University of Rennes

The Duke's University of Brittany was founded by Bertrand Milon on 4 April 1460, on the initiative of Duke Francis II of Brittany, by a papal bull from Pope Pius II, given in Siena.[3][4] This embodied Francis II's wish to assert his independence from the King of France, while universities were being opened on the outskirts of the duchy in Angers in 1432, Poitiers in 1432 and Bordeaux in 1441.[4] Created in the form of a studium generale, this university could teach all the traditional disciplines: Arts, Theology, Law and Medicine. The student population between the end of the 15th century and the following two centuries grew to a thousand or even 1,500 students, according to the highest estimates.[5]

A first attempt to move the university from Nantes to Rennes took place at the end of the 16th century. King Henry IV sought to punish Nantes, a league town, for its support of the Duke of Mercœur. The university was ordered to move to Rennes, a city that had remained loyal to the monarchy, in a letter of patent dated 8 August 1589. However, the institution was not moved due to a lack of funding.[4]

At the beginning of the 18th century, the university entered a phase of decline.[5] The city of Nantes was entirely focused on commerce and its elites showed little interest in the university. In 1728, the mayor of Nantes, Gérard Mellier, wrote that the Breton university would be better placed "in Rennes, a land of letters, than in Nantes, where only commerce is breathed". Consequently, the Faculty of Law of Brittany was transferred to Rennes in 1735, where the Parliament of Brittany was established by decision of King Louis XV.[6] The faculties of literature, theology and medicine were retained in Nantes, but the faculty of medicine was in decline. There was subsequently several attempts to transfer the rest of the faculties from Nantes to Rennes, notably in 1778. However, the three faculties in Nantes were opposed to this project, pointing out the poor treatment of the Faculty of Law after its transfer to Rennes.[4]

Buildings of the Faculty of Science until its move to the Beaulieu campus.

The post-war period was marked by the development of several structures within the university. In 1945, the merger of the Faculty of Sciences and the Institut polytechnique de l'Ouest (IPO) in Nantes gave rise to the Institut de chimie de l'Université de Rennes. In 1954, the Rennes School of Medicine and Pharmacy became the Faculty of Medicine and became part of the university. The following year, Jane Krier created the Institute of Business Administration of Rennes. Until 1969, the University of Rennes thus comprised four faculties: Law, Humanities, Sciences and Medicine.

The University of Rennes also developed elsewhere in Brittany, notably in Nantes, in Brest in 1959, in Quimper in 1970 and also in Angers. The decree 61-1519 of 29 December 1961 re-established a university in Nantes from the campuses of the University of Rennes, with effect from 1 January 1962. The Faculty of Letters of Nantes remained an annex of the Faculty of Letters of Rennes until 1964, and the Nantes Law Faculty was an annex of the Rennes Law Faculty until 1967.[4]

The Villejean campus of the University of Rennes in 2010.

In 1948, the population of the University of Rennes was 5,638 students; in 1949, 5,982 students; in 1958, 9,950 students. The 10,000 student mark was passed in 1959. In 1965, this number was around 19,000 students. After the Liberation, new campuses were built in Rennes, imposed by the increase in the number of students, notably the Beaulieu and Villejean campuses.

The events of May 68 in France challenged the old organisation of the university in France and the faculties had to review their organisation. In Rennes, the events affected relations between the different faculties. The large number of students, as well as the refusal of some teachers and students to live together in the same institution, made it necessary to split the University of Rennes into several entities.

In 1969, it was divided into two new universities: University of Rennes 1 and University of Upper Brittany (Rennes 2). The University of Rennes 1 continued to use the name of the "University of Rennes" until 1984, when it was obliged by ministerial decision to take the name "University of Rennes 1".

On 1 January 2023, the University of Rennes 1 merged with five Grandes écoles: École des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique, École nationale supérieure de chimie de Rennes, ENS Rennes, INSA Rennes and Sciences-Po Rennes to create the new University of Rennes. The University of Rennes 2 with research institutes (CNRS, INRAE, INRIA, Inserm and CHU de Rennes) are associated with the project.[8]

The six establishments are grouped together in an "EPE", a legal status as an experimental university, weighing nearly 7,000 staff and teachers, including about 1,000 researchers, 156 research laboratories, and 60,000 of the 68,000 students in the Breton capital, including 7,000 international students.