University of Salento

The University of Salento (until 2007 University of Lecce) is an Italian state university, founded in 1955.

It is the second largest university in Puglia by number of students, preceded by the University of Bari.

It has eight university departments and is based in Lecce, with some locations in Monteroni di Lecce, Mesagne and Brindisi.

The first movements that claimed the need to create a higher education center in Terra d'Otranto in Lecce date back to the end of the 18th century.

Since 1767, when the Jesuits were expelled from the Kingdom of Naples by Ferdinand IV and were forced to close the institutes they had established, training ceased, in fact, to be a peculiarity of the religious class and fell within the scope of the state.

After two centuries of debates that do not result in significant results, in April-May 1955, a university consortium was set up by the provincial administration of Lecce, to which other bodies, including all the municipalities of the province itself, are members, in addition to the Province. 

The consortium aims to establish an independent institute of magisterium at its own expense, in view of the legal validation.

On 22 November 1955, lessons began with all three degree courses of the faculty of the Magisterium (literary subjects, pedagogy and foreign languages ​​and literatures) as well as direct school for special purposes in school supervision.

The first rector is Giuseppe Codacci Pisanelli who will remain for twenty years. Two years later the faculty of literature and philosophy was inaugurated, but only in 1959 did legal recognition arrive.

The nationalization takes place at the end of the academic year 1967-1968, with the institution of the third faculty, that of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences.

Map: University of Salento