It was enlarged in 1229 by an influx of students, many of them Englishmen, from the University of Paris, who sought in Angers a shelter from the direct control of the King of France.

Angers then became a center for the study of civil law, and a "studium generale," although it was officially recognized as such by an Episcopal ordinance only in 1337.

After the National Assembly had granted to all freedom of teaching (July 1, 1875), the French bishops decided to found five Catholic universities, and Angers, thanks to Bishop Charles Émile Freppel, was chosen for the western portion of France, including the Dioceses of Angers, Rennes, Laval, Le Mans, Angoulême, Tours and Poitiers.

[3] In 1990, under the authority of l'Université Catholique d'Angers, the Catholic Institute of Higher Studies - ICES was opened in La Roche-sur-Yon.

After three years of collaboration, the Superior Council of the Catholic University of the West awarded ICES its academic independence in 1993.