Salerno's Schola Medica Salernitana was the most important medical school in Europe between the 10th and 13th centuries.

Meanwhile, the University of Montpellier displaced Salerno as the most prestigious medical school internationally and by the 14th century the latter had ceased to exist.

The modern University of Salerno traces its origin to the Istituto Universitario di Magistero “Giovanni Cuomo”, a teacher training college founded in 1944 with this renowned and ancient tradition in mind.

The University of Salerno offers degrees in 10 faculties: The library "biblioteca Eduardo R. Caianiello" offers students over 400,000 volumes and constitutes one of the major collections of books in Italy.

The ICSR, that has its administrative office at the University of Salerno, aims at favouring research and dissemination of knowledge about the most important topics of the Mediterranean Basin.