The University of Catania is a public research university in Catania, Italy. It was founded in 1434 and is the oldest university in Sicily, the 13th oldest in Italy, and the 29th oldest university in the world. It has about 40,000 students and 1,500 staff members. It offers a wide range of programmes in education, study and research, covering various fields of knowledge, such as engineering, natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, law, medicine, and economics.

Some of the features of the University of Catania are:

- It has five schools and 22 departments, distributed among six campuses in the city and its surroundings. It also has five libraries, 31 research centres, and two centres of excellence.
- It participates in several international consortia and networks, such as the League of European Research Universities, the European University Association, and the CIVIS alliance. It also participates in various exchange and mobility programmes, such as Erasmus+ and Unitech.
- It offers 79 undergraduate programmes, 73 master's degree programmes, 38 doctoral programmes, and more than 140 vocational and postgraduate courses. Some of these programmes are taught entirely or partially in English, or are part of international networks that award double or joint degrees.
- It has a network of museums, cultural centres, and innovation hubs, such as the Museum of Natural History, the Botanical Garden, the University Press, the Confucius Institute, and the RAISE Knowledge Transfer & Entrepreneurship Academy.
- It provides various services and support for students, such as counselling, tutoring, scholarships, and accommodation. It also offers free newspaper subscriptions and free CityPass AMT subscriptions for its freshmen.
- It is committed to social responsibility and sustainability, both in its teaching and research activities and in its management and governance. It has adopted the UN Sustainable Development Goals as its strategic framework and has signed the Magna Charta Universitatum and the European Charter for Researchers.