Università di Bologna, the Alma Mater Studiorum

Founded in 1088, the oldest continuously operating university in the world and the inventor of the very model of the universitas. Around 90,000 students across Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, Rimini, and Buenos Aires. QS ranked it around #133 in 2025 and around #138 in 2026 (as of writing). Its history runs through Dante (associated), Petrarch, Copernicus, Marconi, Pasolini, Umberto Eco (who co-founded the DAMS in 1971), and Laura Bassi, the first salaried female professor (1732).

Why it matters for Matias

This is your university. Knowing its history is knowing the institution you are joining and the city that grew around it.