With over 700 years of history, 111,000 students, 4000 teachers and 2000 employees, technicians and librarians, in addition to 2000 administrative staff in university hospitals, Sapienza is the first university in Europe. Their mission is to contribute to the development of a knowledge society through research, excellence, quality education and international cooperation.

The world's leading university rankings place Sapienza at the top of Italian universities for quality of research, education and international dimension; moreover, Sapienza excels and leads as a benchmark in many subject areas.

Sapienza currently offers over 250 degree programmes and over 200 vocational master courses. The School of Advanced Studies provides a programme of excellence and free tuition for the best students. Students with an Italian high school score of 100 are exempted from enrolment fees and the bonus is extended if they keep up their good grades. Families who have more than one child enrolled at the university also enjoy a special brothers-sisters bonus.

University services include 55 libraries (two with 24-hour reading rooms), 18 museums, the Ciao and Hello Orientation Offices, a Sort – Orientation and Tutoring Office in each faculty, a Disabled Students Office, the Job Soul Placement Office, and a Public Relations Office. Sapienza University also promotes a vast range of cultural, social and sports activities and has various facilities (over 100,000 square meters) for sports, music, and theatre, as well as a web radio.

Over 30,000 students come from other Italian cities, nearly 8000 are foreign and over 3300 students a year come to Sapienza on international mobility programmes. Thanks to a wide network of agreements with universities around the world, Sapienza also provides its students many international opportunities, including double degrees, scholarships abroad, internships in European and non-European countries, and international doctorates.