Università degli Studi dell'Aquila

The University of L’Aquila (Italian: Università degli Studi dell’Aquila) is a public, state-supported research university located in L’Aquila, in the Abruzzo region of central Italy.  Its modern form was established in the 1960s (officially by presidential decree in 1964) , though the institution’s origins trace back to much earlier higher-education initiatives (a Jesuit “Aquilanum Collegium” founded in 1596) and to local teacher-training and technical institutes inaugurated in 1952 .  Today UnivAq serves on the order of 18,000–19,000 students (about 18,553 in 2024) and offers a comprehensive range of degree programs (more than 70 undergraduate and graduate “courses of study”) across fields including engineering, the sciences, medicine and health sciences, psychology, economics, education and the humanities.  The university is organized into seven academic departments (since a 2012 reorganization) that coordinate both teaching and research: for example, departments of Civil/Architectural/Environmental Engineering; Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics; Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics; Physical and Chemical Sciences; Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences; Life, Health and Environmental Sciences (including Medicine); and Human Studies .  Degree programs range from single-cycle professional studies (e.g. medicine) to three-year bachelor’s (“laurea”) and two-year master’s (“laurea magistrale”) programs, as well as PhD schools and specialized master’s courses.  In recent years UnivAq has emphasized a scientific‐technological research profile , with notable strengths in engineering, the natural and life sciences, and medicine (it is “best known” for its engineering, medicine, psychology and science schools ).  The University hosts several inter-departmental research centers and laboratories – for example, CETEMPS (a “centre of excellence” for meteorology and remote-sensing modelling, which develops techniques for early-warning of extreme weather, floods and landslides ) and DEWS (focused on embedded electronics and wireless sensor networks) – and has long-standing observatories (e.g. a high‐altitude astronomical observatory on Campo Imperatore, geodynamics and geomagnetism observatories, etc.) that support research in earth and space science .  UnivAq collaborates with national institutes (for instance with the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of INFN on particle and astrophysics research) and maintains an expanding network of international partnerships: a new strategic plan (2025) explicitly targets academic cooperation with universities in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, the southern Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa, with special attention to institutions in crisis‑affected regions (Ukraine, Palestine, Syria) .  Student life at L’Aquila is supported by a full complement of services and facilities: housing and dining are administered through the regional student agency (ADSU Abruzzo), and the campus offers libraries, IT and language-learning centers (e.g. courses in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Italian for foreigners ), and extensive sports and recreation facilities.  In particular the university’s sports center (CUS L’Aquila) provides multiple football, rugby, tennis, volleyball and basketball fields, a gym for fitness, climbing and martial arts, and access to a municipal pool and nearby ski-resort .  The University also maintains significant cultural and natural resources: for example, the Orto Botanico dell’Università dell’Aquila (a 5.5‑hectare botanical garden with ~460 plant species) is used for research and public outreach , and an Alpine Botanical Garden on Campo Imperatore preserves high-altitude flora .  Through its research centers and academic programs, UnivAq contributes to scientific advancement (e.g. in environmental monitoring, medical and engineering innovations) and to society (for instance by training professionals in healthcare, education and technology).  Notably, after the devastating 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila the university played a key role in regional recovery – renovating facilities, relocating classrooms and providing support services for displaced students and faculty – while continuing its educational and research missions .  In sum, the University of L’Aquila is a mid-sized comprehensive university with a strong emphasis on STEM and health disciplines, supported by specialized research centers and international linkages, and enriched by robust student support services and unique facilities such as botanical research gardens.