With over 700 years of history, more than 115,000 total students, 3,300 professors, 2,200 officials, technicians, and librarians in addition to 1,600 employees in its university hospitals, Sapienza is the largest University in Europe. Its mission is to contribute to the development of the knowledge society through research, excellence, quality education, and international cooperation. The most influential university rankings worldwide place Sapienza among the first Italian Universities for its research, educational quality, and international dimension. In the rankings for individual subjects, our University is a reference point for many disciplines.

Sapienza currently offers over 280-degree Programmes (Bachelor's and Master's) - among which over 35 are taught in English- 200 vocational master courses and almost 80 PhDs. The School of Advanced Studies provides a Programme of excellence and free tuition for the best students. Students with an Italian high school score of 100 are exempted from enrolment fees and the bonus is extended if they keep up their good grades. Families who have more than one child enrolled at the university also enjoy a special brothers-sisters bonus.

University services include 54 libraries (four with 24-hour reading rooms), 18 museums, the Ciao and Hello Orientation Offices, a Sort – Orientation and Tutoring Office in each faculty, a Disabled Students Office, the Job Soul Placement Office, and a Public Relations Office. Sapienza University also promotes a vast range of cultural, social and sports activities and has various facilities (over 100,000 square meters) for sports, music, and theatre, as well as the RadioSapienza web radio. Over 30.000 students come from other Italian cities, nearly 9,000 are foreign and over 3,500 students a year come to Sapienza on international mobility programmes. Thanks to a wide network of agreements with universities around the world, Sapienza also provides its students many international opportunities, including double degrees, scholarships abroad, internships in European and non-European countries, and international PhDs.

Scientific research activity at Sapienza covers an extremely broad spectrum of disciplines, reaching levels of excellence in many areas, including archaeology, physics and astrophysics, humanities and cultural heritage, the environment, nanotechnologies, cell and gene therapy, design, aerospace, social and economic sciences. Nobel Prize winners and internationally renowned scientists have taught and/or studied at Sapienza.

Sapienza is organized into 11 faculties, one School for Advanced Studies, one post-degree School for Aerospatial Engineering, 58 departments, as well as numerous research and service centers. The central administration is organized into areas, offices and sectors.

The rectorate is collegiate with a Rector, a Deputy Rector and a group of Assistant Deputy Rectors and delegates with specific competences, alongside committees and commissions for evaluation, strategic planning, quality and integration of activities, as well as for specific topics.