University of Florence (UF)

The University of Florence has its origins in the Studium Generale that the Florentine republic decided to establish in 1321. The disciplines taught at the time were civil and canon law, literature and medicine. Many famous names were called upon as d medicine. Many famous names were called upon as lecturers: Giovanni Boccaccio was commissioned to give lectures on the Divina Commedia. The importance of the Studium was sanctioned by a Papal Bull issued by Pope Clement VI, which recognised and validated the qualifications it awarded, extended the privilegia maxima already granted to the Universities of Bologna and Paris, and established the Faculty of Theology. In 1364 with Emperor Charles IV, the Florentine Studium became an imperial university. When they came to rule in Tuscany, the Medici moved it to Pisa in 1472. From that year on, transfers became frequent, depending on changes of government. Charles VIII brought it back to Florence from 1497 to 1515 when, with the return of the Medici, the Studium was again moved to Pisa. Many teaching departments remained in Florence even after this date, whereas research was well supported in the numerous Academies that had flourished in the meantime, such as the Crusca and the Cimento. It was not until 1859, when the Grand Duke was ousted from the government of the region, that all these scattered teaching departments regained the dignity of having their own organisation and structure. Thus the “Istituto Superiore di Studi Pratici e di Perfezionamento” was born, which, in the unified Italian state, would gain recognised university status. It was not until 1924, however, that a special decree officially gave the Institute the name of University. The subsequent organisation of studies at the University was divided between 1924 and 1938 into the Faculties of Agriculture, Architecture, Economics, Pharmacy, Law, Humanities, Teacher Training, Medicine and Surgery, Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences and Political Science. To these ten faculties, the Faculty of Engineering was added in 1970, whose first two-year course, however, had already been operating since the 1924-25 academic year. Then, in July 2002, the Faculty of Psychology was established. Since 1 January 2013, following the reform introduced by Law 240/2010, the Faculties have been abolished; the task of coordinating teaching activities and managing the related services is carried out by the Schools. Today, it is one of the largest research and higher education organisations in Italy, with 1,800 structured lecturers and researchers, around 1,600 technical and administrative staff, and over 1,600 doctoral and post-doctoral students. The University is located in various parts of the city and even beyond the urban area with the scientific campus of Sesto Fiorentino and the campuses of Empoli and Calenzano. Educational activities are decentralised in Prato and Pistoia. One hundred and forty-six degree courses (first and second level and single-cycle) of which 15 are in English, organised into 10 Schools, a total population of around fifty-one thousand enrolled, a quarter of whom come from outside the region. The University of Florence is a large university, with a very wide range of courses spanning all subject areas. There are over nine thousand graduates every year in Florence. Moreover, the percentage of Florentine graduates in work one year after graduating is above the national average, according to Almalaurea data. The University of Florence represents one of the largest and most productive systems of public research in Italy, in terms of the number and scientific-disciplinary diversification of its tenured and fixed-term researchers and of the many junior scientists in training, the intense participation in research programmes of major national and international interest, the scientific results achieved and the funding that supports research and transfer activities from outside. This combination of factors, which qualifies Florence’s university as a modern “research university”, is what determines its excellent positions in national and international assessments. Researchers at the University of Florence belong to 21 departments and use around 40 research facilities including inter-departmental and inter-university centres, as well as research, transfer and higher education centres. In recent years, the University of Florence has strongly consolidated its transfer activities: from the filing of patents to the establishment of joint laboratories with companies to participation in spin-off companies. It has also developed a number of instruments promoting research-based innovation by strengthening the relationship between its own research facilities and external organisations. The transfer activity is coordinated by the University Service Centre for Research Enhancement and University Incubator Management (CsaVRI). ...view more