[1] In 1230, when for a time the doctors of the University of Paris were scattered, a number of the teachers and disciples took refuge in Orléans; when pope Boniface VIII, in 1298, promulgated the sixth book of the Decretals, he appointed the doctors of Bologna and the doctors of Orléans to comment upon it.

St. Yves (1253–1303) studied civil law at Orléans, and Pope Clement V also studied there law and letters; by a papal bull published at Lyon, 27 January 1306, he endowed the Orléans institutes with the title and privileges of a university.

Twelve later popes granted the new university many privileges.

In the 14th century it had as many as five thousand students from France, Germany, Lorraine, Burgundy, Champagne, Picardy, Normandy, Touraine, Guyenne and Scotland.

The university is organised into three Teaching and Research divisions (UFR): In addition, it has: