It was initially granted the status and title of Istituto Superiore Pareggiato di Magistero Maria Ss. Assunta as a state-recognised higher education institute, and was essentially a university with a single faculty - education - offering a selection of degree programs.
It was established for two principal reasons, the first being the more immediate and practical need to provide easy access to higher education for nuns called to teach in Catholic schools; the second, more profound, reason was to contribute to an intellectual and humanistic education free from the ideological pressures of the time, which sought to monopolise education and instruction.