University of Rennes

The University of Rennes is a public research university located in Rennes, Upper Brittany, France. Originally founded in 1460, the university was split into two universities in 1970: Rennes 1 University and Rennes 2 University. On 1 January 2023, the Rennes 1 University merged with five grandes écoles: EHESP, École nationale supérieure de chimie de Rennes, ENS Rennes, INSA Rennes and Sciences-Po Rennes to create the new University of Rennes. The University of Rennes 2 with other research institutes (CNRS, INRAE, Inria, Inserm and CHU de Rennes) are associated with the 'UNIR' project. The six establishments will be grouped together in an 'Experimental Public Establishment' (EPE), weighing nearly 7,000 staff and teachers, including a thousand researchers, 156 research laboratories and 60,000 of the 68,000 students in the Breton capital, including 7,000 international students. History Beginnings in Nantes The Duke's University of Brittany was founded by Bertrand Milon on 4 April 1460, on the initiative of Duke Francis II of Brittany, by a papal bull from Pope Pius II, given in Siena. This embodied Francis II's wish to assert his independence from the King of France, while universities were being opened on the outskirts of the duchy in Angers in 1432, Poitiers in 1432 and Bordeaux in 1441. Created in the form of a studium generale, this university could teach all the traditional disciplines: Arts, Theology, Law and Medicine. The student population between the end of the 15th century and the following two centuries grew to a thousand or even 1,500 students, according to the highest estimates.