University

A university is a higher learning institution. The word university comes from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars". ^[1] Students can go to university to get an academic degree. Unlike the schooling they have done before, the courses at university are specialised. A person studying biology at university has many courses about biology and fewer courses in other fields such as languages or history. To get a higher degree, people must do some research.

Not all subjects are offered at universities. Mainly, universities offer courses which are about knowledge. They usually do not offer courses in practical trades. In some cases such as law, where there are both knowledge and practical issues, the university does mainly the theoretical side of the subject. Practical qualifications are done elsewhere.

History

Old buildings of University of Bologna, founded in 1088

The universities were born in Europe during the Middle Ages. The first institution of this type was the University of Bologna, which later became a model for other centres of education.^[2]^[3]^[4]

At first, the universities had formed themselves according to the model of the professional groups and like almost everything in the Middle Ages, they remained tied to the Catholic Church. At the beginning, they had worked to teach the so-called "seven liberal arts" (the trivium and the quadrivium):

Trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric.
Quadrivium: arithmetic and geometry, astronomy and music.

That earliest division caused the present divisions between literary and scientific fields. From one point of view, the world's oldest university is Qarawiyyin university. However, teaching religion is not the definition used by most people. A university should in theory teach every subject.

The university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian tradition.^[5]^[6] European higher education took place for hundreds of years in cathedral schools or monastic schools (scholae monasticae). There, monks and nuns taught classes: evidence of these dates back to the 6th century.^[7]

The Universities of Paris and Oxford were founded by members of the church.^[8] Later universities were founded by kings.

In the early medieval period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools, usually when these schools became mainly sites of higher education.^[9] Pope Gregory VII promoted the concept of modern university as his 1079 Papal Decree. He ordered the establishment of cathedral schools, which eventually turned into the first European universities.^[10]

Organisation

A university can include several campuses or different places where classes are taught by professors. In each campus there are several faculties and university schools (mainly for teaching), and also laboratories, departments and institutes of research. Many campuses also have housing for students in buildings called dormitories and structures like libraries, study rooms and gymnasiums for students that live there. Each school offers many courses that students take to earn a degree. The person with the highest right to control and to command in a university is the rector, who governs the university with the help of the party of vice-rectors and of other organs such as the social council and the governing body.

Notable universities

Australia

Canada

Chile

University of Chile (Universidad de Chile)
Catholic University of Chile (Universidad Católica de Chile)
Metropolitan Technologic University (Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana)

China

Finland

Åbo Akademi University
Aalto University
University of Helsinki

Germany

Italy

University of Bologna

Japan

Malaysia

University of Malaya
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

Mexico

UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. The biggest and most important university in Mexico and Latin America
UdG, University of Guadalajara.It is the second oldest university in Mexico, regarded as one of the most significant universities in Mexico.
IPN, Instituto Politécnico Nacional
ITESM, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
ITAM, Instituto Tecnoloógico Autónomo de México

Netherlands

Poland

University of Warsaw
Jagiellonian University

Romania

Naval Academy "Mircea cel Batran" (ANMB)

South Korea

Sweden

Chalmers University
Karolinska Institute
Lund University
Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm School of Economics
Uppsala University
Umeå University

Turkey

Galatasaray University (İstanbul)

United Kingdom

Graduation ceremony at the University of Oxford.

United States

There is a group of notable universities called the Ivy League. They are:

Some other universities are:

There are also institutions of technology who provide course offerings primarily in scientific and technological studies. Some examples are:

Related pages

References

↑ Chisholm, Hugh (1911). Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Encyclopaedia britannica Company. p. 748.
↑ Janin, Hunt (2008). The University in Medieval Life, 1179-1499. McFarland. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7864-3462-6.
↑ Ridder-Symoens, Hilde de (2003). A History of the University in Europe: Volume 1, Universities in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–55. ISBN 978-0-521-54113-8.
↑ Gaston, Paul L. (2010). The Challenge of Bologna. Stylus Publishing Llc. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-57922-366-3.
↑ Rüegg, Walter: "Foreword. The University as a European Institution", in: A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-36105-2, pp. XIX–XX
↑ Verger, Jacques. “The Universities and Scholasticism,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume V c. 1198–c. 1300. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 257.
↑ Riché, Pierre 1978: Education and culture in the barbarian West: From the sixth through the eighth century. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-376-8, pp. 126-7, 282-98
↑ Gordon Leff 1968. Paris and Oxford Universities in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: an institutional and intellectual history. Wiley, 1968.
↑ Johnson P. 2000. The Renaissance: a short history. New York: Modern Library, p9.
↑ Thomas Oestreich 1913. Pope St. Gregory VII. In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Other websites

History of the Universities Archived 2007-08-05 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)

[1] Chisholm, Hugh (1911). Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Encyclopaedia britannica Company. p. 748.

[2] Janin, Hunt (2008). The University in Medieval Life, 1179-1499. McFarland. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7864-3462-6.

[3] Ridder-Symoens, Hilde de (2003). A History of the University in Europe: Volume 1, Universities in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–55. ISBN 978-0-521-54113-8.

[4] Gaston, Paul L. (2010). The Challenge of Bologna. Stylus Publishing Llc. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-57922-366-3.

[Rüegg,_Walter_1992,_pp._XIX-5] Rüegg, Walter: "Foreword. The University as a European Institution", in: A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-36105-2, pp. XIX–XX

[6] Verger, Jacques. “The Universities and Scholasticism,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume V c. 1198–c. 1300. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 257.

[7] Riché, Pierre 1978: Education and culture in the barbarian West: From the sixth through the eighth century. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-376-8, pp. 126-7, 282-98

[8] Gordon Leff 1968. Paris and Oxford Universities in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: an institutional and intellectual history. Wiley, 1968.

[9] Johnson P. 2000. The Renaissance: a short history. New York: Modern Library, p9.

[10] Thomas Oestreich 1913. Pope St. Gregory VII. In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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