Università di Bologna
The world's oldest university in continuous operation, a major Italian public research institution founded around 1088.
Università di Bologna – Who We Are / Our History (official site)The University of Bologna (Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UniBo) is a public research university headquartered in Bologna, Italy. Founded around 1088, it is widely recognised as the oldest university in continuous operation in the world and the first degree-awarding institution of higher learning in the Western tradition. Its academic charter, the Constitutio Habita (1158), is cited as an early foundation of the principle of academic freedom.
UniBo operates across five campuses in Emilia-Romagna (Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, and Rimini) and maintains a branch in Buenos Aires. It offers over 260 degree programmes across 31 departments and 11 schools spanning disciplines from engineering and medicine to humanities, law, and political sciences. Its community of nearly 100,000 students makes it one of Italy's largest universities.
The university ranks 130th globally and first in Italy in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (for the fifth consecutive year at time of reporting). It leads Italy in student exchange participation and is among the top five European universities for outgoing exchange students. It is also a founding member of the Una Europa university alliance.
Given its scale, research intensity, and multidisciplinary scope, UniBo is highly relevant to innovations touching higher education, international academic mobility, research collaboration, and educational technology.