Address: Corso Strada Nuova 65, 27100 Pavia, Lombardia, Italy
Engineering, Physics, Life Sciences
Teaching in Pavia is documented from 825, when an edict of Emperor Lothair established a school of rhetoric for officials of the kingdom. The Studium Generale was founded by Emperor Charles IV in 1361, giving the Università degli Studi di Pavia a place among the oldest universities in Europe.
In the 18th century the reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Habsburg reshaped teaching and buildings, a period the university regards as one of its most celebrated. Its teachers have included Alessandro Volta, professor of experimental physics, and the physician Camillo Golgi, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906; the chemist Giulio Natta and physicist Carlo Rubbia, also Nobel laureates, taught there as well.
The university has campuses in Pavia and Cremona, where musicology is based, and 18 departments, with more than 20,000 students. It has no single main campus, since facilities are spread through the city, and a system of residential university colleges, among them the Almo Collegio Borromeo (1561) and Collegio Ghislieri (1567), is part of student life.
Domains taught:
AI and Machine Learning, Automation, Bioengineering, Bioinformatics, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Vision, Data Analytics, Ecology and Sustainability, Electrical and Electronics, Engineering, Fluid Dynamics, Life Sciences, Materials, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Microbiology and Genetics, Nanotechnologies, Physics, Process Control, Robotics, Software Engineering, Statistics, Structural Engineering, Telecommunications
Diplomas*:
Bachelor, Doctor, Master
Status:
Public
Partnerships:
Coimbra Group, EC2U Alliance. Historic collegiate system similar to Oxford/Cambridge.
Austria's University of Innsbruck is a public university with physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology and law.
Uppsala University (Sweden) is public and lists life sciences, law and humanities.
Jagiellonian University, a public university in Poland, covers physics and astronomy, chemistry and computer science.
*our own picks (our criteria: a mix between domains, diploma delivered, reputation and size), but obviously too many criteria for an apple-to-apple ranking.
FAQ
When was the University of Pavia founded?
Emperor Charles IV founded the Studium Generale in 1361, although teaching in Pavia goes back to a rhetoric school established in 825.
Which famous scientists worked in Pavia?
Alessandro Volta taught experimental physics and was rector, and Camillo Golgi won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Lazzaro Spallanzani, Gerolamo Cardano and Antonio Scarpa are also associated with the university.
What are the Pavia colleges?
They are residential colleges for students, and around twenty exist in the city. The oldest are the Almo Collegio Borromeo, dated to 1561, and Collegio Ghislieri, dated to 1567.
Where are the university's campuses?
Facilities are spread across the city of Pavia rather than in one campus, and the Department of Musicology is located in Cremona.
How large is the university?
It has 18 departments and more than 20,000 students. Wikipedia records a figure of 26,400 students for 2025.
Did the Habsburg era matter for the university?
Yes. Reforms under Maria Theresa and Joseph II in the second half of the 18th century changed teaching programmes and buildings, and the period is remembered as one of its most celebrated.
Where do I find fees and admission rules?
The official admissions pages list deadlines and entry requirements by programme. International applicants should check language requirements for each course.
*: without any judgment of the quality, readers are strongly encouraged to check the official status of the exact diploma envisioned as many universities have a mix of recognized diplomas, not recognized, “co-delivered,” “equivalent to”, “some pathways” (…), can change over time, and can be named differently from one country to another.
**: international reputation: is based on some criteria that do not mean much in some domains or specialties (number of researchers, of scientific publications, on budget ….). Our approximate 1-4 scale:
known locally
known locally and internationally
is listed in some of the world university’s classifications
is listed among the 20 firsts in some of world university’s classifications
***: estimated numbers, based on online sources and/or feedbacks. The numbers can vary greatly depending on school organisation (ex.: school is part of a group, it employs internal staff or external consultants or has public staff without employing them …). Refer to all the links provided to have accurate and updated numbers.
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