The University of Grenoble was founded on May 12, 1339, by Humbert II of Viennois, the last independent ruler of Dauphiné, a state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its purpose was to teach civil and canon law, medicine, and the liberal arts. It was considered a leader in the Renaissance revival of the classics and development of liberal arts.
Humbert's actions were inspired by his granduncle Robert, King of Naples, at whose royal court Humbert spent his youth. King Robert, known as the Wise, skillfully developed Naples from a small port into a lavish city and had a reputation of a cultured man and a generous patron of the arts, friends with such great minds as Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Giotto.
Such rich experience contributed to Humbert's intention to create a university in his own state, and to do so he visited Pope Benedict XII to get a papal bull of approval.
Humbert cared deeply about his students, offering generous aid, protection, and even providing a hundred of them with free housing. Humbert's financial losses during the Smyrniote crusades, Black Death, and Dauphiné's attachment to France greatly decreased the activity of the university leading to its closure, since a small mountainous town couldn't support its activity on its own.
It was reopened again by Louis XI of France in 1475 in Valence under the name University of Valence, while the original university was restored in Grenoble in 1542 by Francis de Bourbon, Count of St. Pol. The two universities were finally reunited in 1565. At that point Grenoble was an important center of law practice in France, thus law practice was at the center of the university education.
The French Revolution, with its focus on the end to inherited privilege, led to the suppression of most universities in France. To revolutionaries, universities embodied bastions of corporatism and established interests. Moreover, lands owned by the universities represented a source of wealth and therefore were confiscated, just as property possessed by the Church.
Modern period (1800–1968)
Université Grenoble Alpes (since 2020)In 1805–1808, Napoleon reestablished faculties of law, letters, and science. The Bourbon Restoration had temporarily suppressed the Faculty of Letters and the Faculty of Law, but by the 1850s the university's activity had begun rapidly developing again.
The development of the sciences at the university was spearheaded by the transformation of Grenoble from a regional center to a major supplier of industrial motors and electrical equipment in 1880s. The faculties were formally inaugurated as the University of Grenoble in 1879 in the newly constructed Place de Verdun. There were around 3000 students in 1930. Significant enrollment growth in the 1960s created pressures on the academic infrastructure of the university; the Suzanne Dobelmann library helped expand facilities, especially those relating to science and medicine.
Recent history (1968–present)
Following riots among university students in May 1968, a reform of French education occurred. The Orientation Act (Loi d’Orientation de l’Enseignement Superieur) of 1968 divided the old faculties into smaller subject departments, decreased the power of the Ministry of National Education, and created smaller universities, with strengthened administrations.
Thus, sharing the fate of all French universities in 1970s, the University of Grenoble was split into four institutions. Each university had different areas of concentration of study and the faculties were divided as follows:
On 1 January 2016, the first three institutions reunited to restore the original common institution under the name Université Grenoble Alpes. Although Grenoble-INP remains separate, it is an active member of the Community Université Grenoble Alpes and cooperates very closely with the university not only in research projects, but also by sharing labs, offering mutual courses and training for students and researchers.
On 1 January 2020, the Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble-INP), together with the Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, the ENSAG School of Architecture, and the Community Université Grenoble Alpes merged with the University Grenoble Alpes.