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Romance philology and university reform at the end of the 19th Century : the role of the Collège de France The new school of Romance Philology, which asserted itself from the 1870s, centering around Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer, had a not insubstantial role in the debate on the reform of education ; at the beginning of the Third Republic, there was a tendency to replace classical heritage (the predominance of Latin and rhetoric) with a modern culture, adapted to the new requirements of colonial expansion and the emergence of national rivalries in Europe. This article first deals with the institutionalization of religious studies with the creation of a Chair at the Collège de France, then presents the historical and ideological context for these reforms, stressing the founding principles of republican education ; it then underlines the role of romance specialists in the reform of higher education, particularly through the contributions of Gaston Paris and Michel Bréal, who were advocates of a humanistic pedagogical project. The conclusion briefly touches on the new challenges of the early 21st Century.