The University of Paris II: Panthéon-Assas, also known as "Paris deux" or "Assas" after the rue d'Assas where it is headquartered, is an elite French university which is most famous for its degrees in law and business but also teaches administration, social and political science.
About Assas
Assas likes to think of itself as France's Harvard: it is the country's premier law and business university, and a breeding ground for politicians.
All of France's universities are as mainstream as possible, the only thing necessary to enter being a high school diploma and the marginal admission fee. Assas however is elitist. Even though the university is required by law to admit anyone who meets the aforementioned conditions, strain is put on the students from the start and the first year drop-out rate consistently hovers in the 75-90% region. Thus, a degree from Assas holds an equivalent reputation to one from a grande école.
For these reasons it has several peculiarities: while all of France's universities are notoriously understaffed and underbudgeted, Assas gets all the money it needs from the Ministry of the Education, and while most of France's universities lean culturally and politically to the left, Assas leans to the right.
Campus
As most universities in Paris, Assas takes its formal name Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) from the places where it is located.
The administration offices and postgraduate studies are located in a building which is in the plaza that rings the Parisian landmark of the Pantheon. The Pantheon is in the latin quarter of Paris where its most prestigious schools are located: it is only a few blocks away from e.g. the Sorbonne, the Collège de France and X's former campus. Paris' latin quarter is also famous for its busy night life. Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) shares this spot with Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and they both administer the University Library of the Pantheon which is the largest student library in France and also one of its largest research libraries.
The relatively small but recently refitted Vaugirard campus, in the rue de Vaugirard, is the campus which is located in the comparatively least prestigious area of the city: it is where the freshman and most sophomore studies take place.
The school's main campus is a huge, at least for Paris, 70's architecture building in the rue d'Assas. Its gigantic entrance hall leads to the main amphitheater, which can seat 1,700, where concerts are sometimes held. The building also has over a dozen other amphitheaters of all siezs, countless classrooms and labs, etc. This is also where the student associations are located. Paradoxically the student library at the Assas campus is relatively smaller than the ones at Vaugirard or the Pantheon.
Students and alumni
Like in better institutions of higher education the world over, sociologically most students of Assas come from upper and middle-upper class families. However, it seems there is a higher percentage of "new money" in Assas than in the grandes écoles, which traditionally attract the old French families which have often frequented the écoles for generations. Most first year students are female and even though more female students drop out than males, there is still a clear majority of women up to the graduate level.
There is a large minority of foreign exchange students, as in most Parisian universities, which pride themselves on their cosmopolitanism. Conversely, Assas encourages its students to spend at least a semester in a foreign university, especially other universities in the European Union, through the Socrates and Erasmus student exchange programmes. It also has a few highly selective graduate programs with Ivy League schools and other reputed universities in the United States of America and in Canada; as well as Oxford, Cambridge and UCL universities in the UK; there are similar but less selective programs for universities all over the world, even though there is an understandable marked preference for the first world.
The school's most famous alumnus is Jean-Pierre Raffarin France's current UMP Prime Minister.
See also
External links
- Assas' Official Homepage — The page is bilingual, just hover over the left-hand menu to see items in English.
- Assas' Official Sports Club Homepage — All about sports at Assas (in French).
- Assas.net — A website and forum managed by students (in French).
- CORPO — Website of Assas' CORPO, a very active student association (in French).
- Double maîtrise — Website of the double degree program between Assas and Cambridge, maintained by students (in English).
- UEJF — Website of Assas' UEJF, an association for jewish students (in French).
- PAK — Website of Assas' rugby team (in French).
- Wrestling Team — Website of Assas' wrestling team (in French).
