Université d’Orsay

University of Paris-Sud

Université Paris-Sud
Type	Public
Established	1971 (1971)
Budget	€450 million
Academic staff	2,461
Administrative staff	1,670
Students	27,307
Postgraduates	2,578
Location	Orsay, France
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	University of Paris-Saclay, LERU
Website	www.u-psud.fr

University of Paris-Sud (French: Université Paris-Sud), also known as University of Paris XI, is a French university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris including Orsay, Cachan, Châtenay-Malabry, Sceaux and Kremlin-Bicêtre campuses. The main campus is located in Orsay (48°42′00″N 2°10′24″E / 48.699890°N 2.173309°E / 48.699890; 2.173309). This university is a member of the UniverSud Paris and a constituent university of the federal University of Paris-Saclay.

Paris-Sud is one of the largest and most renowned French universities, particularly in science and mathematics.

Four Fields Medalists and two Nobel Prize Winners have been affiliated to the university.

In 2005, the University of Paris-Sud is tying up together with HEC Paris, the top ranking business school in Paris, and the L'Ecole Polytechnique, the prominent engineering school in the city, to form what is called the Universite Paris-Saclay.

Paris-Sud was originally part of the University of Paris, which was subsequently split into several universities. After World War II, the rapid growth of nuclear physics and chemistry meant that research needed more and more powerful accelerators, which required large areas. The Université de Paris, the École Normale Supérieure and the Collège de France looked for space in the south of Paris near Orsay. Later some of the teaching activity of the Faculty of Sciences in Paris was transferred to Orsay. The rapid increase of students led to the independence of the Orsay Center on March 1, 1965.