Aix-Marseille University - History

History

The institution developed out of the original University of Aix-en-Provence, founded on 9 December 1409 as a studium generale by Count of Provence Louis II of Anjou and recognized by Papal Bull in 1413. It was established as southern France’s answer to the already-thriving University of Paris. Thus, the letters patent for the university were granted, and the government of the university was created. The Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence was appointed as the first chancellor of the university for the rest of his life. After his death, a new chancellor was elected by the rector, masters, and licentiates – uncommon arrangement not repeated at any other French university. The rector had to be an “ordinary student”, who had unrestricted civil and criminal jurisdiction in all cases where one party was a doctor or scholar of the university. Those displeased with the rector’s decisions could appeal to a doctor legens. Eleven consiliarii assisted the rector, being elected yearly by their predecessors. These individuals represented all faculties, but were elected from among the students. The constitution was of a student-university; and the instructors did not have great authority except in granting degrees.

The County of Provence was acquired by France in 1487. The continued existence of the University was confirmed by King Louis XII, and Aix-en-Provence continued to be a significant provincial centre. It was, for instance, the seat of a provincial parlement from 1501 to 1789, no doubt aided by the presence of the law faculty.

In 1603 Henry IV of France established the Collège Royal de Bourbon in Aix-en-Provence for the study of belles-lettres and philosophy, supplementing the traditional faculties of the University, but not formally a part of it. This "college de plain exercice" became a significant seat of learning, under the control of the Jesuit order. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the college served most often as a preparatory, but unaffiliated, school for the University. The University could only confer degrees in the theology, law, and medicine; but candidates for degrees had first to pass an examination in philosophy, which was only provided by the college. Universities frequently accepted merely candidates who had studied in colleges formally affiliated with them, which in practice required both college and university to be situated in the same city. In 1762 the Jesuits were expelled from France, and in 1763 the College Royal de Bourbon was officially affiliated with the University as a faculty of arts.

The addition of the College Royal de Bourbon widened the scope of courses provided at the University of Aix-en-Provence. Formal instruction in the French language was initially provided at the college, with texts and a structured course of study. Physics later became a part of the curriculum at the college as a part of the philosophy course in the 18th century. Equipment for carrying out experiments was obtained and the first course in experimental physics was provided at Aix-en-Provence in 1741. Newtonian physics, nevertheless, was merely taught after 1755, when the physicist Paulian offered his first class and Newton’s Principia and commentaries were obtained for the library.

The French Revolution, with its focus on the individual and an end to inherited privilege, saw the suppression of the universities. To the revolutionaries, universities embodied bastions of corporatism and established interests. Moreover, lands owned by the universities and utilized for their support, represented a source of wealth to be tapped by the revolutionary government, just as property possessed by the Church had been confiscated. In 1792, the University of Aix, along with twenty-one other universities, was dissolved. Specialized ecoles, with rigorous entrance examinations and open to anyone with talent, were eventually created in order to offer professional training in specialized areas. Even so, the government found it necessary to allow the faculties of law and medicine to continue in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille in the early 19th century.

During the 19th century, additional faculties were created in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille to serve the changing needs of French society. For instance, Hippolyte Fortoul, later Napoleon III’s Minister of Education, was the first dean and professor of a new faculty in French literature established in Aix-en-Provence in the 1840s. In 1896, the departmental council of the Bouches-du-Rhone founded a chair in the faculty of letters at Aix-en-Provence in the language and literature of Mediterranean Europe; their aim was to assist the commercial exploitation of the region by French business. A new science faculty was created in Marseille to support the growing industrialization of the region. At about the same time, a special training program was created in the faculty of medicine in order to train doctors in colonial medicine for France’s expanding colonial empire.

The most significant development for the university in the 19th century, nevertheless, was the recreation of French universities in 1896. Facing acute competition from prestigious German universities following the Franco-Prussian War, French legislators were anxious to have their own universities. In 1896 a law was passed creating seventeen autonomous regional universities financed mainly by the state. The various faculties in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille were grouped into the new University of Aix-Marseille.

Through two world wars and a depression, the University of Aix-Marseille continued to develop. Increasing numbers of women and foreign students joined the student body, and an overwhelming majority of students majored in the science, medicine, and law. Individual faculties were almost autonomous from university administration and the Ministry of Education frequently intervened directly among the faculties.

Following riots among university students in 1968, a reform of French education occurred. The Loi d’Orientation de l’Enseignement Superieur of 1968 divided the old faculties into smaller subject departments, reduced the power of the Ministry of Education, and created smaller universities, with strengthened administrations. Subsequently, the University of Aix-Marseille was divided into two institutions. Each university had different areas of concentration of study and the faculties were divided as follows:

• University of Aix-Marseille I: law, political science, history, psychology, sociology, ethnology, philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural sciences, languages, literature and civilization
• University of Aix-Marseille II: economic science, geography, technology, medicine, pharmacy, dental surgery, topical medicine, physical education and ocean science

In 1973, conservative faculty members demanded and obtained the creation of the University of Aix-Marseille III, grouping law, political science, applied economics, earth science, ecology and technological studies.

The three universities of Aix-Marseille eventually merged again in 2012.