The University Paris 8 (UP8) - University of Creations is a Higher Education Institution and a Research Centre specialising in the fields of Humanities, Social Sciences, Arts, Computer Sciences and Economic Sciences. The education offered at UP8 mainly falls into five fields : the arts, philosophy and aesthetics ; law, economics and management ; literature and languages ; human and social sciences ; and science and technology.
UP8 was originally created in 1969 with the Experimental Centre of Vincennes. It resulted from the intellectual and pedagogical effervescence that followed the movement of May 68. Since then, it has been driven by a spirit of democratisation of access to knowledge and the production of knowledge rooted in the challenges of the contemporary world. Since its creation and relocation to Saint-Denis in 1980, UP8 has been a central teaching and research centre in the Île-de-France region. UP8 embodies the values of success and social promotion, experimentation and criticism, and democratic life.
UP8 is involved in developing social responsibility and inclusiveness, and it is particularly active towards disadvantaged or socially excluded groups (see below). With over 30% of its 22,000 students being international students, UP8 is the most international of French universities.
Since November 2020, UP8 has been the lead partner of the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA), a consortium of eight European reform universities committed to exploring innovative approaches to research, teaching and institutional advancement to help create a more open and inclusive society.
UP8 is strongly committed to its tradition of unconditional access to education. It has initiated several programmes to welcome refugee students in emergency situations with a view to their sociolinguistic inclusion in French society and academic life. Since 2015, it has offered a French language learning programme for exiled students fleeing the war in Syria. Over time, this local programme was integrated into the national Diplômes Passerelle (Bridge diploma) programme for the inclusion of exiled students in university life.
UP8 coordinated the AGILE project (Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership, 12/2022-05/2025) aimed, among other issues, to improve the conditions for welcoming DU Passerelle students in France and refugee students from partner countries to higher education institutions in Europe. This project received the Erasmus+ Label for Good Practices awarded by the French Erasmus+ National Agency. EGAL-I is part of the ongoing AGILE project.