The University of Bologna (Italian: Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, abbreviated Unibo) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students (universitas scholarium) by the late 12th century,[4] it is the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and the first degree-awarding institution of higher learning.[5][6] The university's emblem carries the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum ("Nourishing mother of studies"), and the date A.D. 1088.[7] With over 90,000 students, the University of Bologna is one of the largest universities in Europe.
The university saw the first woman to earn a university degree and teach at a university, Bettisia Gozzadini, and the first woman to earn both a doctorate in science and a salaried position as a university professor, Laura Bassi. The University of Bologna has had a central role in the sciences during the medieval age and the Italian renaissance, where it housed and educated Nicholas Copernicus as well as numerous other renaissance mathematicians.[8] It has educated a wide range of notable alumni, amongst them a large number of Italian scientists, prime ministers, supreme court judges, and priests.[9]
The University of Bologna has campuses in Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini as well as branch centres abroad in Buenos Aires, New York, Brussels, and Shanghai.[10] It houses the fully funded boarding college Collegio Superiore di Bologna, the Bologna School of Advanced Studies,[11] the botanical gardens of Bologna, a large number of museums, libraries and archeological collections,[12] as well as the Bologna University Press.
