There are actually three separate universities on the campus: Bordeaux I - sciences, law and economics; Bordeaux II - medicine and sport; and Bordeaux III - arts subjects. There are a lot of students - 55 000 in all of which 26 000 are at BxI - which explains why the campus gets so busy and clogged up with cars during the day. The administration of each of the three universities is completely separate so each one doesn't know anything about what goes on in the other two. This can cause problems if you're registered at two separate universities doing, say, language courses in Bordeaux III and studying sciences in Bordeaux I .

The size of the university is often a problem when trying to find out about something. Very often when you ask some member of staff or the administration if you can do it or if it is available you get the reply 'non' or 'cela n'existe pas pour les étudiants' which both translate as 'I don't know and I'm not going to make any helpful suggestions'... The secretary in the Maison du DEFLE , however, is actually fairly helpful.