A must-attend event at the start of the academic year, the Welcome and Student Association Days, or Journées d’Accueil et de la Vie Associative (JAVA), kicked off September at Université Paris Cité. The highlight of this 2026 edition: the Back-to-School Festival which, for its second edition, brought together over 2,000 students on 10 September at the Lacretelle site.

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Copyright : Université Paris Cité / Maximilien Sporschill

The JAVA Back-to-School Festival kicked off the new academic year. From 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., 64 stands occupied the site. 43 student associations, 16 university services, and 5 partners came to showcase everything campus life has to offer: getting involved, playing sports, discovering an activity, or simply getting a feel for student life. It’s the perfect way to find your feet and meet people right from the start!

A 100% student stage

On the music side, everything was driven by associations. The FRAP brass band and the Beat Pharma Music (BPM) association kept the energy going all afternoon. The university orchestra and choir kicked off the festivities, followed by Sweet Sérotonine, who then handed over to Medicus Medusa, and finally BPM to round off the event in front of an enthusiastic audience. A lineup managed entirely by students, whose skill impressed everyone from the audience right through to the production team.

This edition was part of the second Planetary Health Week, organised from 9 to 19 September by Université Paris Cité around the institution’s commitment to planetary health.  

Back-to-School Forums across all campuses

The Festival was merely the central event of the JAVA programme. Throughout the month of September, five back-to-school forums were held across the university’s various sites and campuses. These events allow students – particularly incoming students – to discover their campus, meet student associations and university staff, and gather all the information they need to get the academic year off to a good start:

• 1 September – Malakoff Site, Faculty of Law, Economics and Management
• 8 September – Boulogne Site, Department of Psychology
• 15 September – Saint-Germain-des-Prés Campus
• 17 September – Grands Moulins Campus, Esplanade Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Paris 13e, featuring a dedicated welcome for international students: the Welcome Desk
• 21 September – University Institute of Technology of Paris Rives de Seine, 143 avenue de Versailles, Paris 16e

From the first association meeting to the final site forum, JAVA 2026 accompanied the student community throughout the back-to-school period.

A look back in pictures

Relive the highlights of the 2026 JAVA Back-to-School Festival through this selection of photos.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the start of the new term a time for getting together, discovering new things and enjoying each other’s company!

The project is being carried out as part of the SdEx 2030 programme, the University of Paris Cité’s Student Experience Master Plan.

In partnership with La Banque Populaire Rives de Paris and the CROUS de Paris, and with the support of the CVEC: