A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars".

History
Early history

Representation of a university class in the 1350s
The original Latin word "universitas", first used in time of renewed interest in Classical Greek and Roman tradition, tried to reflect this feature of the Academy of Plato (established 385 BC).[citation needed]
The term "academia" is sometimes extended to a number of educational institutions of non-European antiquity, specifically in China, India and Persia:
Confucian academies, such as Shang Hsiang, and later Taixue and Guozijian, succeeded by the medieval Academies of Classical Learning
Taxila in Gandhara and the Buddhist Nalanda University in Bihar (5th century BC)
The Sassanid Academy of Gundishapur was founded in the 5th century.
The University of Constantinople, founded in 849, by the regent Bardas of emperor Michael III, is considered by some to be the first institution of higher learning with some of the characteristics we associate today with a university (research and teaching, auto-administration, academic independence, et cetera), though it was not considered a "degree-granting university".[2]
The first universities to issue diplomas were the Bimaristan medical university-hospitals of the medieval Islamic world, where medical diplomas were issued to students of Islamic medicine who were qualified to be practicing doctors of medicine from the 9th century. [3] The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco as the oldest degree-granting university in the world with its founding in 859.[4] Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in the 10th century, offered a variety of post-graduate degrees, and is often considered the first full-fledged university. (For more on early universities see List of oldest universities in continuous operation.)

Medieval European universities

The University of Salamanca in Spain, founded 1218
Main article: Medieval university
The first European medieval university was the University of Magnaura in Constantinople in Byzantium, now Istanbul in Turkey, founded in 849 by the regent Bardas of emperor Michael III, followed by the Bulgarian University of Preslav and the Macedonian University of Ohrid (9th century) in the Bulgarian Empire, founded by Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria, University of Bologna (1088) in Bologna, Italy, the University of Paris (c. 1100) in Paris, France, later associated with the Sorbonne, and the University of Oxford (11th century) in England.[citation needed] Many of the medieval universities in Western Europe were born under the aegis of the Roman Catholic Church, usually as cathedral schools or by papal bull as Studia Generali (NB: The development of cathedral schools into Universities actually appears to be quite rare, with the University of Paris being an exception - see Leff, Paris and Oxford Universities). In the early medieval period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools, usually when these schools were deemed to have become primarily sites of higher education. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries.
In Europe, young men proceeded to university when they had completed their study of the trivium–the preparatory arts of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic–and the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. (See Degrees of the University of Oxford for the history of how the trivium and quadrivium developed in relation to degrees, especially in anglophone universities).
Outside of Europe, there were many notable institutions of learning throughout history. In China, there was the famous Hanlin Academy, established during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and was once headed by the Chancellor Shen Kuo (1031-1095), a famous Chinese scientist, inventor, mathematician, and statesman.[citation needed]

Emergence of modern universities

The tower of the University of Coimbra, the oldest Portuguese university
Main article: History of European research universities
The end of the medieval period marked the beginning of the transformation of universities that would eventually result in the modern research university. Many external influences, such as eras of humanism, Enlightenment, Reformation, and revolution, shaped research universities during their development, and the discovery of the New World in 1492 added human rights and international law to the university curriculum[dubious – discuss].[citation needed]
By the 18th century, universities published their own research journals, and by the 19th century, the German and the French university models had arisen. The German, or Humboldtian model, was conceived by Wilhelm von Humboldt and based on Friedrich Schleiermacher’s liberal ideas pertaining to the importance of freedom, seminars, and laboratories in universities.[citation needed] The French university model involved strict discipline and control over every aspect of the university.
Universities concentrated on science in the 19th and 20th centuries, and they started to become accessible to the masses after 1914. Until the 19th century, religion played a significant role in university curriculum; however, the role of religion in research universities decreased in the 19th century, and by the end of the 19th century, the German university model had spread around the world. The British also established universities worldwide, and higher education became available to the masses not only in Europe. In a general sense, the basic structure and aims of universities have remained constant over the years.[citation needed]

Organization

The University of Sydney is Australia's oldest university.
Although each institution is differently organized, nearly all universities have a board of trustees; a president, chancellor, or rector; at least one vice president, vice-chancellor, or vice-rector; and deans of various divisions. Universities are generally divided into a number of academic departments, schools or faculties. Public university systems are ruled over by government-run higher education boards. They review financial requests and budget proposals and then allocate funds for each university in the system. They also approve new programs of instruction and cancel or make changes in existing programs. In addition, they plan for the further coordinated growth and development of the various institutions of higher education in the state or country. However, many public universities in the world have a considerable degree of financial, research and pedagogical autonomy. Private universities are privately funded having generally a broader independence from state policies.

Indoor tennis courts at the University of Bath in Bath, Somerset, England
Despite the variable policies, or cultural and economic standards available in different geographical locations create a tremendous disparity between universities around the world and even inside a country, the universities are usually among the foremost research and advanced training providers in every society. Most universities not only offer courses in subjects ranging from the natural sciences, engineering, architecture or medicine, to sports sciences, social sciences, law or humanities, they also offer many amenities to their student population including a variety of places to eat, banks, bookshops, print shops, job centres, and bars. In addition, universities have a range of facilities like libraries, sports centers, students' unions, computer labs, and research laboratories. In a number of countries, major classic universities usually have their own botanical gardens, astronomical observatories, business incubators and university hospitals.

