The story
Founded as University of Douai in 1562, the university was renamed Université impériale de Douai-Lille in 1808, then as Université de Lille with faculty expansion in the Lille region from mid-19th century onwards.
The roots of the faculties in law and humanities date back from the 16th century;
The school of medicine and university hospital expanded rapidly from end-18th century;
Research and education in mechanical engineering and chemistry expanded from the early 19th century;
The faculty of sciences was set up in 1854 by bringing together different university-grade schools in Lille city centre;
Research and education in control sciences and information technologies were set up in 1957;
Research in fundamental physics, micro-electronics, molecular engineering and bio-technologies started in the 1980s.
The university expanded into several campuses and formed several universities/institutions in Lille region and North at the end of the 20th century.
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Finally the universities and institutions came together as the Université Lille Nord de France; and after as the Community of Universities and Institutions (COMUE) Lille Nord de France.
From Wikipedia’s article on University of Lille Nord de France, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4