In the academic year 2023/2023, 112,000 students were enrolled at La Sapienza University of Rome, the largest Italian university. Pegaso online University followed with 99,600 enrollments. Around 84,000 students attended classes in Bologna, the oldest university in the world and the best in the country. Finally, the University of Turin collected 77,000 students. In total, 1.9 million undergraduates were enrolled at Italian universities.Â
Ancient, public, and digital higher education
Among the 20 largest Italian universities, 16 of them are public institutes. The four private universities are the Catholic University of Milan and three online universities. Among them, Pegaso University was founded in 2006 and counts 95,000 students. Many of the world's oldest higher-learning institutions are located in Italy. The University of Bologna is the oldest university, continuously operating since 1088. In 1222, scholars from Bologna founded the University of Padua. Two years later, in 1224, the University of Naples Federico II was established, the oldest public and secular institution globally. In the 14th century were constituted the universities of Perugia, Siena, Pisa, and Pavia.
Popular courses of study
Back in the Middle Ages, the University of Bologna offered mainly subjects of liberal arts, law, and theology. However, these seem to rank lower among the most common degrees nowadays. Almost 270,000 students in Italy enrolled in medicine programs, the most popular field of study. Moreover, economics was the second most chosen degree program.