The former individual universities were henceforth to be known as "academies" (such as the Académie de Paris), but each still retained a rector and local board of its own.
[1] On 15 September 1793, petitioned by the Department of Paris and several other departments, the National Convention decided that, independently of the primary schools, there shall be established in the Republic three progressive degrees of instruction; the first for the knowledge indispensable to artisans and workmen of all kinds; the second for further knowledge necessary to those intending to embrace the other professions of society; and the third for those branches of instruction the study of which is not within the reach of all men.The decree of March 17, 1808, set out the operation of the university.
Schools of law and medicine created at the end of the Revolution were integrated into the university, as were theological education, literature and science.
The decree established the general organisation of these teachings, degrees (three types: bachelor, license, and PhD) and examinations.
As for schools, the text established several types of education officials, fourteen of directors and five of teaching.
The Imperial Decree of 17 March 1808, which determined the organisation of the university, established in Paris a boarding normal school (now the École normale supérieure in rue d'Ulm) for training up to 300 young people in the art of teaching the humanities and sciences.
Administratively, the university was entrusted to a grand master (Jean-Pierre Louis de Fontanes), appointed and dismissed by the Emperor, assisted by a treasurer and a Chancellor (John Chrysostom Villaret).
Measures were to be taken immediately by "means of execution, the department and the municipality of Paris are authorised to consult with the Committee of Public Instruction of the National Convention, in order that these establishments shall be put in action by 1 November, and consequently colleges now in operation and the faculties of theology, medicine, arts, and law are suppressed throughout the Republic".
(According to the decree of December 24, 1852) Rector: Dress and gown in black silk lace flap, the shoe is purple silk with three rows of ermine, a purple ribbon belt with two silver tassels, a black velvet hat with two straps and two silver loops.
Academy of Inspectors: Even costume rectors with two purple silk tassels at the waist with a single braid, and two silver loops in the cap.