[13][14] The university operates 36 different departments and 122 separate research centres in Copenhagen, as well as a number of museums and botanical gardens in and outside the Danish capital.

[15] The University of Copenhagen also owns and operates multiple research stations around Denmark, with two additional ones located in Greenland.

[20] Alumni include one president of the United Nations General Assembly and at least 24 prime ministers of Denmark.

[21] The bull was issued on 19 June 1475 as a result of the visit to Rome by Christian I's wife, Dorothea of Brandenburg, Queen of Denmark.

[22] On 4 October 1478 Christian I of Denmark issued a royal decree by which he officially established the University of Copenhagen.

Furthermore, the university was explicitly established as an autonomous institution, giving it a great degree of juridical freedom.

As such, the University of Copenhagen was to be administered without royal interference, and it was not subject to the usual laws governing the Danish people.

The king charged Johannes Bugenhagen, who came from Wittenberg to Copenhagen to take up a chair of theology, with the drawing up of a new University Charter.

Further change in the structure of the university from 1990 to 1993 made a Bachelor's degree programme mandatory in virtually all subjects.

In 1994, the University of Copenhagen designated environmental studies, north–south relations, and biotechnology as areas of special priority according to its new long-term plan.

In 2003, the revised Danish university law removed faculty, staff and students from the university decision process, creating a top-down control structure that has been described as absolute monarchy, since leaders are granted extensive powers while being appointed exclusively by higher levels in the organization.

The purpose of this has been to gather the university's many departments and faculties on three larger campuses in order to create a bigger, more concentrated and modern student environment with better teaching facilities, as well as to save money on rent and maintenance of the old buildings.

Most university students stay in privately owned dormitories (kollegier in Danish) or apartments in Copenhagen.

There are five dormitories that are partially administered by the university; however, only students who have passed at least two years of studies are considered for admission.

[35] The university's oldest known seal dates from a 1531 letter, it depicts Saint Peter with a key and a book.

The text is different and the crowned shield shows the coat of arms of Denmark (as has been the case since 1820, when the heraldic reference to Norway was removed).

The Department of Scandinavian Studies and Linguistics at University of Copenhagen signed a cooperation agreement with the Danish Royal School of Library and Information Science in 2009.

Over the course of its history, a sizeable number of University of Copenhagen alumni have become notable in their fields, both academic, and in the wider world.