Toulouse 1 University Capitole (Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, also called UT1) is a French university established in 1968. It is located in the heart of the city of Toulouse, in southwestern France.
Toulouse 1 University Capitole is one of the several so-called 'successor' institutions of the University of Toulouse, which was the second university created in France in 1229 after the Sorbonne was founded (around the year 1200). The university originally included four faculties: theology, canon law, civil law and Arts (grammar). The medical school was created in 1257. The University was closed in 1793 as the French Revolution abolished royal universities.
At the end of the Second Empire, the first four faculties co-existed, but the most important was the law school, which contains three-quarters of the students and the most renowned teachers. However, the University of Toulouse suffered due to underfunding of French higher education in province. In the 1880s Luis Liard and Ernest Lavisse gave enough autonomy to the faculties so the municipality could help those institutions. Yet the Edgar Faure laws halted the development of provincial faculties by dividing the university in three:
Toulouse 1 University of Social Sciences (Law, Economy and Management);
Toulouse 2 University of Literature and Human Sciences;
Toulouse 3 University Paul Sabatier of Sciences and Health.
Only the Toulouse 1 University remains on the historical site of the town center. In September 2009, the Toulouse 1 University of Social Sciences became the Toulouse 1 university Capitole.