Universities around the world

Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, US
See also: List of colleges and universities by country
The funding and organisation of universities is very different in different countries around the world. In some countries universities are predominantly funded by the state, while in others funding may come from donors or from fees which students attending the university must pay. In some countries the vast majority of students attend university in their local town, while in other countries universities attract students from all over the world, and may provide university accommodation for their students.[5]

Classification

Brooks Hall, home of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, US
Across the world there are very differing standards of legal definition of the term "university" and formal accreditation of institutions. For example at one end of the scale there is no legal definition of the term in the United States.[citation needed] At the other, in the United Kingdom an institution can only use the term if it has been granted by the Privy Council, under the terms of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.[6]
In many regions of the world, a university is any institution of higher education and research, which grants autonomously academic degrees from bachelor's degrees to doctorate degrees, including masters' degrees, as well as honoris causa degrees and agrégation/habilitation diplomas in the places where these are used. Research performed at universities includes both fundamental research and applied research.

University rankings
Main article: College and university rankings
University rankings attempt to give an indication of the "quality" of institutions. Each has its own criteria for ranking and its own methodology. Two of the most internationally recognized are the THES - QS World University Rankings[7] and the Academic Ranking of World Universities.[citation needed]

Colloquial usage
Colloquially, the term university may be used to describe a phase in one's life: "when I was at university…" (in the United States and the Republic of Ireland, college is used instead: "when I was in college..."). See the college article for further discussion. In Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the German speaking countries "university" is often contracted to "uni". In New Zealand and in South Africa it is sometimes called "varsity", which was also common usage in the UK in the 19th century.

Criticism
In his study of the American university since World War II, The Knowledge Factory, Stanley Aronowitz argues that the American university has been besieged by growing unemployment issues, the pressures of big business on the land grant university, as well as the political passivity and ivory tower naivety of American academics.[citation needed]
In a somewhat more theoretical vein, the late Bill Readings contends in his 1995 study The University in Ruins that the university around the world has been hopelessly commodified by globalization and the bureaucratic non-value of "excellence." His view is that the university will continue to linger on as an increasingly consumerist, ruined institution until or unless society is able to conceive of advanced education in transnational ways that can move beyond both the national subject and the corporate enterprise.[citation needed]
Moreover, the social sciences, while studied by approximately 30% of the population, were previously pursued by only 3% or less. This means the bulk of arts and humanities degrees do not lead necessarily lead to improved access to employment opportunities. David Graeber in his 2004 study Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology claimed that the university functions as a hierarchical disciplining device that keeps young people away from small business and self-employment that should be possible in a free market democratic society, and instead, places graduates in state and corporate bureaucracies. It is therefore no coincidence that universities are becoming owned by or operating as corporations.[citation needed]

Under pressure
In some countries, in some political systems, universities are controlled by political and/or religious authorities, who forbid certain fields and/or impose certain other fields. Sometimes national or racial limitations exist - for students, staff, research.

Nazi universities
Main article: Nazi university
Books from university libraries, written by anti-Nazi or Jewish authors, were burned in places (e.g., in Berlin) in 1933, and the curricula were subsequently modified. Jewish professors and students were expelled according to the racial policy of Nazi Germany, see also the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. Martin Heidegger became the rector of Freiburg University, where he delivered a number of Nazi speeches. On August 21, 1933 Heidegger established the Führer-principle at the university, later he was appointed Führer of Freiburg University. University of Poznań was closed by the Nazi Occupation in 1939. 1941–1944 a German university worked there. University of Strasbourg was transferred to Clermont-Ferrand and Reichsuniversität Straßburg existed 1941–1944 [1].
Nazi universities ended in 1945.

Soviet universities

Moscow State University at Sparrow Hills is the largest educational building in the world.
Soviet type universities existed in the Soviet Union and in other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Medical, technical, economical, technological and arts faculties were frequently separated from universities (compare the List of institutions of higher learning in Russia). Soviet ideology was taught divided into three disciplines: Scientific Communism, Marxism-Leninism and Communist Political Economy) and was introduced as part of many courses, eg. teaching Karl Marx' or Vladimir Lenin's views on energy or history. Sciences were generally tolerated, but humanities curbed. In 1922, the Bolshevik government expelled some 160 prominent intellectuals on the Philosophers' ship, later some professors and students were killed or worked in Gulag camps. Communist economy was preferred, liberal ideas criticized or ignored. Genetics was degradated to Lysenkoism from the middle of the 1930s to the middle of the 1960s. Communist parties controlled or influenced universities. The leading university was the Moscow State University. After Joseph Stalin's death, universities in some Communist countries obtained more freedom. The Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University provided higher education as well as a KGB training ground for young communists from developing countries. Any communist country had a network of (para-)universities working for communist party, police, political police or armed forces:

Soviet Union
Higher Border Military Political Academy
Lenin Military Political Academy

Czechoslovakia
Klement Gottwald Military Political Academy in Bratislava
GDR
Academy of Social Sciences of Socialist Unity Party of Germany

Poland
School of Social Sciences of the CC Polish United Workers' Party in Warsaw and Institute of Marxism-Leninism (Poland), in 1984 joined into Academy of Social Sciences
Academy of Internal Affairs and Felix Dzerzhinsky's Police School, combined in 1989
Felix Dzerzhinsky's Political Military Academy in Warsaw
Ludwik Waryński Political Officers School in Łódź
The system failed during the years 1989-1991. In some countries a number of communists and political police informers were expelled from universities, political universities resolved or reorganized. Universities in North Korea continue the Soviet tradition.[citation needed]

Gallery

CIAP building, a modern facility at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Monterrey, Mexico
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The Miller Building at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, US
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Sherman Hall at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, US
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Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey
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