University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, also known as Paris-Saclay University, is a French public university created in 1991, located in the department of Yvelines and, since 2002, in Hauts-de-Seine. It is a constituent university of the federal Paris-Saclay University.
Consisting of eight separate campuses, it is mainly located in the cities of Versailles, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Mantes-en-Yvelines, Vélizy-Villacoublay and Rambouillet. It is one of the five universities of the Academy of Versailles.
It is one of the four universités nouvelles inaugurated in the Île-de-France region after the 2000 University project. It has a population of 19,000 students, a staff of 752 people, and 1,389 teachers and researchers, as well as an additional 285 external teachers.
The university teaches courses in the fields of natural science, social science, political science, engineering, technology, and medicine. It also provides interdisciplinary courses covering the relationships across economics, ethics, natural environment and sustainable development.
History
Origin
A branch of the Pierre and Marie Curie University was created in Versailles in 1987 to increase the university's capacity for enrollment. It focused on the study of science, and merged with the law annex of Paris West University Nanterre La Défense established two years earlier at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. In the 1990s, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research developed the French higher education modernization plan called Université 2000, and created eight unaffiliated universities, known as new universities. The Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University was officially created on 22 July 1991 from the relocation of the two centres of Pierre and Marie Curie University and Paris West University Nanterre La Défense.A new status
In 1996, the status of the university was changed by law. The law, legislated in 1984, required that the university have elected officials. Michel Garnier was its first president, and created committees that included a board of directors, a scientific council, and a student life council. Dominique Gentile was the second president, and created new annexes such as the Ph.D. School, the University Institute of Technology, and Professionalized University Institute of art, science, culture, and multimedia. During this period, the College of Medicine of Paris-Descartes University was relocated to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and renamed "Paris-Île-de-France-Ouest". It is part of the UVSQ today. Increasing tertiary enrollment in France from 1997 to 2002 increased enrollment at UVSQ.2002 to present
In 2002, Sylvie Faucheux became the president of the university. The university applied the réforme LMD to its courses in 2004.The CFA d'Alembert was created at Guyancourt in 2006. In 2007, Unité de formation et de recherche médicale Paris Île-de-France Ouest moved to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, and UniverSud Paris was established, with Paris-Sud 11 University, École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, and UVSQ as members, among others. In 2010, the humanities and social sciences college of UVSQ was split into four: the institut des études culturelles, institut supérieur de management, institut de langues et études internationales, and social sciences research institute. The university expanded to develop the plateau de Saclay, an area with world-class universities and research centers. As a founding member of UniverSud Paris, UVSQ supported scientific cooperation and the Paris-Saclay research-intensive cluster. A partnership with Cergy-Pontoise University was considered in 2011, and Université du grand ouest parisien was created in February 2012. An Institut d'études politiques commons for both universities is being studied.
Students' profile and demographic changes
This table shows the changes in student population, from 1993 to 2013. The number of students enrolled has more than doubled over the past ten years.| 1993 | 1995 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| 7,209 | 9,322 | 10,029 | 10,200 | 10,579 | 10,719 | 12,769 | 13,295 | 14,226 | 14,765 | 14,450 | 13,992 | 13,654 | 14,623 | 15,142 | 15,420 | 16,126 | 16,925 |
In 2013-2014, the UVSQ welcomed approximately 9,600 undergraduate, 6,600 graduate and 700 post-graduate students.
The most popular degree courses are law, economics, and management, with almost 6,200 students representing 37% of total enrollment in 2013, followed by science and engineering school.
Overall, more than half of the undergraduate students enrolled every year are female, except for first-year students at Mantes and Vélizy IUT, two-thirds of whom are male.
The social backgrounds of students are on average, more advantageous than the students matriculated in French public universities. Approximately 50% of first-year students come from business and professional families, and globally about four out of five students belong to wealthy and cultivated social classes. The percentage of students coming from low-income families increased from 14% in 1992 to 20-23% in 2013, but remains a minority. This rate, which is common to most selective universities,
reflects the population of the region where the UVSQ is located. Two thirds of first-year students come from the Yvelines department, with a significant concentration around Versailles and Saint-Quentin.
The university welcomes an increasing number of international students; in 2010 there were 2,400 enrolled from 72 different countries, making up 13,3% of UVSQ students. Most were enrolled in Ph.D. programs; 45% of all Ph.D. students were from other countries.
Buildings and sites
Campus
The university is primarily located on four campuses in Versailles, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Mantes-en-Yvelines and Vélizy-Villacoublay / Rambouillet, but has eight campuses in total, throughout two departments and seven communes; together these cover 160,000 m2. At the Versailles campus, there is the sciences college and ISTY, the computer science college. At the campus of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, there are the disciplines of law and political sciences, social sciences, medical research and the sciences of the universe observatory. Another campus of the sciences college is located at Le Chesnay. Vélizy-Villacoublay, which includes the IUT of Vélizy and Rambouillet, is one of its annexes. The campus of Mantes-la-Jolie houses the IUT of Mantes-en-Yvelines. Mantes-la-ville includes the mechatronics college of ISTY.Other graduate school and institutes
The Unité de formation et de recherche médicale Paris Île-de-France Ouest is a faculty department of UVSQ. PIFO left Paris Descartes University to join UVSQ between 2001 and 2002, and is located in Guyancourt. Associated hospitals include the Raymond Poincaré University Hospital, Ambroise-Paré Hospital, Foch Hospital, André Mignot Hospital, Poissy St-Germain Hospital, Sainte-Périne Hospital and René Huguenin Hospital. Two schools of midwifery are located in the PIFO department.Observatory
The observatory, also called OVSQ, supports sustainable development, an important goal for UVSQ. It is located on Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines campus, and emphasizes observing, teaching, and supporting the environment. OVSQ researches environmental changes, including its sanitary and socioeconomic impacts, and is involved in spatial programs supported by the CNES and the ESA. OVSQ supports international projects that monitor the atmosphere, and develops instruments to observe and analyze natural and social phenomena. To prepare future generations in the field of sustainable development, the OVSQ provides an interdisciplinary culture to the students comprising economics, humanities, and environmental studies. In France, OVSQ partners with Fondaterra and the international industrial professorship, Econoving, to develop sustainable environments and eco-innovations. The OVSQ partners with the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute, located in Guyancourt. The observatory contributes to climate study, and supports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The OVSQ allows the university to be an important part of the Climate-Environment-Energy center of the Paris-Saclay Campus. The observatory also contributes to the European community of Knowledge and Innovation dedicated to the Climate.PhD graduate schools
The university has PhD graduate schools that take care of the PhD students and also habilitation. There are five schools and 102 Doctorates have been delivered in 2009.- The Cultures, Regulations, Institutions and Territories PhD graduate school, which studies various topics specific to social sciences and humanities as well as legal and political sciences.
- The Genome Organizations PhD graduate school, which is interested in biology and genomics in particular, and interfaces with mathematics, computer science, physics and chemistry.
- The Environmental Science in Ile de France PhD graduate school covers the multidisciplinary fields related to the understanding of the physical, chemical and biological equilibria of the Earth's environment.
- The Science and Technology of Versailles PhD graduate school, which studies chemistry, physics, mathematics, and engineering sciences.
- The public health PhD graduate school, which has three laboratories: research centre for epidemiology and population health, health-environment-aging, pharmaco-epidemiology and infectious diseases.