Collège de France

The Collège de France, which is an institute of higher education where basic research is jointly pursued and taught, was founded by François I, King of France from 1515 to 1547. In 1530 he appointed the first Royal Readers : three for Hebrew, two for Greek and one for mathematics. Their function was to teach subjects that were not yet accepted by the University.In the 18th century, the number of Readers was increased to twenty and then to forty at the end of the 19th century. It was not until 1870 that this institution took on the name of Collège de France after having been called Collège Impérial under both Empires.Today, the Readers have become fifty-two Professors working with several hundred researchers, engineers, technicians and administrative staff. The chairs cover a wide range of subjects : mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, archaeology, linguistics, oriental studies, philosophy, the social sciences... In addition, two chairs are reserved for foreign scholars who are invited to give lectures. Two further chairs were then created, one in 1989 for a European scholar for a year-long series of lectures ; the other International chair was created in 1992 for scientists and scholars from any part of the world, also for one whole academic year. Since then the Collège is allowed to elect a foreign scientist or scholar to one of the existing fifty-two ordinary chairs.
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