Université de Lille 

The University of Lille (French: Université de Lille, abbreviated as ULille, UDL or univ-lille) is a French public research university based in Lille, in the Nord department of Hauts-de-France region. With more than 80,000 students, it is one of the largest universities in France. It is currently the only public research university in the Métropole européenne de Lille, with 15 Schools and Divisions spread across six campuses, and it is part of the Académie de Lille.

The university was founded in 1559 as the University of Douai. Several faculties are being created in Lille, and all remaining Douai faculties were subsequently officially transferred to Lille in 1896 as University of Lille, later becoming three independent universities in 1970. In 2018, the three independent universities (Lille 1 University of Science and Technology, Lille 2 University of Health and Law, and Charles de Gaulle University, Lille III) merged to once again form the single University of Lille. Until 2019, the university was the main component of the « University of Lille Nord de France », a specific organization which federates universities and other higher learning institutes in the Hauts-de-France region. The University of Lille has absorbed its competencies at the time of its dissolution.