On June 5, 1224, a brilliant and powerful yet still young ruler, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany and Italy, King of Sicily, King of Jerusalem, did something that would have influenced greatly not the political scene of late medieval Europe, but rather the history of higher education.
The university is an Italian invention and indeed we all know the impact that the foundation of the Alma Mater, the University of Bologna, had in all the western world. The idea of structuring learning in a formal way to educate young talents through lectures and evaluations given by literates specifically selected, allowed the explosion in literature, art, architecture, engineering that was the basis of the Renaissance in Italy and, later, all over Europe.
But this process was mainly a natural evolution due to the improved living conditions and the rebirth of the old Roman cities, that allowed cultural life to abandon the safe hermitage of convents, abbeys, and monasteries where it hid during the dangerous times after the fall of Rome, and to get back to the vibrant streets of urban centers.
Frederick of Swabia made a major step forward in understanding that what was a self-developed answer to the need of communities to have better trained lawyers, notaries, and theologists, could indeed provide an essential component for a State that wanted to flourish and to provide wealth to its citizens: a well-educated bureaucracy and an elite of professionals, capable of supporting the Emperor in his efforts to make new laws and to administer justice, to register properties and trades, to heal diseases and to deal with epidemics, to create art and literature.
The Stupor Mundi, the Marvel of the World, as he was named by his own contemporaries, recognized the importance of higher education and perceived that this had to be a responsibility of the State itself, to be supported with grants and endowments not only to pay for the professors but also to support the students who could have never afforded to buy books and documents or even just living far from home.
This year, the University of Napoli Federico II celebrates its 800th anniversary, with the pride and the commitment of being the academic institution that was born from that incredibly bold idea. We will do it in New York, in one of the most important world hubs for education, finance and entrepreneurship, by showcasing our excellence in research and innovation for the academic and business communities, with the aim to make our university more international and more open. On October 22nd and 23rd in our spaces at the Tata Center in the Cornell Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island, we will present the university’s postgraduate academic programs as well as the achievements in Life Sciences, Technology and Humanities. With the help of our US and International partners we will also present our technology transfer initiatives, and our activities to support and accelerate startups in partnerships with Industry and VC firms.
Federico II is one of the largest universities in Italy and in Europe, with almost 80.000 students, 3200 professors, and 5000 Ph.D. students and post-docs. With 26 Departments, 12 of which have been recently selected as “Departments of Excellence” by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, our University is one of the major centers in the European research and innovation landscape, with strong ties to leading global companies such as Apple, CISCO, Accenture, Leonardo, Boeing, Hitachi Rail, Novartis, and Merck.
