About Us

The University of Naples Federico II (Italian: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public research university in Naples, Campania, Italy. Established in 1224 and named after its founder, Frederick II, it is the oldest public, secular, non-sectarian or state-funded university in the world, and one of the world's ten oldest universities in continuous operation.

It was Europe's first university dedicated to training secular administrative staff,[7] and is one of the world's oldest academic institutions in continuous operation. With over 90,000 students (2022) it is among the largest universities in Europe, long the only state university in Naples, until the establishment of the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in 1991, formerly Seconda Università di Napoli.The motto of the University is Ad scientiarum haustum et seminarium doctrinarum, taken from the circular letter of Frederick II. Over the course of its thousand-year history, Federico II alumni have included the presidents of the Italian Republic Enrico De Nicola, Giovanni Leone and Giorgio Napolitano.[9][10] Additionally, students and alumni have won 2 Academy Awards.

In October 2016, the university hosted the first ever Apple iOS Developer Academy and in 2018 the Cisco Digital Transformation Lab.[12] It occupies the second position among the major universities (> 40,000 students) of the Italian universities system (third position if the online Pegaso University, also from Naples, is included). According to the 2023 CWUR ranking (Center for World University Rankings), it was ranked at 6th place among Italian universities and 235th place out of 20,531 in the world ranking