University of Poitiers in the context of Leonardo da Vinci consolidated University

Poitiers is a university city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune, the capital of the Vienne department, part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France, and the historical center of Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 90,240. Its conurbation had 134,397 inhabitants in 2021 and is the municipal center of an urban area of 281,789 inhabitants. It is a city of art and history, still known popularly as the "Ville aux cent clochers" ("City of a hundred bell towers").

With more than 30,000 students, Poitiers has been a major university town since the creation of its university in 1431, having hosted world-renowned figures and thinkers such as René Descartes, Joachim du Bellay and François Rabelais, among others. The plaza of the town is picturesque; its streets including predominantly preserved historical architecture and half-timbered houses, especially religious edifices, commonly from the Romanesque period. The latter includes notably the 4th century baptistery of Saint-Jean (Baptistère Saint-Jean), the 7th century Merovingian underground chapel of the Hypogeum of the Dunes (L'Hypogée des Dunes), the Church of Notre-Dame-la-Grande (12th century), the Church of Saint-Porchaire (12th century) or Poitiers Cathedral (end of the 12th century) as well as the Palace of Poitiers, until recently a courthouse (12th century), the former palace of the Counts of Poitou, Dukes of Aquitaine, where the Dowager Queen of France and England Eleanor of Aquitaine held her "Court of Love".

The University of Limoges (Université de Limoges) is a French public university, based in Limoges. Its chancellor is the rector of the Academy of Limoges (an administrative district in France for education and research). It counts more than 16,000 students and near 1,000 scholars and researchers. It offers complete curricula up to the doctorates and beyond in the traditional areas of knowledge. It was structured in October 1968 by the grouping of higher education institutions in Limoges. The oldest historical continuity is that of the faculties of pharmacy and medicine dating back to 1626.

It is one of the main higher education institutions in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. As of July 2015 it is a member of the Leonardo da Vinci consolidated University (Université confédérale Léonard de Vinci) along with the University of Poitiers, the University of La Rochelle, François Rabelais University and several engineering schools. University of Limoges is ranked as the top 50 among the universities in France.

Pierre Briant (born 30 September 1940 in Angers) is a French Iranologist, Professor of History and Civilisation of the Achaemenid World and the Empire of Alexander the Great at the Collège de France (1999 onwards), Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Chicago, and founder of the website achemenet.com.

He studied history at the University of Poitiers (1960–1965), and reached his doctorat d'État in 1972.