We present the first measurement of the galaxy luminosity function at 1500 Å between 0.2 \leq z \leq 1.2 based on GALEX-VVDS observations ( \sim 1000 spectroscopic redshifts for galaxies with NUV \leq 24.5 ) and at higher z using existing datasets .
Our main results are summarized as follows : ( i ) luminosity evolution is observed with \Delta M _ { \star } \sim - 2.0 mag between z = 0 and z = 1 and \Delta M _ { \star } \sim - 1.0 mag between z = 1 and z = 3 .
This confirms that the star formation activity was significantly higher in the past .
( ii ) the LF slopes vary between -1.2 \geq \alpha \geq - 1.65 , with a marginally significant hint of increase at higher z .
( iii ) we split the sample in three restframe ( B - I ) intervals providing an approximate spectral type classification : Sb-Sd , Sd-Irr and unobscured starbursts .
We find that the bluest class evolves less strongly in luminosity than the two other classes .
On the other hand their number density increases sharply with z ( \sim 15 % in the local universe to \sim 55 % at z \sim 1 ) while that of the reddest classes decreases .