The University of Bologna (UNIBO) is recognized as the oldest university in the Western world and one of the largest in Italy with about 88,000 enrolled students, across 33 Departments in 11 schools and 4 campus areas in the Emilia-Romagna region with permanent headquarters in Buenos Aires. There are 5,600 research staff of whom 1,700 are PhD students. Around 13,000 pieces of research have been produced along with 177 registered patents UNIBO offers a large number of services supporting research, innovation, knowledge transfer and participation in many European programmes. Recently there has been significant focus on European Research programmes, especially FP7 and Horizon 2020, but also other programmes such as the Lifelong Learning Programme, ARTEMIS, ENIAC and Cleansky JTIs, AAL Joint Programme, Life, Alfa Programme, Tempus Programme, Interreg and Daphne III. In reference to European funding programmes, UNIBO has achieved a total financial aid of around 69 million Euros through 221 funded projects - acting as coordinator in 44 of them.
The Department of Education Studies of UNIBO is one of pioneers of the field world-wide, with over 30 years of integration, teacher training, research and counselling experience. The Department includes 28 professors and 45 researchers belonging to four subject areas: Cultural Anthropology, Pedagogy, Psychology and Sociology. Since its creation, these areas have pursued common research goals, including: learning assessment, training and educational models, lifelong learning methodologies, didactical digital contents, media education and teacher training.