National council of the universities

History of the CNU

The authority charged to organize the career of the teacher-researchers exists at least since the Libération. However, she knew various changes in the organization. In particular, the pemiers texts granted only one light majority to the members elected on the members named since there was, in each section or sub-section, only one elected official moreover than the number of named. From now on, the proportion of the elected officials is at least two thirds.

Successive denominations

1945 : advisory committee of the universities.
1972 (decree 72-1016) advisory committee of the universities
1979 (decree 79-684): superior council of the university bodies
1983 (decree 83-299): superior council of the universities
1987 (decree 87-31): national council of the universities

Current mode

Texts

There exists only one CNU but it is subject to distinct texts and somewhat different rules according to whether he exerts his competences with regard to the medical disciplines or odontological on the one hand, other disciplines on the other hand. In the first case, the applicable text is decree 87-31 of January 20th, 1987 already quoted, largely modified by decree 92-297 of March 30th, 1992. For the other disciplines, it is governed by decree 92-70 of January 16th, 1992.

Organization and operation

The CNU is divided into “groups of sections”, and into as much of “sections” that there is “official” disciplines, each group gathering several sections. In the medical and odontological disciplines, each section is still divided into “sub-sections” corresponding to options (see low the list of the groups, sections and sub-sections) .

Each section or sub-section is made up of equal number professors of the universities (or comparable) and university lecturers (or comparable bodies). In each college, two thirds of the members at least are elected, the different ones named (out some particular cases where the number of the named members can be more important). The election of the members takes place to the majority Uninominal system with two turns for the medical and odontological disciplines, with the representation proportional to the strongest remainder for the other disciplines. For medicine and odontology, the mandate is six years and the renewal is done per half every three years. For the other disciplines, the mandate is four years and all the members renewed simultaneously.

Each section and sub-section appoint a president, two vice-presidents and an assessor.

The CNU can meet in various formations:

by groups; in this case, the minister in charge for higher education chairs the meeting;
by section (the most frequent case);
by sub-section;
by a “intersection”, made up paritairement of representatives of two sub-sections, a sub-section and a section or two sections.

Moreover, since 2004, a standing Conference of CNU (the CP-CNU) was installation to coordinate the actions of the sections.

Sessions and roles

The section is the authority of usual consultation. It has as a function:

to register the candidates at the posts of teacher-researcher on the two lists of qualification, i.e. to declare them suited to the function of University lecturer or Professor of the universities;
to define the fields of competence of the discipline;
to allot premiums of advance, with the merit;
to allot sabbatical vacation;
to carry out the reclassification and “corrections of career”.

The work of the sections is generally done on document. The sessions of qualification take place only once in the year, generally in spring; the sessions of management follow them closely. One can make call of a decision of a section near the “group”, together of members of sections ad hoc in front of which the candidates pass an oral examination.

Each section of the CNU has its manner own to treat the files, giving place to very great disparities in terms of rate of qualification and attribution of premiums. At the meetings, heavy determinisms direct the discussion, not always with the profit of the candidates: cleavage due to the statutes (professor of the universities/university lecturer); générationnelle competition (old man in the posture of wise, young people in that of Modern); tensions between Parisian universities and those in area; various under-disciplinary wars of vault; followers of methodologies of ground against holding of critical approaches; many comments sexists (around the photographs of the candidates, for example); a distrust of the foreign diplomas when they are not accompanied by a solid French experiment; sometimes even, some political and religious considerations…

List section disciplinary in the order of the numbers of section

There are, in France, 74 official disciplines. Here is the list, classified by number of section:

Right, Economy, Management

01 : Private law and criminal sciences
02: Right public
03: History of the right and the institutions
04: Political science
05: Economic scenes
06: Sciences of management

Letters and Social sciences (1/2)

07 : Sciences of the language: general linguistics and phonetics
08: Old languages and literatures
09: Language and literature Frenchwomen
10: Comparative literatures
11: Languages and literatures English and Anglo-Saxon
12: Germanic languages and literatures and Scandinavians
13: Slavic languages and literatures
14: Romance languages and literatures: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, other Romance languages
15: Languages and literatures Arab, Chinese, Japanese, Hebraic, other linguistic fields
16: Psychology, clinic psychology, social psychology
17: Philosophy
18: Arts: plastics, of the spectacle, music, musicology, esthetics, sciences of art
19: Sociology, demography (Section 19 (www.univ-lille1.fr) )
20: Biological anthropology, ethnology, prehistory
21: History and civilizations: history and archeology of the old worlds and the medieval worlds; art
22: History and civilizations: history of the modern worlds, history of the contemporary world; art; music
23: Geography physical, human, economic and regional
24: Fitting-out, town planning

Sciences (1/2)

