University of Naples Federico II
Federico II was chartered on 5 June 1224 by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, making it the oldest state-funded, secular university in the world still operating — founded directly by a head of state to train administrative officials, rather than growing out of a guild or church initiative the way most medieval universities did. It only took its founder's name in 1987; before that it was simply the University of Naples.
- City
- Naples
- Type
- Public university
- Official site
- Visit website
- Admissions
- How to apply
About the university
It's a large, comprehensive public university today — 13 faculties and around 93 degree programmes, covering essentially every field from medicine and engineering to archaeology and agriculture, mostly taught in Italian with a growing number of English options.
As with our shorter-form cities, our deepest, most detailed on-the-ground support currently stays in Turin and Milan — we don't yet have the same neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood rent data or a vetted-rooms network here, and we'd rather say so plainly than pad this page with figures we haven't checked.
Admission for international students generally runs through the standard route: Universitaly pre-enrolment, a Declaration of Value or CIMEA comparability statement for your prior qualification, and — depending on faculty — an entrance test or a language requirement if you're studying in Italian.
See the Naples city guide for what living and studying in the city looks like beyond the university itself.
Living in Naples
Rent, transport, and settling in
How applying here works
- 1
Universitaly pre-enrolment
Your application to Italy, filed on the government portal.
- 2
Declaration of Value or CIMEA
Your prior qualification, made readable to an Italian university.
- 3
Entrance test or language check
Where the faculty asks for one — this is what preparation is for.
We walk you through each step inside the portal. How the application service works, or see the full 20-step journey.