The University of Tours (French: Université de Tours), formerly François Rabelais University of Tours (French: Université François Rabelais), is a public university in Tours, France. Founded in 1969, the university was formerly named after the French writer François Rabelais. It is the largest university in the Centre-Val de Loire region. As of July 2015, it is a member of the regional university association Leonardo da Vinci consolidated University.
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History
The University of Tours was established as part of efforts to modernize and democratize higher education in France after the events of 1968. The university was created by grouping together a number of older educational institutions.
Organisation
The university has a number of campuses, often dedicated to a specific faculty, distributed across the city of Tours:
Plat d’Étain (administration and offices)
Tanneurs (languages and literature, arts and humanities)
Tonnellé (medicine)
Portalis/Deux-Lions (engineering, law, economics, geography)
Grandmont (sciences, pharmaceutical studies)
Pont-Volant (contains a University Institute of Technology)
Fromont
Émile Zola
The university also has a satellite campus in Blois.
Academics
The university comprises seven departments, as well as an engineering school and two technology institutes:
Department of Arts and Humanities
Center for Advanced Renaissance Studies (Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance)
Department of Law, Economics and Social Sciences
Department of Literature and Languages
Department of Medicine
Department of Sciences and Technology
Department of Pharmacy
School of Engineering (École polytechnique de l'université de Tours)
Tours University Institute of Technology (Institut Universitaire de Technologie de Tours)
Blois University Institute of Technology (Institut Universitaire de Technologie de Blois)
The university offers bachelor, master and doctorate degrees in line with the Bologna Process. It also provides Technological Diploma courses (diplômes universitaire de technologie) through the two University Institutes of Technology. Several other institutions operate within the framework of the university:
École publique de journalisme de Tours, a semi-autonomous journalism school affiliated to the university.
Centre hospitalier régional et universitaire de Tours (CHU de Tours), a grouping of six regional hospitals affiliated to the university that collaborate on health services and medical training.
Research
Research at the university is at the forefront in the social sciences and humanities in the study of the Renaissance through the Graduate Center of the Renaissance since 1956 and in knowledge of food heritage through a program ambitious research at the Institute of European history and culture of food.
The University of Tours is also distinguished in the field of materials for energy technology research with the Microelectronic at CERTEM in collaboration with ST Microelectronics in 1996.
The research also extends into the field of medical imaging and bio-medicine, oncology, and eminently in the study of autism at the University Hospital of Tours. Geo-science and environment with the study of insects at the Institute for Research on the biology of the insect (IRBI). Since 1969 the CESA, Planning Department today Polytech'Tours research in the field of cities, territories and societies is deemed to France. Finally the University of Tours works in the field of mathematical research through the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics.
Rankings
In 2022, the Academic Ranking of World Universities placed François Rabelais University in the 901-1000 band of universities in the world and in the 28-30 band of universities in France.
François Rabelais University undergraduate law program is ranked 3rd in France by Eduniversal, with 3 stars (2016/17).
Notable people
Faculty
Raymond Chevallier (1929-2004) - historian, archaeologist and Latinist
Michel Arrivé (1936-2017) - novelist, short story writer, linguist
Maurice Sartre (born 1944) - historian
Jean Germain (1947-2015) - university president; socialist politician
Jean-Paul Goux (born 1948) - writer
Gregory Grefenstette (born 1956) - French and American researcher and professor in computer science
Christian Delporte (born 1958 in Paris) - specialist in political and cultural history of France in the twentieth century
Éric de Chassey (born 1965, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.) - historian of French art, art critic
Kilien Stengel (born 1972) - gastronomic author, restaurateur, and cookbook writer
Claire Sotinel - historian; expert on Italy in late antiquity, religion, society, and prosopography
Alumni
Moshe Prywes (1914-1998) - Israeli physician and first president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Bruno Schroder (1933-2019) - British banker and billionaire
Sadreddin Elahi (1934-2021) - Iranian journalist and author