coeducational, autonomous, state-financed institutions of higher learning in Grenoble, France. The universities were founded under France's 1968 Orientation Act providing for the reform of higher education. They replaced the original University of Grenoble, which was founded in 1339 under a bull issued by Pope Benedict XII. The university was established to serve the professions by unifying the teaching of theology, law, and medicine. It was a leader in the Renaissance revival of the classics and development of liberal arts. The university was suppressed by the French Revolution in 1789 but was succeeded by separate faculties of law, science, and letters in the early 19th century. In 1896 these faculties were reconstituted as an autonomous state-financed university.

The 1968 act created teaching and research faculties that are administratively and academically independent. Each of the three new universities represents a different field of specialty: science, technology, and medicine at Grenoble I; law, economics, and social sciences at Grenoble II; and language and literature at Grenoble III.