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- Université Paris X Paris - Ouest Nanterre La Défense, 1964
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Paris West University Nanterre La Défense (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) formerly called Paris X Nanterre is a French university in the Academy of Versailles. It is one of the 13 successor universities of the University of Paris. It is located in the western suburb of Nanterre, near La Défense, the business district of Paris. The university is commonly referred to as Nanterre.
Nanterre was built in the 1960s on the outskirts of Paris as an extension of the Sorbonne. Based on the American model, it was created as a campus (as opposed to the old French universities which were smaller and integrated to the city they were in).
Nanterre became famous shortly after its opening by being at the center of the May 68 student rebellion. The campus was nicknamed "Nanterre, la folle" (Mad Nanterre) or "Nanterre la rouge" (Red Nanterre, in reference to communism). To this day, the university remains traditionally a center of the left wing, as opposed to universities such as Paris II - Assas, traditionally inclined to the right.
Nanterre is the second largest campus in France after Nantes, with its own Olympic - sized swimming pool and a stadium. It welcomes 35 to 40,000 students every year in all fields of studies: Social Sciences, Philosophy, Literature, History, Languages and Linguistics, Economics, Law and Political Sciences, as well as Teacher Training, Acting, Cinema, Physiology and Sports.
The university is renowned in the fields of Law and Economics. Even
though French universities are required by law to admit anyone with a Baccalauréat,
strain is put on the students from the start and the first year
drop out rate consistently hovers in the 60% region. At postgraduate
level, the university offers very competitive programs (highly selective
Masters in Law and Business) and partnerships with some grandes écoles such as the Ecole Polytechnique, ESSEC, Ecole des Mines de Paris, ESCP Europe.
The Rene Ginouves Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology (Maison de l'archeologie et de l'ethnologie Rene Ginouves) is another important institution on campus, merging the departments of the CNRS, Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne and Paris X - Nanterre.
As in most Parisian universities, there is a large minority of foreign exchange students.
Over the years, Nanterre has developed innovative programs such as the double bilingual courses in French Law and Anglo - American, Spanish, Russian, German or Italian law, in Economics & Management (with half of the courses in French and half of the courses in another foreign language), in History (with half of the courses in French and half of the courses in another foreign language). These programs have inspired many universities and grandes écoles throughout the country and are now renowned on the national level.
