The university Claude Bernard Lyon 1 consist of faculties of sciences , medicine and pharmacy. Based on its budget and the number of its research laboratories, the university is seen as the principal higher education establishment of the region and figures in top five French universities.

The school welcomes each year more than 28 000 students of which more than 60% are registered in professionalized systems: Health, I.U.T., DEUST, professional bachelors and professional masters, engineers. Practically all the formations of sciences and physical and athletic activities adopted the European system of the higher education called LMD in France. Most of the scientific disciplines are taught to Lyon 1: actuarial, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, electric engineering, data processing, management, mathematics, mechanics, physics, Earth science and so on. The University Curriculum offers a very wide range of programs in medicine, pharmacy, deontology, etc.

The force of the university lies in its high calibre research that are known on the world scale. The university currently possesses 102 units of research labs, of which 41 in association with the C.N.R.S., 22 with l'I.N.S.E.R.M., 4 with of other research organizations, 24 welcome teams and 1 young team. More than half of the research activity focuses on health and Human Sciences and Technology, with many collaborations between these two sectors. In addition, the university notably works in partnership with ENS of Lyon and the three schools of engineering that are the INSA, Central and CPE.