La Sapienza divided

ROME. Italian university minister Giovanni Berlinguer has called for the break-up of Rome's La Sapieniza University, the biggest and most overcrowded in Europe.

The university has about 200,000 students and is second to University of Mexico City in size. "My aim is to follow the example of the Sorbonne, which was divided into 14 separate institutions. In Rome I would like to create five or six," said Mr Berlinguer.

But rector Giorgio Tecce and the academic council are opposed. They quoted the 1303 Papal Bull, which says: "In the city be instituted, in perpetuity, a general studium urbis with all faculties."