Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italian: Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia) is a public university in Venice, Italy; it is usually known simply as “UniVE”. Founded in 1868 as the Royal Commerce Academy (Regia Accademia Commerciale), it was renamed in 1969 as Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The name derives from Francesco Morosini, nicknamed Il Pellegrino (“The Pilgrim”), doge of Venice from 1688 to 1694, who conquered the Morea during the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War and added Feodosiya to the Republic of Venice.
With over 26,000 students, 14% of whom are international, Ca’ Foscari is currently the largest university inVenice and one of the most populous universities in Italy. It is organized into 11 faculties and 17 departments which offer over 200 degree programs at both undergraduate and graduate level. Research institutes include IRENEE (International Research on Economic Networking) and MARCO POLO (Network for Chinese-European Academic Collaboration).
In October 2018 Times Higher Education ranked Ca’Foscari University 8th among young universities (<50 years old) worldwide. In 2019 QS World University Rankings ranked it 251-260 overall, while its business school was placed within world's top 150 institutions by Financial Times. Additionally, Ca’Foscari was selected by Nature Indexas one of 22 European Universities contributing most to research papers published between 2015-2018. Ca’ Foscari University was founded in 1868 as “Regia Accademia Commerciale” (Royal Commerce Academy) following a proposal by Minister Michele Cantoni. At that time Venice had already been through a long period of economic decline which seriously threatened its political independence; under those circumstances also cultural life had stagnated. The city needed a new boost to regain its role as an international centre for finance and trade and – given that other Italian cities such as Genoa had recently established similar institutions – decided to create an academy teaching modern economics and commerce. The first two professors were Giovanni Antonio Amadeo and Francesco Carrara Pennati: Amadeo became president of the academy in 1885. By 1915 all lectures were taking place in Palazzo dell’Università di Venezia on San Sebastiano Campus where they still take place today although some have now moved to Dorsoduro campus too.. During this time Regia Accademia Commerciale became “IstitutoSuperiore di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali”(Higher Institute for EconomicsandCommercial Sciences); subsequently ,in 1931 this became “Facoltàdi Economiae Commercio" (SchoolofEconomicsandCommerce). In 1935 with Mussolini’s fascist regime came further changes:the institution lostitsautonomybeingincorporatedintoUniversityofPaduaas agraduate schoolwithinthe FacultyofPoliticalScience ;howeverdetailedteachingmethodsvariedlittlefromprevious years despite different ideological principles now being imparted .After WWII Paduan authorities decidedto movethe Unitto Trevisowhich met with great opposition from teachersandstudentsalike resultingina massexodus backtoVENICE! Thiswasan exceptionalmoment inthe historyofthe city whichsaw people spontaneouslytake tothestreets tobetypicallyvenetoexpress their dissatisfaction :carswereoverturnedandsetalight ,shops lootedwhile police triedtoresist using teargas ! Only afterinterventionby thenewly appointedMinisterforUniversityAffairs Umberto Terraciniwas orderrestored .Terracini succeededin convincingPaduatoallowthe FacultyoftransferbacktoVenice providingthat certainconditionsweremet amongwhichwastheadditionalscientificbranchof Law . Fromthis momentonwards aclearlydefined processofchangebeganwhichculminatedinthedecree issuedby PresidentGiovanni Leoneon 10thMay 1997conferringautonomousstatusonthenewUniversità degliStudidiVeneziaCa'Foscariethereby reestablishingitsidentityasa separateinstitutionwithinthenationaluniversitysystem .Further importantstepsforwardweredemonstratedthroughachievementsoftheschoolsofMathematicsPhysicsandNaturalSciencesAstronomyGeologyOceanographyChemistryBiologyZoologyallofferinggraduatecoursesapprovedby thenewMinistryforUniversityAndScientificResearchatbeginningofthetwentyfirstcentury