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Efforts to improve the international reputation of French universities will be set back more than a decade by the judicial decision to strip the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris of its name just two years after its recreation, sector leaders warned.

On 29 December, the Council of State, France¡¯s supreme court, ruled that the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris, formed in 2019 from the merger of the universities of Paris-Descartes and Paris-Diderot, must change its legal name.

The two universities, formerly known as Paris V and VII, can both trace their lineage back to the 12th-century 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris, but share that pedigree with the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris-Panth¨¦on-Assas, which brought the case against them.

Since 2010, French governments have been incentivising the merging of universities to simplify the sector and strengthen its position internationally, a process that top institutions say has been set back by this latest decision.

¡°Questioning the name of the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris takes us back 15 years, reopens debates that have now calmed down and will have a deleterious international effect on all the French actors,¡± said the Udice group of research universities, which includes the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris.

The group said that institutions in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Boston and Oxford collectively contribute to, and benefit from, the prestige of their cities rather than bickering over ownership.

¡°It¡¯s stupid because actually they [other Paris institutions] themselves benefit from 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris existing and being called 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris,¡± said Sebastian Stride, a founding partner at the consultancy Siris Academic, which counts several Parisian universities as clients.

¡°Paris I and Paris II will benefit from the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris and Sorbonne 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, just as Tufts and Boston profit from MIT and Harvard being next door,¡± he said, referring to the institutions now known as Panth¨¦on-Sorbonne and Panth¨¦on-Assas. ¡°If no one is called 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris, no one benefits, and the system as a whole loses. France loses out.¡±

The court upheld the 2019 government decree that formed the university, ruling only that its name must change and that the state must pay €3,000 (?2,500) to Panth¨¦on-Assas.

In a statement following the decision, the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Paris said work was ¡°already under way to quickly propose to the university authorities a new legal naming text¡±.

The decision may raise eyebrows at other merged institutions, such as the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bordeaux and the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Montpellier, neither of which is the sole successor to their historic title.

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com