University

For other uses, see University (disambiguation).

Alma Mater by Daniel Chester French, Columbia University. The alma mater, meaning "nourishing mother" in Latin, is one of the most enduring symbols of the university. The phrase was first used to describe the University of Bologna, Italy, founded in 1088.

A university (from Latin universitas 'a whole') is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines.[1] University is derived from the Latin phrase universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars".[2] Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

The first universities in Europe were established by Catholic monks.[3][4][5][6][7] The University of Bologna (Università di Bologna), Italy, which was founded in 1088, is the first university in the sense of:

  • being a high degree-awarding institute.
  • using the word universitas (which was coined at its foundation).
  • having independence from the ecclesiastic schools and issuing secular as well as non-secular degrees (with teaching conducted by both clergy and non-clergy): grammar, rhetoric, logic, theology, canon law, notarial law.[8][9][10][11][12]
  1. ^ "3.1". WordNet Search. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  2. ^ "Universities" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
  3. ^ Den Heijer, Alexandra (2011). Managing the University Campus: Information to Support Real Estate Decisions. Academische Uitgeverij Eburon. ISBN 9789059724877. Many of the medieval universities in Western Europe were born under the aegis of the Catholic Church, usually as cathedral schools or by papal bull as Studia Generali.
  4. ^ A. Lamport, Mark (2015). Encyclopedia of Christian Education. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 484. ISBN 9780810884939. All the great European universities-Oxford, to Paris, to Cologne, to Prague, to Bologna—were established with close ties to the Church.
  5. ^ B M. Leonard, Thomas (2013). Encyclopedia of the Developing World. Routledge. p. 1369. ISBN 9781135205157. Europe established schools in association with their cathedrals to educate priests, and from these emerged eventually the first universities of Europe, which began forming in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
  6. ^ Gavroglu, Kostas (2015). Sciences in the Universities of Europe, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Academic Landscapes. Springer. p. 302. ISBN 9789401796361.
  7. ^ GA. Dawson, Patricia (2015). First Peoples of the Americas and the European Age of Exploration. Cavendish Square Publishing. p. 103. ISBN 9781502606853.
  8. ^ "The University from the 12th to the 20th century - University of Bologna". www.unibo.it. Archived from the original on 5 April 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  9. ^ Top Universities Archived 17 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine World University Rankings Retrieved 6 January 2010
  10. ^ Paul L. Gaston (2010). The Challenge of Bologna. Stylus. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-57922-366-3. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  11. ^ Hunt Janin: "The university in medieval life, 1179–1499", McFarland, 2008, ISBN 0-7864-3462-7, p. 55f.
  12. ^ de Ridder-Symoens, Hilde: A History of the University in Europe: Volume 1, Universities in the Middle Ages Archived 13 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-36105-2, pp. 47–55