Scuola Normale Superiore

The Scuola Normale Superiore is an élite small university institution of higher education, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate students. It was founded in 1810 with a decree by Napoleon as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, with the aim of training the teachers of the Empire to educate its citizens according to educational and methodological “norms”. Even if it is attended by a small amount of students every year, Scuola Normale Superiore has formed some of the most important personalities in the world of science, literature and politics like Giosuè Carducci, Carlo Rubbia, Enrico Fermi, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Giovanni Gronchi. Entrance is highly competitive: only a small percentage of applicants are admitted to Scuola Normale Superiore.