University Profile
The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, founded in 1997, is distinguished by its strong international outlook. This is reflected in its multilingual teaching—offered in German, Italian, English, and Ladin—and in the high proportion of students and faculty members from around the world.
The university has five faculties and maintains a strong international profile, with 28% of its lecturers and 16% of its students coming from abroad. They are engaged in study, teaching, and research in the fields of Economics, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Social Sciences, Education, and Design.
More than 4,500 students are enrolled in over 40 bachelor, master, and PhD programmes.
The taught modules on offer and our research projects are linked to international and inter-regional networks. For example, within the Euregio university project, we are partnered with the universities of Innsbruck and Trento, and we are committed to reaching top quality standards.
Languages? An asset!
Our teaching and research programmes revolve around five faculties and eight competence centres:
- Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
- Faculty of Design and Art
- Faculty of Economics and Management
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of Engineering
- Competence Centre for Economic, Ecological and Social Sustainability
- International Competence Centre on Food Fermentations
- Competence Centre for the Management of Cooperatives
- Competence Centre for Mountain Innovation Ecosystems
- Competence Centre for Plant Health
- Competence Centre for School Inclusion
- Competence Centre for Social Work, Social Pedagogy and Social Policy
- Competence Centre for Sustainable Tourism
Languages? An asset!
What makes unibz stand out among all universities, in Italy and in Europe, is the multilingualism of its courses and research. The three official languages - Italian, German and English - are used during classes, meetings, conferences and in all events. Thus, the university offers an ideal environment not only to acquire specific knowledge in the disciplines at the basis of each one's degree course, but also to master the communication skills required by employment and by an increasingly globalised society.
unibz in Rankings
In national rankings, our university reaches top positions every year. In 2025, for the nineth consecutive year, the Italian research centre for social studies Censis has ranked our university as number one among smaller private universities (less than 5,000 students). We rank high in international rankings too, especially under the categories 'internationalisation', 'student satisfaction' and 'citations'.
THE World University Rankings
In the 2026Times Higher Education World University Rankings unibz ranked in the band of 401— 500 this year out of almost 2,191 institutions worldwide. Our strongest pillars are "Research quality" (with a score of 83,7 among the top 250) and "International outlook" (with a score of 78,2 among the top 300). In Italy we are on the 20th position out of 57 universities ranked and on the first for "International outlook".
In the Small University Rankings 2024 we are on position 14 worldwide.
QS World University Rankings
In 2025 unibz for the fourth time has entered the QS World University Rankings 2026 at rank position 643 among 8,467 universities surveyed. It ranks among the top 300 in the metrics for “Citations per faculty”.
Censis
In 2025, for the ninth time in a row, we placed first among the small non-state universities.
Quality Management
unibz adheres to the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) in the areas of teaching, research, third mission and societal impact, as well as in its administrative activities. These standards are implemented at national level by ANVUR – the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System.
In this context, the University Quality Committee plays a central role in ensuring compliance with quality standards across all areas of activity. It oversees the systematic monitoring of processes and fosters continuous improvement acrossthe institution.
Three-Year Plan and Other Strategic Projects
unibz is a public-law non-state university. In addition to the third-party funds, it acquires independently for teaching and research, its core funding is largely ensured by the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano. The University’s strategic development is guided by the its Strategic Plan, which sets out its objectives, priorities and key areas of action. This framework is complemented by the Accordo programmatico-Programmabkommen between the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, thereby ensuring alignment between the University’s planning and the region’s development strategies. With respect to the quality standards of its degree and doctoral programmes, as well as the procedures for appointing academic staff, unibz complies with the regulations of the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR). As a non-state university, it may directly appoint up to 70% of its academic staff from abroad, thereby enhancing its international profile.