[11] Apart from its major campuses, AMU owns and operates facilities in Arles, Aubagne, Avignon, Digne-les-Bains, Gap, La Ciotat, Lambesc and Salon-de-Provence.

[28] The institution developed out of the original University of Provence, founded on 9 December 1409 as a studium generale by Louis II of Anjou, Count of Provence, and recognized by papal bull issued by the Pisan Antipope Alexander V.[29][30][31] However, there is evidence that teaching in Aix existed in some form from the beginning of the 12th century, since there were a doctor of theology in 1100, a doctor of law in 1200 and a professor of law in 1320 on the books.

The rector was to be an "ordinary student", who had unrestricted civil and criminal jurisdiction in all cases where one party was a doctor or scholar of the university.

[36] A resident doctor or student who married was required to pay charivari to the university, the amount varying with the degree or status of the man, and being increased if the bride was a widow.

Refusal to submit to this statutable extortion was punished by the assemblage of students at the summons of the rector with frying-pans, bassoons, and horns at the house of the newly married couple.

[36] In 1603 Henry IV of France established the Collège Royal de Bourbon in Aix-en-Provence for the study of belles-lettres and philosophy,[42][43] supplementing the traditional faculties of the university, but not formally a part of it.

In 1762 the Jesuits were forced to leave France,[44] and in 1763 the Collège Royal de Bourbon was officially affiliated with the university as a faculty of arts.

[36][45] The addition of the Collège Royal de Bourbon essentially widened the scope of courses provided at the University of Provence.

Classical mechanics, however, was only taught after 1755, when the physicist Paulian offered his first class and Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica and commentaries were obtained for the library.

Moreover, lands owned by the universities and utilized for their support, represented a source of wealth to be tapped by the revolutionary government, just as property possessed by the French Catholic Church had been confiscated.

Nonetheless, the government found it necessary to allow the faculties of law and medicine to continue in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille in the early 19th century.

For instance, Hippolyte Fortoul, later Minister of National Education and Public Worship of France, was the first dean and professor of a new faculty in French literature established in Aix-en-Provence in the 1840s.

[50][51] In 1896, the departmental council of the Bouches-du-Rhône founded a chair in the faculty of letters at Aix-en-Provence in the language and literature of southern Europe; their aim was to assist the commercial exploitation of the region by French business.

Each university had different areas of concentration of study and the faculties were divided as follows: In 1973, conservative faculty members led by Charles Debbasch, demanded and obtained the creation of the University of Aix-Marseille III, grouping law, political science, applied economics, earth science, ecology and technological studies.

The reunification was gradually prepared, respecting a schedule which allowed for long discussions at each stage, after which it was approved by vote of the Board of Directors of each university.

A second meeting with all the deans and directors takes place immediately afterwards to discuss more specific issues regarding internal activities of the various faculties and schools.

There are two main planning processes in the definition of projects in the university that have to be followed in order to be financed or even authorised and accredited by the public (national and local) authorities.

Each process generates an important brainstorming period at all levels of the university in order to identify and build new ideas, new needs, and opportunities, to prioritise them, after an analysis of strengths and weaknesses.

It is one of a network of 10 world-famous IEPs (Instituts d'Etudes Politiques) in France, including those in Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Paris, Rennes, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Strasbourg and Toulouse.

Sciences Po Aix has numerous exchange programs through partnerships with about 120 different universities in the world: the school therefore welcomes 200 foreign students a year.

[89] The law school has a long tradition of self-management, with a strongly institutionalized culture and practices enrooted in the social and economic realities of the region.

[90] Today, it is one of the largest law schools in France, and is considered to be one of the nation's leading centres for legal research and teaching.

[94] The teaching faculty comprises 155 professors and 172 adjunct lecturers, the latter drawn from private practice, the civil service, the judiciary and other organizations.

[105] In addition, from 1858 to 1861, a prominent French artist and Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne attended the school, while also receiving drawing lessons.

[108][109] According to The Independent, IAE Aix is "a prestigious, double-accredited institution, with an international approach to business combining both classic and innovative teaching methods".

[111] The school is composed of 40 permanent faculty members, and invites more than 30 international professors and 150 business speakers each year to conduct lectures and courses within the various programmes.

It counts two Fellows of the Econometric Society among its members, and is consistently ranked as one of the top 5 research centers in economics in France.

Originally a surgeon, he established one of the first centers for maxillofacial prosthetics for the gueules cassées (broken faces) of the Great War.

The OAMP consists of two establishments: the Laboratory of Astrophysics of Marseille (LAM) and the Haute-Provence Observatory (OHP), along with the Département Gassendi, which is a common administrative and technical support unit.

These programs also benefit from a top rank scientific environment, with teaching staff drawn from laboratories attached to major French research organisations that are among the leaders in their field.