List of rectors of the University of Paris

This is a list of rectors of the University of Paris (the Sorbonne), a foundation of the middle of the twelfth century with a charter from 1200. The office of rector emerged in the middle of the thirteenth century. Since the rector, initially the "rector of the nations", was elected by the students and faculty, his position was very different from the appointed chancellor of the university (who was in fact the ecclesiastical chancellor of Notre Dame de Paris, whose power came to be divided also with the chancellor of the Abbey of St Genevieve). The rector became the representative of the faculty of the arts; it required another century for the recognition of the rector as representing also the other three faculties (law, medicine and theology).[1] From the middle of the fourteenth century the rector had the status of head of the university, but limited powers.[2]

The rectorship for most of its history was an elected position, of high academic prestige, and held in practice for a single term of one year. The formal position was that the term was of three months, so in some years there were several rectors elected. In the medieval and early Renaissance periods many holders of the post were from outside France. The reorganization of 1970 divided the historical university into thirteen parts. The office of rector still exists, with title Recteur de l'Académie de Paris.