University of Trieste

University of Trieste

Università degli Studi di Trieste
Type	Public
Established	1924
Rector	Prof. Maurizio Fermeglia
Administrative staff	1,000
Students	20000
Location	Trieste, Italy
Sports teams	CUS Trieste
Affiliations	Almalaurea, CEI University Network, Nettuno (accessed 26 February 2014)
Website	www.units.it

The University of Trieste (Italian: Università degli Studi di Trieste, or UNITS) is a medium-sized university in Trieste in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. The university consists of 12 faculties, boasts a wide and almost complete range of university courses and has about 23,000 students and 1,000 professors. It was founded in 1924.

The historical international vocation of the University of Trieste is witnessed by its intense and high-level activity: Trieste is the centre of many research facilities, with which the University is connected by cooperation agreements. Among them, there are the International School for Advanced Studies, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, the National Institute of Oceanography, the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste Facility, the Trieste sections of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), and many others, building up the so-called "sistema Trieste" (Trieste System).

Moreover, the number of international inter-university co-operation agreements rapidly increased these last years. These agreements involve staff and student mobility, both within EU Programmes like the Socrates programme and agreements exclusively concerned with research activities.

In 2009, in the Il Sole 24 Ore National University Ranking, University of Trieste was ranked the second best university in Italy. Moreover, in 2014, it was evaluated the second best Italian university by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the 201st worldwide.

Before World War I, when Trieste was still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Italian-speaking population strongly supported the idea of building a university in the town, but Austrian authorities repeatedly rejected the proposal. After the annexation of Trieste to Italy, the already existing Superior School in Commerce was granted the same rights of similar schools in Italy, and in 1924 it was turned into a university, by king's decree (8 August 1924, n. 1338). In 1938, with the institution of the Law faculty, the second after the Economy and Commerce faculty, the University became a Studium Generale (General Studies) one, and thus was given the title of Regia Università degli Studi (King's University). In the same year, the construction of a new building to house the faculties began on the Scoglietto hill, in a position dominating the Old City. The building, which still hosts the directive board and some faculties, was designed by architects Raffaello Fagnoni and Umberto Nordio. The first stone was posed in a ceremony on 19 September 1938 in the presence of the Italian Prime Minister and other authorities.
World War II slowed down the planned enlargement of the University. Indeed, the faculty of Engineering, although established in 1942, was restricted to naval engineering until the end of the war, while the opening of the faculty of Literature and philosophy, planned in 1943, was postponed till 1945. After the war, Trieste was put under the joint control of the United Kingdom and the United States of America, in preparation for the establishment of a fully independent State, the Free Territory of Trieste, which nevertheless never came to exist. The Allied Government allowed the foundation of the new Literature and Philosophy faculty, instituted the faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, and completed the construction of the main building on the Scoglietto hill, inviting an emissary of the Italian government to the inauguration ceremony.
In 1954 Trieste was given back to Italy thanks to an agreement between the American and the Italian governments. To celebrate, the University awarded the President of the Italian Republic Luigi Einaudi a honoris causa degree in Economy and Commerce. In a short time new faculties were added (Pharmacy, Teaching Sciences, Medicine and Surgery, Political Sciences), while also new buildings were inaugurated on the Scoglietto hill and in other parts of the town. In 1978 the School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators was given the status of faculty; in 1997 the faculty of Psychology and in 1998 the faculty of Architecture completed the range of faculties currently present at the University.