650 years old - a venerable age

 The University of Perpignan was founded in 1350 as a result of the desire of the Catalan - Aragonese State to compete with the University of Montpellier, after the loss of this city, which had been captured by the French in 1349. It was on the 20th of March 1350 that Pierre IV - “the Ceremonious” - King of Aragon founded the first University of Perpignan under the title of “Estudi Major”. By the end of the fourteenth century, Perpignan, one of only 25 Universities in the world, was teaching medicine, law, and humanities to more than 400 students, essentially from the Catalan region. The university adopted a multidisciplinary approach which remains one of its characteristics to this day.

 In 1808 Perpignan was overlooked in the Napoleonic decree which established faculties in the majority of university towns. Nor was it covered by the law of July 10th 1896 which united the faculties of a single town under the title of University.The lingering recollection of its lost University played an essential role in the re-establishment of further education in Perpignan in the nineteen fifties. The Assembly of the Faculty of Letters of Montpellier accepted “the project of an annex in Perpignan”. During this period, the “Conseil Général” (elected authority of the Department of the Pyrenées Orientales) took a principal role in the establishment of further education in Perpignan, by acquiring 20 hectares of land which it donated to the State for the construction of University buildings. It was in 1979 that the University obtained financial, administrative and educational autonomy under an administrative council, directed by a President who was himself elected by the Council.

 As well as being recognised as a  multidisciplinary university, the University of Perpignan is widely acknowledged for its extensive conctacts with the outside world, in terms both of the students  which it welcomes, and of the contacts which it maintains with universities all over the world.