Recognised as a legal person by a Ministerial Decree in 1991, the CEUR Foundation works in cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, and with several Italian universities for the creation and management of University Residences of Merit, monitored by the Italian Ministry itself.

Art. 5 of the Italian University Reform Decree (Italian Law no. 240/2010) defines Residences of Merit as “high cultural qualification” bodies and provides for them a central role for the promotion of merit, within the framework of policies for the quality of the university system, through the definition of a specific discipline, a point of arrival of a path aimed at defining the institutional and juridical-administrative role of the Residences.