The Department of French was established in 1951 in order to cater to the needs of French language learning students. French is a living, practical language, unsurpassed in clarity, logic, precision and finesse besides having diplomatic, commercial and scientific uses. It has a soul and a character of its own owing to its rich civilization. It is spoken in as many as 42 countries of the world and is internationally recognized to be a cultured and refined language. It is also the official language of the United Nations.

The French Department offers graduate and postgraduate besides various short courses in French. The Department of French has witnessed a number of  transformations during its past 65 years of creation at the University of the Punjab.