Commission of Public Instruction

During the First Bourbon Restoration, after a brief continuation of the grand master of the university Louis de Fontanes (April 9, 1814), Louis XVIII abolished the office of Grand Master and the University Council by royal ordinance on February 17, 1815.

Oversight of education was entrusted to a Royal Council of Public Instruction, chaired by Louis-François de Bausset.

Napoleon's return to Paris on March 20, 1815, dissolved this short-lived Royal Council and reinstated the grand master of the university, first as Bernard Germain de Lacépède and later Charles-François Lebrun on May 9, 1815.

Following the Second Bourbon Restoration, Louis XVIII issued an ordinance on August 15, 1815, to maintain the structure of the University of France but introduced changes at its leadership.

According to Article 3 of the August 15, 1815 ordinance, the Commission of Public Instruction, composed of five members, exercised powers previously attributed to the grand master, university council, chancellor, and treasurer.