TOULOUSE UNIVERSITY

University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès was hastily conceived as a result of the saturation of the original buildings in the city centre and the events of May 1968 A.D.. At that time it was decided to divide Toulouse University into 3 (Faure acts): the law faculty became Université Toulouse I, occupying all the old university buildings; the humanities faculty became Université de Toulouse II – Le Mirail, named after its new location (subsequently renamed Université de Toulouse II – Jean Jaurès); and the departments of science and medicine became Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse III), a leading educational institution in France and the Midi-Pyrénées region and offered a wide range of programs in science, technology, health and athletics; a fourth university in Toulouse was created as Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, a school of Aerospace engineering. Today only the first remains on the historical site of the town center: in 2009 A.D. the Toulouse 1 University of Social Sciences became the Toulouse 1 Capitole University, considered to be the more affordable places to study in France.

The current university system was created as a ComUE according to the 2013 French Law on Higher Education and Research: it replaced the pôle de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur (PRES), which had been organized in 2007 A.D. to coordinate higher education and research in the region. On January 2023 A.D. the Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées became the University of Toulouse, while 2 years later the Université de Toulouse system became the Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse, when the Toulouse-III - Paul Sabatier University adopted the name Université de Toulouse, substituted of the Purpan Engineering School as a graduate school. The Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée region is home to 13 departments and over 4,500 local districts: it is the second largest region in mainland France and the Toulouse Métropole and boasts a rich variety of landscapes and microclimates, including two mountain ranges and 220km of Mediterranean coastline.

Toulouse University has focused on China as one of its major areas of cooperation in 2012 A.D., a target crystallised by the opening of a permanent office in Chongqing, in the heart of the Sichuan International Studies University (SISU), with the primary purpose of promote its activities to Chinese students and mobility in both directions. The actions taken since its creation is narrowed in the new Memorandums of Understanding (MOU), signed between the Université de Toulouse and Chinese institutions to offer double degree programmes established between member institutions and Chinese establishments, as the Mines Albi with Tongji at Master's/Engineer level and the UTC1-AEC with the University of International Business and Economics at Bachelor's level.

Toulouse University participate in several national organization joining universitarian research centres and other private/public players. The first is '7 founding members' joining the Université Toulouse Capitole, the Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, the Université de Toulouse, the Institut national polytechnique de Toulouse (Toulouse INP), the Institut national des sciences appliquées de Toulouse (INSA Toulouse), the Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) and the Institut national universitaire Champollion (INU Champollion). Then follows the '10 members' group of the Centre de Ressources d'Expertise et de Performance Sportives (CREPS), the École nationale de l'aviation civile (ENAC), Éthe cole nationale d'ingénieurs de Tarbes (ENIT), the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Toulouse (ENSA Toulouse), the École nationale vétérinaire de Toulouse (ENVT), the École nationale supérieure de formation de l’enseignement agricole (ENSFEA), the Institut catholique d'arts et métiers (ICAM), the École nationale supérieure des mines d'Albi-Carmaux (IMT Mines d'Albi), the Institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulouse (IsdaT) and the Toulouse Business School (TBS). Other cooperative association are the 'National research organizations' with the Centre nations d'études spatiales (CNES), the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture l'alimentation et l'environnement (INRAE), the Institut national de l'a santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm), the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), the Office national d'études et de recherche aérospatiales (Onera) and the Météo-France. The Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (UFTMP) is a structure that groups together 31 higher education and research institutions in the Academy of Toulouse (4 universities, 1 national university institute, 18 engineering schools and specialised schools, 1 university hospital and 7 research organisations): along with its members, its ambition is to raise the profile of the university site as a whole to the highest international academic and scientific levels, and to provide welcoming living conditions for French and foreign students and researchers. The wide portfolio of courses on offer can be divided into four main areas: Arts, Humanities and LanguagesLaw, Economics and Management, Human and social sciences, Science, Technology, Health and Engineering sciences.

Toulouse University gathers many research and Higher Education Institutions throughout the Midi-Pyrenees region: over 100,000 students are enrolled in its 23 higher education member institutions, 7 research organizations and 1 University Hospital, 15 doctoral schools of high repute. Its Afterworks and the Student's Week 'Semaine de l'étudiant' are its most important internal events: every year on October, during the Student's Week many free concerts, performing art shows are staged in Toulouse, Auch, Albi, Castres-Mazamet, Figeac, Montauban, Rodez and Tarbes. To encourage intercultural exchanges between foreign students and the local population via shared activities and leisure time, Université de Toulouse offers 2 programs: the hosting of foreign students and researchers by Toulouse families and the 'Tandem Interculturel' (pairing of french and foreign students).

Not far from Toulouse there is Cahors that hosted own university founded by Pope John XXII, a native of the city, established in 1331 A.D. and survived until 1751 A.D. when it was combined with the atheneum of Toulouse, managed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cahors. That university had 3 colleges in the french city: Pélegry (1358), Rodez (1371) and San Michel (1473), with faculties covering theology, law, medicine, arts and literature. Some of its scholars were: monk Gerald of Braga, cardinals Jacques de Via and Arnaud de Via, Pope John XXII, Clément Marot, Blaise Gisbert, Jean Pierre de Caussade, Antoine Cavalleri, Jean-Baptiste Bessières, Charles Combes, Léon Gambetta, Jules Combarieu, Marcel Marceau, Émile Parisien.

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