[8] It has educated a wide range of notable alumni, amongst them a large number of Italian scientists, prime ministers, supreme court judges, and priests.

[9] The University of Bologna has campuses in Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini as well as branch centres abroad in Buenos Aires, New York, Brussels, and Shanghai.

These students then hired scholars from the city's pre-existing lay and ecclesiastical schools to teach them subjects such as liberal arts, notarial law, theology, and ars dictaminis (scrivenery).

The Studium grew to have a strong position of collective bargaining with the city, since by then it derived significant revenue through visiting foreign students, who would depart if they were not well treated.

Eventually, the city ended this arrangement, paying professors from tax revenues and making it a chartered public university.

[24] Bassi's education and intellect was noticed by Prospero Lorenzini Lambertini, who became the Archbishop of Bologna in 1731 (later Pope Benedict XIV).

[25] In 1732, Bassi, aged twenty, publicly defended her forty-nine theses on Philosophica Studia[26] at the Sala degli Anziani of the Palazzo Pubblico.

[28][24] On 29 October 1732, the Senate and the University of Bologna granted Bassi's candidature, and in December she was appointed professor of natural philosophy to teach physics.

In addition to this were initiated research projects (focusing mostly on the educational institutions and the political system in Italy), that eventually led, in 1964, to the establishment of the Istituto Carlo Cattaneo.

The Collegio Superiore is an excellence institution inside the University of Bologna, aimed at promoting students' merit through dedicated learning programmes.

The Collegio Superiore offers an additional educational path to students enrolled in a degree programme at the University of Bologna, providing specialized courses as part of an interdisciplinary framework.

All students of the Collegio Superiore are granted a full-ride scholarship and additional benefits such as the assistance of a personal tutor and free accommodation at the Residence for Higher Study.

In order to remain members of the Collegio Superiore students are required to maintain high marks in both their degree programme and the additional courses.

[100] In the 2023 THE Impact Rankings, which measure the universities' commitment to sustainable development in compliance with the UN 2030 Agenda, Bologna took 5th place in Europe and 23rd in the world.

[101] Furthermore, Bologna topped Italy's 2023 list of large public universities (> 40,000 students), produced by the Italian Center for Social Investment Studies, for the 14th year in a row.