Sant’Anna School

Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies is a public university institute - with special autonomy - working in the field of applied sciences: Economics and Management, Law, Political Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and Plant Biotechnology, Medicine, and Industrial and Information Engineering.

The Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies aims at experimenting innovative paths in research and education. Professors and researchers live and interact with the students, day after day, enjoying a continuous cultural and intellectual exchange. Innovative ideas, which are then developed in collaboration with foreign universities, organizations, companies and research institutes, are generated here. Due to its international nature, education of excellence and scientific community, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies established itself as a reference both in Italy and abroad. The Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies is part of the EUA (European University Association) as an "individual full member".

The origins of the Sant'Anna School date back to the late eighteenth century, when in 1785 the Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine founded the "St. Anne Conservatory" in Pisa in order to attend to "the education of young women of civil condition." The school is named after its first historical site, the former convent of St. Anne, a fourteenth-century Benedictine monastery, suppressed in 1786 as part of the Leopoldina reforms. The "Mussolini College for Corporate Sciences" had been founded in Pisa in 1931 and the "National Medical College" in 1932; they were attached to the Graduate School and later reorganized into the "Medical-Legal College." The "Antonio Pacinotti College" was created in 1951, including the faculties of Economics, Engineering and Agriculture. With Law no. 117 of 7 March 1967, the various colleges established a single "School of graduate and advanced studies," organized in the subject areas of "Social Sciences" and "Experimental and Applied Sciences," which settled in its current location between 1975 and 1979. In 1987, the Sisters of the conservatory, which was near to being closed, declared they were willing to sell it to the "School of graduate and advanced studies," provided that the whole complex would remain named after St. Anne; based on the model of the nearby Normal School, the "Sant'Anna School of graduate and advanced studies" was therefore established as a university institution with legal personality and administrative/disciplinary autonomy. At the same time, a library was created, which contains more than 70,000 volumes.

The Sant'Anna School is a local institution well rooted in the city that over the years has redeveloped many facilities for the benefit of the quality of academic life. This page shows a list of the main locations, including the headquarters in Piazza Martiri della Libertà, the campus sites that host students and researchers, the individual Institutes and the Guest House.

The high level of research of the Sant'Anna School is recognized by the results of the Quality Assessment Research (VQR) for 2004-2010 conducted by the ANVUR. The international magazine "Times Higher Education" ranked the school among the best universities in the World University Rankings 2015-2016.