Grenoble Alpes University

Founder Humbert II of Viennois

First official seal

The University of Grenoble was founded on May 12, 1339 by Humbert II of Viennois, the last independent ruler of Dauphiné, a state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its purpose was to teach civil and canon law, medicine, and the liberal arts.[14] It was considered a leader in the Renaissance revival of the classics and development of liberal arts.[15]

Humbert's actions were inspired by his granduncle Robert, King of Naples, at whose royal court Humbert spent his youth.[16] King Robert, known as the Wise, skillfully developed Naples from a small port to a lavish city and had a reputation of a cultured man and a generous patron of the arts, friends with such great minds as Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Giotto.[17][16]

Such rich experience contributed to Humbert's intention to create a university in his own state, and to do so he visited Pope Benedict XII to get a papal bull of approval.

University Palace, now IUT Grenoble 1

Humbert cared deeply about his students, offering generous aid, protection, and even providing a hundred of them with free housing.[18] Humbert's financial losses during the Smyrniote crusades, Black Death, and Dauphiné's attachment to France have greatly decreased the activity of the university leading to its closure, since a small mountainous town couldn't support its activity on its own.[16]

It was reopened again by Louis XI of France in 1475 in Valence under the name University of Valence, while the original university was restored in Grenoble in 1542 by Francis de Bourbon, Count of St. Pol.[19] The two universities were finally reunited in 1565. At that point Grenoble was an important center of law practice in France, thus law practice was at the center of the university education.[20]

The French Revolution, with its focus on the end to inherited privilege, led to the suppression of most universities in France. To revolutionaries, universities embodied bastions of corporatism and established interests. Moreover, lands owned by the universities and utilized for their support represented a source of wealth and therefore were confiscated, just as property possessed by the Church.

Changing university logos

Université de Grenoble (1339-1970)

Université Grenoble Alpes (2016-2019)

Université Grenoble Alpes (since 2020)

In 1805–1808, Napoleon reestablished faculties of law, letters, and science. The Bourbon Restoration had temporarily suppressed the Faculty of Letters and the Faculty of Law, but by the 1850s the university's activity had begun rapidly developing again.[21]

The development of the sciences at the university was spearheaded by the transformation of Grenoble from a regional center to a major supplier of industrial motors and electrical equipment in 1880s.[21] The faculties were formally inaugurated as the University of Grenoble in 1879 in the newly constructed Place de Verdun.[22] There were around 3000 students in 1930. Significant enrollment growth in the 1960s created pressures on the academic infrastructure of the university; the library Suzanne Dobelmann helped expand facilities, especially those relating to science and medicine.[23]

Following riots among university students in May 1968,[24] a reform of French education occurred. The Orientation Act (Loi d’Orientation de l’Enseignement Superieur) of 1968 divided the old faculties into smaller subject departments, decreased the power of the Ministry of National Education, and created smaller universities, with strengthened administrations.[25]

Thus, sharing the fate of all French universities in 1970s, the University of Grenoble was split into four institutions. Each university had different areas of concentration of study and the faculties were divided as follows:

• Scientific and Medical University of Grenoble, which in 1987 was renamed Joseph Fourier University (UJF), for sciences, health, and technology
• University of Economics and Law, which in 1987 was renamed Pierre Mendès-France University (UPMF), for social sciences and humanities
  • Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, affiliated with UPMF and focusing on political science
• University of Languages and Letters, which in 1987 was renamed Stendhal University, for arts and languages
• Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble-INP) for engineering

Part of the ex-UPMF facilities

On 1 January 2016, the first three institutions reunited to restore the original common institution under the name Université Grenoble Alpes. Although Grenoble-INP remains separate, it is an active member of the Community Université Grenoble Alpes and cooperates very closely with the university not only in research projects, but also by sharing labs, offering mutual courses and training for students and researchers.[26][27]

On 1 January 2020, Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble-INP), together with Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, ENSAG School of Architecture, and Community Université Grenoble Alpes merged with the University Grenoble Alpes.[28]

Many European politicians have studied law, economics, and languages in UGA, including: Reinhold Maier, Helene Weber, Walther Schreiber, Michel Destot, Louis Besson, Bernard Accoyer, Marlène Schiappa, Thierry Repentin, André Vallini and Geoffrey Acland.

Other political leaders include: Gaétan Barrette, Minister of Health and Social Services of Canada; Paul Kaba Thieba, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso; Abderrahmane Benkhalfa, Minister of Finance of Algeria; Hazem El Beblawi, Prime Minister of Egypt; Richard E. Hoagland, US Ambassador; Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal; Driss Basri, Interior Minister of Morocco; Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, Ambassador for Mauritania; Şenkal Atasagun, Chief of the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey; Ignas Jonynas, Lithuanian diplomat; Bill Morneau, Canadian Minister of Finance; Souvanna Phouma, Prime Minister of Laos; Ali Al Shami, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon; Fathallah Sijilmassi, Moroccan politician and economist; Mohammed al-Dairi Minister of Foreign Affairs of Libya.

UGA alumni also include American journalist Warren D. Leary, French journalists Éric Conan, Olivier Galzi, Mélissa Theuriau Françoise Joly, Laurent Mauduit, Marc Dugain, Philippe Robinet, Caroline Roux, British Joanna Gosling and Safia Shah, and German Jona von Ustinov, who worked for MI5 during the time of the Nazi regime.

Among social activists who attended UGA, one could find Léo-Paul Lauzon, Léa Roback, Austin Mardon, and the former CEO of the Chicago Urban League James Compton.

• 
  Park Geun-hye, President of South Korea
• 
  Richard von Weizsäcker, President of Germany
• 
  Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland
• 
  Jacqueline Kennedy, First Lady of the United States
• 
  Masako Owada, Empress of Japan
• 
  Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal

Numerous prominent scientists have studied at the Université Grenoble Alpes since the development of the hydro-power in the region in 1880s. Prominent fields include physics, material sciences, and computer sciences with alumni like Yves Bréchet,[43] member of the French Academy of Sciences; Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli,[44] who worked on the Higgs Boson discovery; Patrick Cousot,[45] French computer scientist; Joseph Sifakis, Turing Award laureate; Claude Boutron,[46] French glaciologist; Jean-Louis Coatrieux,[47] French researcher in medical imaging; Michel Cosnard,[48] French computer scientist; Paul Trendelenburg,[49] German pharmacologist; Yousef Saad,[50] computer scientist; Gérard Mourou Nobel Prize laureate, Maurice Nivat, Catherine Ritz,[51] French Antarctic researcher; Eric Goles, Chilean mathematician; Pierre Colmez, French mathematician; René Alphonse Higonnet,[52] French enPineer; Marlon Dumas, Honduran computer scientist; Claire Berger,[53] French physicist.

• 
  Gérard Mourou, Physicist & 2018 Nobel laureate[54]
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  Jean-Jacques Favier, CNES Astronaut[55]
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  Charles Elachi, Director of the JPL[56]
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  Joseph Sifakis, Computer scientist, Turing recipient[57]
• 
  Alim Louis Benabid, Neurosurgeon[58]
• 
  Aurélien Barrau, physicist and philosopher[59]