The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and higher education courses in engineering, architecture and design.

By the 20th century, the school had gained international recognition thanks to its influential faculty and a strong emphasis on largely modernist principles.

The university’s central offices and headquarters are located in Città Studi’s Leonardo Campus, active since 1927.

[9] It is considered one of the leading technical universities in Italy and in Europe, and is consistently ranked as one of the best schools for architecture and engineering in the world.

[15] Some of the most notable alumni and professors from the school include Nobel laureate Giulio Natta, engineer, inventor, and aeronautical pioneer Enrico Forlanini, astrophysicist Amalia Ercoli Finzi, novelist Carlo Emilio Gadda, musician Demetrio Stratos, and architects Renzo Piano and Aldo Rossi.

Its establishment was part of a broader movement in Italy to advance technical and scientific education, which in result would support industrial and technological development during the country's early years of unification.

[17] Its original name was Istituto Tecnico Superiore (which translates to "Higher Technical Institute") and only Civil and Industrial Engineering were taught.

The word Regio was removed as Italy was proclaimed a republic at the end of World War II.

[19] The present logo, based on a detail of the preparatory sketch of Raphael's School of Athens, was adopted in 1942.

[20] In 1954, the first European centre of electronic computation was opened at the university by Gino Cassinis and Ercole Bottani.

In 1963 Giulio Natta received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on crystalline polymers, polypropylene in particular.

Since the end of the 1980s, the university has begun a process of territorial expansion that would have resulted in the opening of its satellite campuses in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.

Students need to achieve 60 "university credits" (CFU or Crediti Formativi Universitari) per year during their Bachelor's and master's degrees.

[28] The Alta Scuola Politecnica is a joint institution of the Polytechnic University of Milan and Polytechnic University of Turin addressed to young talents who want to develop their interdisciplinary capabilities for leading and promoting innovation, and runs in parallel to the two-year programs of laurea magistrale (graduate courses).

[41] In 2009 an Italian research ranked it as the best in Italy over indicators such as scientific production, the attraction of foreign students, and others.

The main goal of this test is to point out the lacks of aspiring students and, in case, to assign them an extra course.

[43] Architecture, Design and Construction Engineering schools have a limited number of students admitted every year and the selection is based on a national test administered by the Ministry of Education.

The titles registered in the library system can be searched through an online public access catalogue (OPAC).

The university participates in associations and consortia for applied research, has offices to assist technological transfers and continuing education for professionals.

[69] The Rector, the Academic Senate and the Board of Directors (Consiglio di Amministrazione) are the governing bodies of the university.

[71] Students with an outstanding GPA (usually ≥ 27/30 or 29/30) are granted partial or full rebates, in addition to various kinds of scholarships.

It is common for both Italian and international students to share flats due to the expensive real-estate market of the city.

[74] Educafe is a cultural center in the Leonardo campus, where students can meet and events are held regularly.