25 : Mathematics
26: Mathematics applied and applications of mathematics
27: Data processing
28: Dense mediums and materials
29: Elementary components
30: Diluted mediums and optics
31: Theoretical, physical, analytical chemistry
32: Organic chemistry, mineral, industrial
33: Chemistry of the materials
34: Astronomy, astrophysical
35: Structure and evolution of the Earth and the another planets
36: Solid ground: geodynamics of the higher envelopes, paléobiosphère
37: Meteorology, physical and physical oceanography of the environment
38:

Pharmacy

39 : Physicochemical sciences and pharmaceutical technologies
40: Sciences of the drug
41: Biological sciences

Medical and odontological disciplines

42 : Morphology and morphogenesis ( 3 sub-sections : , 01: Anatomy, 02: Cytology and histology, 03: Pathological anatomy and cytology)
43: Biophysics and medical imagery ( 2 sub-sections : 01: Biophysics and nuclear medicine, 02: Radiology and medical imagery)
44: Biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, physiology and nutrition ( 4 sub-sections : , 01: Biochemistry and molecular biology, 02: Physiology, 03: Cellular biology, 04: Nutrition)
45: Microbiology, communicable diseases and hygiene ( 3 sub-sections : 01: Bacteriology - virology; hospital hygiene, 02: Parasitology and mycology, 03: Infectious illness; tropical diseases)
46: Public health, environment and company ( 4 sub-sections : 01: Epidemiology, economy of health and prevention, 02: Medicine and health at the work, 03: Legal medicine and right from health, 04: Biostatistiques, medical computing and technologies of communication)
47: Cancerology, genetics, hematology, immunology ( 4 sub-sections : , 01: Hematology; transfusion, 02: Cancerology; radiotherapy, 03: Immunology, 04: Genetics)
48: Anesthesiology, reanimation, medicine emergency, pharmacology and therapeutic ( 4 sub-sections : 01: Anesthesiology and surgical reanimation, 02: Medical reanimation, 03: Fundamental pharmacology; Clinical pharmacology, 04: Therapeutic)
49: Nervous and muscular pathology, mental pathology, handicap and rehabilitation ( 5 sub-sections : 01: Neurology, 02: Neurosurgery, 03: Psychiatry of adults, 04: Pédopsychiatrie, 05: Physical therapy and of readjustment)
50: Ostéo-articular pathology, dermatology and plastic surgeon ( 4 sub-sections : 01: Rhumatology, 02: Orthopedic and traumatologic surgery, 03: Dermato-venereology, 04: Plastic surgeon, reconstructrice and esthetics; brulology)
51: Cardiorespiratory and vascular pathology ( 4 sub-sections : 01: Pneumology, 02: Cardiology, 03: Thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, 04: Vascular surgery; vascular medicine)
52: Diseases of the digestive systems and urinary ( 4 sub-sections : 01: Gastroenterology; hepatology, 02: Digestive surgery, 03: Nephrology, 04: Urology)
53: Internal medicine, geriatrics and general surgery ( 2 sub-sections : 01: Internal medicine; geriatrics and biology of ageing, 02 general Surgery)
54: Development and pathology of the child, gynecology-obstetrics, endocrinology and reproduction ( 5 sub-sections : 01: Pediatry, 02: Infantile surgery, 03: Gynecology-obstetrics; medical gynecology, 04: Metabolic endocrinology, diabetes and diseases, 05: Biology and medicine of the development and the reproduction)
55: Pathology of the head and the neck ( 3 sub-sections : 01: Otorhinolaryngology, 02: Ophthalmology, 03: Maxillo-facial surgery and stomatology
56: Development, growth and prevention ( 3 sub-sections : 01: Pédodontie, 02: Dento-facial orthopedy, 03: Prevention, epidemiology, economy of health, legal odontology)
57: Biological sciences, oral medicine and surgery ( 3 sub-sections : , 01: Parodontology, 02: Surgery oral, pathology and therapeutic, anesthesiology and reanimation, 03: Biological sciences (biochemistry, immunology, histology, embryology, genetics, pathological anatomy, bacteriology, pharmacology))
58: Physical sciences and physiological endodontical and prosthetic ( 3 sub-sections : 01: Preserving odontology, endodontics, 02: Prostheses, 03: Sciences anatomical and physiological, occlusodontic, biomaterials, biophysics, radiology

Sciences (2/2)

60: Mechanics, mechanical engineering, civil engineering
61: Data-processing, automatic genius and treatment of the signal
62: Energetics, genius of the processes
63: Electronics, optronic and systems
64: Biochemistry and molecular biology
65: Cellular biology
66: Physiology
67: Biology of the populations and ecology
68: Biology of the organizations
69: Neurosciences

Letters and Social sciences (2/2)

70: Sciences of education (close to disciplines 16,19,71,74) (see documentation CP-CNU/Group XII)
71: Communication and information sciences
72: Epistemology, history of sciences and technology
73: Regional cultures and langes
74: Sciences and technology of the physical-activities and sporting
76: Catholic theology
77: Protestant theology

External bonds

Site of the CP-CNU
List of the sections, with bonds towards the current composition

Random links: