Division and common assets

Following the May 1968 events, French higher education was reorganized by the Faure law of 12 November 1968.^[11][12][13] Among other changes, the activities of the universities were structured around 648 provisional "Education and Research Units" (Unités d'Enseignement et de Recherche, UER). After that, the personnel of these UERs had to submit for approval by the Ministry of Higher Education a project to regroup their UERs into new universities.

Some universities in Paris and other cities had grown to unprecedented proportions.^[14] This had significant impacts on the management and governance of each faculty, which operated with great autonomy from the central university administration. In the case of Paris, the original university could be divided around the boundaries of some faculties, but even then the size of the resulting UERs could justify further dividing them. This is what ultimately happened, with Law being divided between the universities of Paris 1 and Paris 2, Languages and Literature between Paris 3 and Paris 4, and Sciences between Paris 6 and Paris 7. The result was 13 autonomous universities:^[15]

- University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

- University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas

- University of Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle

- University of Paris 4 Paris-Sorbonne (will merge into Sorbonne-Université)

- University of Paris 5 Paris-Descartes (will merge into Paris-Cité)

- University of Paris 6 Pierre et Marie Curie (will merge into Sorbonne-Université)

- University of Paris 7 Paris-Diderot (will merge into Paris-Cité)

- University of Paris 8 Vincennes (will become Vincennes-Saint-Denis)

- University of Paris 9 Paris-Dauphine

- University of Paris 10 Paris-Nanterre

- University of Paris 11 Paris-Sud (will become Paris-Saclay)

- University of Paris 12 Paris-Est (will become Paris-Est-Créteil-Val-de-Marne)

- University of Paris 13 Paris-Nord (will become Sorbonne Paris-Nord)

Similar divisions took place in Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lyon, Lille, Montpellier, Rennes, Toulouse and Strasbourg. This trend of division of the historical universities would be partially reversed after 2005 by projects encouraged by the French government, such as the PRES and the COMUE, and even more by the complete mergers achieved later (see below).

In Paris some of the universities maintained operations in the Sorbonne building and decided to keep the word Sorbonne in their names: The University of Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), the University of Paris 3 (Sorbonne-Nouvelle) and the University of Paris 4 (Paris-Sorbonne). Two other universities maintained operations in the building but opted to abandon the name: the University of Paris 5 (Paris Descartes) and the University of Paris 7 (Paris Diderot).^[16]

Two additional higher education institutions also remained active in the historical Sorbonne building: the École des chartes (until 2014) and the École pratique de hautes études.^[16] Furthermore, the University of Paris 2 (Panthéon-Assas), while not based in the Sorbonne building, continued to operate from the Panthéon site across the Cujas street.^[17]

The common heritage and estate of the University of Paris (including the Sorbonne building) was not divided and instead placed under the authority of a common administration: the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris, whose headquarters are also located in the Sorbonne building.^[11][18][10]

The building as a whole is then a common asset of the 13 successor universities of the University of Paris, and particularly the monumental sections are not attributed to any single university (but shared by all of them): the Sorbonne Chapel, the Cour d'honneur, the Péristyle and the Grand amphithéâtre.^[16][10]

Some of the dependencies are administered by one of the successor universities (while remaining a common asset). The library of the Sorbonne (Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne) is a common library of the universities Panthéon-Sorbonne and Sorbonne-Nouvelle, administered by Panthéon-Sorbonne.^[19]

The classrooms, libraries and administrative offices are attributed to the Universities maintaining operations in the building: Panthéon-Sorbonne, Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Sorbonne-Université (which also has its headquarters) and Paris-Cité. All of them also operate in other campuses established across Paris.

Brands and mergers after 1990

Despite being a highly valued brand, the Sorbonne universities did not register their names as trademarks until the 1990s. Over the following years, they established partnerships, merging projects and associated institutions with the name Sorbonne, sometimes triggering conflicts over the usage and ownership of the name.

After 1968, almost 30 years went by without any of them registering their names as a trademark. The first one to do it was the University of Paris 4 Paris-Sorbonne, who trademarked the name Université de Paris-Sorbonne in 1996, followed by the registration of the updated logos over the next decade.^[20] It was followed by Sorbonne-Nouvelle and Panthéon-Sorbonne^[20] in 1999.^[21] In 2007 Paris 4 trademarked also the brand "La Sorbonne". In 2006 it had granted permission to the authorities of Abu Dhabi to use the brand Sorbonne in the entire Middle east region; the "Sorbonne Abu Dhabi" logo was trademarked in 2007,^[20] blocking other Sorbonne universities from doing the same.^[22] This last initiative triggered a crisis with the other Sorbonne universities, forcing the French authorities to intervene.^[23]

Cooperation agreements