The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, also known in Italian as Scuola Normale (English: Normal School), is a public higher learning institution in Italy. It was founded in 1810, by Napoleonic decree, as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris. Since its foundation it has operated a highly selective student admission procedure, and its main goal was, during that period, essentially to form the best college and high school teachers. Recognized as a "national university" in 1862, one year after Italian unification, and named during that period as "Normal School of the Kingdom of Italy". During the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, the philosopher Giovanni Gentile enacted the reform that gave the Scuola its current structure; autonomy from the University of Pisa was granted in 1932. After the war, the Normal School has become an entity separate from the University of Pisa, with complete administrative, didactic and regulative freedom. The Scuola, together with the University of Pisa and with Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, belongs to the Pisa University System.