Italy has a university tradition of excellence that dates back to the middle ages. As the first private business university Bocconi is driving this heritage forward today. Milan has 11 university centres with 44 faculties and 174,000 new students every year, around 5,000 of them from abroad.
This history in education and advanced research goes hand in hand with invention and innovation from the Romans to Leonardo da Vinci and Marconi continuing to recent years with the Nobel Prize awarded to scientists like Rubbia and Levi Montalcini. This attracted multinationals such as Motorola's European Research Centre.