The Chairs, Presentation

Freedom of Research
The Collège de France is organized by chairs covering the whole range of disciplines: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, archaeology, literature, linguistics, orientalism, philosophy, social sciences, etc.
These are not permanent: the possibility of changing the fields of the chairs allows for innovation. At the Assembly of the professors, the decision is made as to whether the title of a chair that has fallen vacant can be maintained or – most often – changed: a mathematician may thus succeed an historian or a linguist an economist. No university rank is required of the person who is put forward; all that count is the importance and originality of his or her work. Thus, the Collège enjoys not only considerable freedom in its teaching and research activities but can adapt to the progress achieved in all fields of knowledge.

An international dimension
Two chairs are reserved for foreign scholars who are invited by the Collège to teach, generally for periods of one to two months.
Two other chairs were created: one, in 1989, intended for a European scholar to teach for a year; the other, in 1992, called the International Chair, intended for a scholar from another continent, also for a year.
Lastly, since 1992, the Collège is authorized to appoint a foreign scholar as tenured professor of one of its fifty-two ordinary chairs.