The University of Perpignan (French: Université de Perpignan; Catalan: Universitat de Perpinyà Via Domícia) is a French university, located in Perpignan.
Contents
History
The first university of Perpignan was established in 1349 by King Peter IV of Aragon. It is one of the oldest regional universities, following in the steps of more renowned centers of learning, such as the far more influential University of Toulouse and University of Montpellier.
Peter IV, having conquered in 1344 the town of Perpignan and reunited to his estates the Kingdom of Majorca, of which Perpignan became its capital, compensated that city for its loss of power by founding, at the request of the magistrates, 20 March 1349, the University of Perpignan, for the teaching of civil and canon law, and other arts and sciences. In the charter he praised "the deep learning of the professors of Perpignan".
By the Bull of 28 November 1379, the antipope Clement VII confirmed the foundation and privileges, and the university, in a petition addressed to him in 1393, declared him its founder: "Pater et Genitor". In 1381 John I of Aragon, son of Peter IV, granted permission to the city authorities to build the university near the royal castle. The institution spread in Perpignan an atmosphere of learning, the study of law being specially developed. Theology was taught there during the first years of the fourteenth century, but it was not until 21 July 1447, that the faculty of theology was created by a Bull of Pope Nicholas V and it did not receive its statutes until 1459.
The university of Perpignan was closed for two centuries between 1794 and 1971. A new University Center was established in Perpignan and in 1979 the University became autonomous financially, administratively and educationally.
Organisation
The university is composed of four Faculties:
Faculty of Pure and Experimental Science
Faculty of Law and Economics
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences
Faculty of Sports and Physical Activities
and three institutes:
University Institute of Technology
Institute of Business Administration
Institute of Franco-Catalan Studies
Notable people
Faculty
Claude Combes (born 1935, in Perpignan) - biologist and parasitologist
Jean Meyer (born 1942, in Nice) - historian
Jean-Marcel Goger (born 1954 in Nancy, France) - historian
Jacqueline Assaël (born 1957, Marseille) - Hellenist, essayist and poet
Frederic Monneyron - professor of comparative and general literature
Christophe Euzet (born 1967) - politician LREM
Pere Aragonès (born 1982) - Catalan lawyer and politician; President of the Government of Catalonia
Alumni
Lídia Armengol i Vila (1948 – 1991) - historian and civil servant Andorra
Jeannie Mah (born 1952, in Regina, Saskatchewan) - Canadian ceramic artist
Chadi Massaad (born 1959, in Lebanon) - architect
Chafik Rachadi (born 1963, in Marrakech, Morocco) - politician.
Asmaa Rhlalou - Moroccan journalist and politician
Nicolas Lebourg (born 1979) - historian
Nsah Mala (born 1988), writer and poet Cameroon
Recipient of honorary degree
Predrag Matvejević (1932 – 2017) - Bosnian and Croatian writer and scholar