On February 13, 2011, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi’s permanent campus on Reem Island officially opened. The event was attended by the French prime minister at the time, Francois Fillon, and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.
The Abu Dhabi outpost was born in 2006 when the UAE and France signed an agreement to expand the prestigious university for the first time outside its home country. The project was supported by the Abu Dhabi government, which invested $100 million to set up the campus.
Before moving to their 9.3-hectare campus on Reem Island, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi took up temporary residence in a building near Al Maqta Bridge. Classes were then moved to Reem Island in December 2009. By 2011, the university had more than 600 students, 34 per cent of whom were Emirati.
“France entered into this project because the UAE projects dynamism and responsibility. The formal opening of the campus demonstrates the bond of trust between the countries,” Fillon said at the campus opening.
Georges Molinie, then president of the Paris Sorbonne, said the university would offer a master’s degree in museum studies in collaboration with the Louvre Museum and School in France, which postgraduate students can now enrol for.
The Reem Island campus offers a modern and dynamic learning environment with state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories and auditoriums. The campus also has a two-storey library with books brought in from the Paris campus, as well as important books and research papers from around the world. It has a sports complex and an expansive food hall.
Students are also provided with career planning by professionals who help through workshops, internships and networking events.
Today, the university has three schools – Arts and Humanities; Law, Economics and Business; and Data, Science and Engineering – which offer 12 bachelor’s degrees and 14 master’s degrees in both French and English.
Paris Sorbonne has a rich and long history. Founded in 1257, it was one of numerous colleges that housed poor students on the hillsides of the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve. It was rebuilt by Cardinal Richelieu, who was King Louis XIII's chief minister in the 17th century. It was closed by the French Revolution in 1791 and turned into artists' studios in 1801. In 1821, the Sorbonne once again devoted itself to teaching and continues to do so until today.
Four Nobel laureates have graduated from the Sorbonne, including Emmanuelle Charpentier, the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry winner. Famous alumni also include Polish chemist Marie Curie, French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, Lebanese-French historian Habib Tawa, French economist Dominique Strauss-Kahn and American fashion designer Vera Wang.
