University of Insubria / Università degli Studi dell'Insubria

“A University which has strong elements of excellence, a University which represents a unifying and reinforcing factor for the community in which it is situated, a University which anticipates a trend which has changed the historical model of a university.”
Minister for Universities and Research, Letizia Moratti, Convocation Speech 2001

Founded on July 14, 1998, the University of Insubria has the distinction of being one of the first Italian Universities that has experimented with a model of organization featuring an original bi-polar network system involving the two main centers of Como and Varese, as well as other satellite centers under the single logo of the Universitas Studiorum Insubriae.

Insubres were some groups of Celtic origin that settled around the 4th century B.C. in the territory included within the Lombard Western Prealps and the Ticino, Adda and Po rivers. In the following centuries their name survived in the placename Sibrium (Castelseprio), center of the Varese province, which for centuries had an important role in the history of the relations between Milan, Como and Varese. Since Humanism, the words Insubres and Insubria have been used to indicate, from time to time, different (geographical, natural, political, institutional, economical) aspects of this area.