The University of Paris 8 is a public university in Paris. It was once part of the University of Paris system, but it it now an autonomous public institution and is part of the Université Paris Lumières.
Most undergraduate degrees are taught in French. The university offers more than a hundred undergraduate, graduate and diploma courses. it is well known for its political science programme as it is the only public university in France to offer this subject at the undergraduate level. There are also some distance learning courses available in a number of subjects.
The university focuses on the humanities, human sciences, arts and social sciences. There are 33 undergraduate programmes, 77 master's programmes and 50 university diplomas across six teaching areas: arts; culture and communication; law, economics and management; humanities and languages; human and social sciences and science, technology and health.
It is a pioneer in research fields that are not usually undertaken by other French universities such as psychoanalysis, urban planning, geopolitics, cinema, plastic arts and gender studies.
The library holds 400,000 printed and audio-visual items including books, newspapers, reviews, doctoral dissertations, CDs and DVDs. It also subscribes to 15,000 electronic reviews and 30 databases which can be accessed via the university network.
The university has almost 300 partnerships with universities around the world. They include the University of California, Berkeley, Boston University, the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University and the University of Vienna. The university also welcomes students from 157 nationalities.
Students are encouraged to spend time at one of these institutions abroad, particularly in Europe, America, Canada or Asia to develop language skills.
