coeducational, autonomous state institution of higher learning in Poitiers, Fr. Founded in 1970 under a law of 1968 reforming higher education, it replaced a university founded in 1431 by a Papal Bull of Eugene IV and confirmed by Charles VII in 1432. The university was suppressed by the French Revolution and was eventually replaced by separate faculties of law, letters, and science and by a school of medicine which was part of the University of France. In 1896 these faculties reconstituted as the University of Poitiers.

The modern university is organized into independent teaching and research units that include law and social sciences, exact and natural sciences, medicine and pharmacy, and languages and literature. Several institutes of technology within the university offer two-year courses.