American University of Paris

American University Of Paris

The American University of Paris (commonly referred to as AUP) is a private, independent, and accredited liberal arts and sciences university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe. The university campus consists of eight buildings, centrally located in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, on the Left Bank near the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, and the Seine.

AUP's mission is to educate graduates to communicate well in a world of many languages, to think critically about history, culture, the arts, science, politics, business, communication, and society, to develop creative interdisciplinary approaches to important contemporary challenges, to be both technologically and culturally literate in a world of swift-paced change, to understand the ethical imperatives of living in such a world, and to take their places as responsible actors in communities, civil societies, and countries around the globe.

The university's language of instruction is English, although students must prove a level of proficiency in French prior to graduation. The university has approximately one thousand students, representing over one hundred nationalities, with an average student-to-faculty ratio of fifteen to one. The university's faculty members represent over twenty nationalities, with eighty percent holding doctoral degrees.

The university sponsors more than two hundred lectures and seminars every year, exposing students to a wide range of topics. Past lecturers at AUP have included Jane Goodall, J.M. Coetzee, National Geographic photojournalist Reza, and Calvin Klein. Additionally, the university has hosted many international conferences, inviting an aggregate of over a thousand scholars, including Gary Becker, Nobel Prize-recipient of Economics in 1992 and Michel Rocard, the former Prime Minister of France.