BOLOGNA UNIVERSITY

"The University recognizes equal dignity and opportunities for all disciplines that guarantee scientific wealth [...] For its secular identity of the General Study, the University recognizes equal dignity and opportunities for all disciplines that guarantee scientific and educational wealth. The University protects and innovates its cultural heritage by responding to the different needs expressed by society."

University Statute, constitutive principles, art. 1, paragraph 3

University throughout history

The 1088 is conventionally considered as the date of the birth of the University of Bologna. The Studium of Bologna is the first home for free and independent teaching of ecclesiastical schools. Irnerio's legal school marks the birth of Western University.

In 1158 Frederick I Barbarossa promulgated a Habitat Constitutio with which he recognized the University as free societas of masters and students. The Empire is committed to protecting all scholars who travel for study reasons from the intrusion of any political authority. The university becomes the place where research develops freely, indipendently of any other power.

The 13th century is an age full of contrasts. The university fights for its own autonomy, while political power seeks to use it as a tool of prestige.

From the 14th century the schools of jurists are joined by so-called "artists", scholars of medicine, philosophy, arithmetic, astronomy, logic, rhetoric and grammar. Bologna became a meta for all the major intellectuals of the time.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, medicine and philosophy, natural and mathematical sciences, engineering and economics are the foremost disciplines of an university that becomes an indisputable international authority in every field of knowledge. From Bologna to the world, from the world to Bologna: The University spreads and recalls scientists and literati in an ever-wider network of relationships.

In 1888, the Eighth Centenary of the Studium was celebrated, a grand event that brings together in Bologna all universities in the world to honor the Mother of the Universities. The ceremony becomes an international festival of studies as universities recognize in Bologna their roots, elements of continuity, and the common ideals of progress in tolerance.

The University will continue to maintain this position of centrality on the scene of world culture until the period between the two wars, when other realities are beginning to take over in the field of research and training.

In 1988, the Rectors of 500 European Universities, on the occasion of Alma Mater's Ninth Centennial, signed the Magna Charta of the Universities: an international pact reaffirming in Bologna the autonomy and the indispensable value of the University.

In 1999, the Bologna Declaration was signed, which creates a common European area of higher education.

In 2012 Alma Mater Studiorum is given a new Statute: the crowning of the process of self-deception with which the University prepares to face the challenges in teaching, research and internationalization.

UNIVERSITY TODAY

The University of Bologna is the first university in Italy for a number of students and for grants received under the Erasmus + program and is among the top 5 universities in Europe for the number of exchange students. It is also distinguished for a number of best practices: a high number of graduates with a mobility experience, high credit recognition, increased language skills, and enhanced international cooperation.

The University coordinates or participates in more than 30 education and training projects funded by the European Union with the primary goal of improving university education through international initiatives such as joint study programs, the development of new teaching methods through the use of new technologies or the design of new educational paths to provide students with transverse, social, intercultural and international skills.