The University of Calabria (UNICAL) is a major public university located in Arcavacata di Rende, near the city of Cosenza, in southern Italy. Established in 1972, it has grown to become one of the most important universities in the country, often ranking among the top large Italian state universities.
UNICAL stands out as the largest residential campus in Italy. The campus covers a green area of approximately 200 hectares in a hilly setting. The distinctive architecture, designed by Vittorio Gregotti, is characterised by a longitudinal structure called the “Pietro Bucci” bridge, which connects the various departments housed in cubic-shaped buildings (“Cubes”).
The campus consists of numerous facilities, including a Residential Centre with student accommodation (approximately 1,800 beds), canteens, a Health Centre, a Library, a Sports Centre, a Museum Complex, two theatres and two cinemas, which are also a resource for the local area.
UNICAL comprises 14 departments offering a total of 80 bachelor’s and master’s degree courses, as well as master’s and doctoral programmes. The academic offering covers fields such as engineering, medicine, science, humanities, economics and social sciences, and involves approximately 25,000 enrolled students and approximately 1,000 teachers.
The University has developed a strong international focus, welcoming a growing community of over 950 students from more than 80 countries. Through numerous international cooperation agreements, it promotes exchange and mobility programmes such as Erasmus+ and MoST, and offers several master’s degree courses entirely in English. Research activities are carried out in numerous laboratories and in some large inter-departmental facilities, in particular the STAR (Southern Europe Thomson Back-Scattering Source for Applied Research) Laboratory, which contains a newly designed X-ray source.