University of Montpellier

Overview

A public university in France, the University of Montpellier (UM) is the sixth-largest university in the country. It was established in 1220, making it one of the oldest universities on the globe.

The university, considered to be older than its published founding date, has produced a remarkable number of alumni since its inception. The long list includes Nostradamus, the statistician Susan P. Holmes, the biologist Danièle Guinot, and the Canadian artist Kate Armstrong among others.

From 1970 to 2015, the university was separated into three universities namely the (a) University of Montpellier 1, (b) University of Montpellier 2, and (c) Paul Valery University Montpellier 3. In 2015, the Universities of Montpellier 1 and 2 were merged while the latter stayed as a separate institution called Paul Valery University Montpellier.

Today, the university provides multidisciplinary educational programs and courses, ranging from medicine and biology to law and business. UM collaborates with job market stakeholders. It is also proud of its programs that guide students to create their university and professional projects.

Seated in the heart of the city, its multi-site campus life is well-integrated with the urban fabric. It provides its students and staff infrastructures for socializing and recreation. It has 12 university libraries, two student centers, 118 associations, and more than 30 sports activities. Also, it promotes artistic creations through workshops and by providing students with recording studios. There are also organized cultural events like conferences, concerts, exhibitions, and film screening.

UM has 15 faculties and schools. It also maintains one observatory, the Mediterranean Research Observatory for the Environment (OREME). The university is known throughout the world for its expertise in science, information and communication technologies, agro-environmental science, chemistry, and health-biology.

Currently, the university thrust is to be known further as a “University of Excellence” that provides a real European portal for southern countries. To promote this thrust, the university has gathered 19 other institutions to reach a shared vision: to make UM a thematic research-intensive and internationally recognized university with great impact in the fields of environment, agriculture, and health.

The university has 70+ laboratories and more than 1500 researchers. It has six clusters of excellence. This includes (1) Agro for agricultural research (Labex Agro), (2) the Mediterranean Center for Environment and Biodiversity Laboratory (CeMEB LabEX), (3) Chemisyst for the chemistry of molecular and interfacial systems, (4) Entreprendre for entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability, (5) EpiGenMed for BioHealth and clinical research, and (6) NUMEV that harmonizes hard and computational science with life and environmental sciences.