Paris, which was split into multiple separate institutions in 1970. Paris Descartes completely merged with Paris Diderot University in 2019 to form a new University of Paris. It was established as a multidisciplinary university "of humanities and health sciences" ("des Sciences de l’Homme et de la Santé". It focuses in the areas of medical sciences, biomedical sciences, law, computer science, economics and psychology. Its main campus was in the historic École de Chirurgie in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
History
The historic University of Paris first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was, managed by a common rectorate, the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris, after the student protests of the French May.
Administration
Campus
Descartes University has ten campuses in Paris. Its headquarters are centered on the "Collège de chirurgie", which was built in place of the "Collège de Bourgogne", in the Quartier Latin, on the rue des Écoles. The teaching facilities and the research laboratories are housed in the Saints-Pères university center, as far as the medical school and the social sciences school are concerned. The refurbished Henri-Piéron center contains the school of psychology, whereas the Law school is located in Malakoff. The dentistry school is located in Montrouge.
Admission
The undergraduate program of Paris Descartes is selective, with an acceptance rate of 11%. Admission to the second year of the university's master programs is selective as well, some of these programs admitting only 1.7% of applicants which can represent 25 students by programs.
International conventions
The University Paris V has signed over 150 conventions with foreign universities across five continents, including Manchester, Warwick, Copenhagen, Rome, Madrid, Rotterdam, Helsinki, Stockholm or Ghent.
Research
Areas
The university focuses on medical sciences, biomedical sciences, social sciences, mathematics, computer science and law. The University Paris Descartes supports a modern approach of social sciences on the basis of fieldwork, participant observation and ethnography. The dual master's degree in partnership with other important French academic institutions such as Pantheon-Sorbonne University and the École Normale Supérieure emphasizes opportunities offered as far as research is concerned.
