Sorbonne (Paris IV)

The name Sorbonne (La Sorbonne) has been used with different meanings over the centuries.

It originally referred to the Collège de Sorbonne, founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the colleges of the medieval University of Paris. The college was suppressed during the revolutionary era and finally closed in 1882.

With time the college, although only one of many colleges of the university, came to be the centre of theological studies and Sorbonne was frequently used as a synonym for the Paris Faculty of Theology.

During the latter part of the 19th century, the buildings of the Collège de Sorbonne were re-used for the Faculties of Sciences and Letters. As a result of this, "Sorbonne" became a colloquial term for the entire University of Paris. After the historic university in 1970 was divided into thirteen different universities, three of these successor institutions include Sorbonne in their names: University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne, University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle, and University of Paris IV: Paris-Sorbonne. The thirteen universities still stand under a common rectorate with offices in the Sorbonne.

There is also an enterprise in France near Poitiers called the Ecole Supérieure Robert de Sorbon [1]. It purports to grant university degrees based on work experience following the French VAE (Validation des Acquis de l'Expérience) law, and is allowed by the French Minister of Education to grant university degrees under French Law.

The Sorbonne was famously occupied by students in May 1968. More recently it was occupied on March 10th 2006 by students protesting against the introduction of the "First Employment Contract" (CPE) in France.