List of oldest universities in continuous operation
Map of medieval European universities
This is a list of the oldest extant universities in the world. To be listed on this page, an educational institution must satisfy the definition of a university at the time of founding; it must have been founded before 1500 or be the oldest university in a region; and it must have been operational without a significant interruption ever since.
Because the awarding of academic degrees for advanced studies was historically most prevalent in Europe and the Middle East, and the modern definition of a university includes the ability to grant degrees, most of the oldest institutions of higher learning that have always satisfied the modern definition were either European or Near Eastern.[1][2] If, however, the definition were broadened to include ancient institutions that did not originally grant degrees but now do, then this list would expand significantly to include many other institutions from both Europe and other parts of the world. For instance, Nanjing University and Southeast University (Imperial Nanjing Institute), which exist to this day, were originally founded in 258 in China, as well as many other universities, called Guozijian. However, they did not award degrees in the strictest sense, instead, it prepared students for standardized exams that would bestow upon them a rank in the scholar-gentry.
The university as an autonomous, self-governing educational institution was preceded by the religious college/university, whose origins lie in the medieval Islamic world. The madrasah was a medieval Islamic college of law and theology, usually affiliated with a mosque. Philosophy and the secular sciences were often excluded from the curriculum, which was mainly focused on religion,[3] but this varied among different institutions, with some only choosing to teach the "religious sciences", and others teaching both the religious and the "secular sciences", usually logic, mathematics and philosophy. Some madrasahs further extended their curriculum to history, politics, ethics, music, metaphysics, medicine, astronomy and chemistry. In contrast to the madrasah, the Jami`ah was an institution that had individual faculties for different subjects and could house a number of madrasahs within it, with the most notable example being Al-Azhar University,[1] which had individual faculties[4] for a theological seminary, law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, astronomy, philosophy, and logic.[1] Professors at Al-Azhar also delivered lectures on medicine during the time of Saladin.[5] Another notable example was Mustansiriya University which offered courses dealing with philosophy, mathematics and the natural sciences.[6]
The madrasahs differed from medieval universities of Europe in several important respects, e.g., in that instruction was presented by a small group of teachers or even by a single teacher. The crucial difference is that the degree took the form of a license (ijazah) which "was signed in the name of the teacher, not of the madrasa".[7] In other words, "the authorization or licensing was done by each professor, not by a group or corporate body, much less by a disinterested or impersonal certifying body".[3] As a result, the concept of a degree from a specific university was replaced with multiple licenses from individual scholars working within the same religious college/university. Islamic "universities" that operated within this framework of multiple licenses include:
Foundation of the school was financed by Kankan Musa whom paid for the Granada architect Abu Ishaq es Saheli from Egypt to build mosques and palaces throughout the empire.
Founded as a philosophical and theological higher education institution, refounded 23 July 1846 as a Darülfünun (House of Multiple Sciences), and refounded again on 1 August 1933 as a Üniversitesi (Arts and Sciences University).
Regarding the definition of university, which includes the ability to grant degrees in a wide range of fields, the categorization of many of the oldest learning institutions as de facto ancient universities in continuous operation could be controversial and problematic. For example, if the definition were broadened to include ancient institutions that did not originally grant degrees, were strictly religious schools for centuries or vanished without trace for long periods of time, then such categorization may agree with specific points of view which are not widely accepted.
Exact date uncertain, teaching existed since 1096, founded before 1167. Teaching suspended in 1209 (due to town execution of two scholars) and 1355 (due to the St. Scholastica riot)
Three of four faculties closed in 1419, joined with Jesuit university and renamed Charles-Ferdinand U. in 1652, split into German and Czech part in 1882, Czech branch closed during Nazi occupation (1939-1945), German branch closed in 1945.
Development stalled early, re-established from 1400 onwards. Closed after the German occupation of Poland in 1939 but reopened clandestinely three years later.
During the Reformation, "the Catholic university of Rostock closed altogether and the closure was long enough to make the refounded body feel a new institution".[11]
The University of Barcelona was closed by the Bourbon dynasty and transferred to Cervera after the War of the Spanish Succession (from 1714 until 1837). Plans to open the University of Cervera did not get underway until 1715 and it did not start its academic work until 1717.
Nanking University, the first school officially called university in English in China, 1888. Also the first to offer doctoral education in China, 1913.
Dominican Republic: Santo Tomas de Aquino University, Santo Domingo, unofficially founded in 1538, and officially founded in 1558; it could be or not consider the first university in the American continent. Today it operates as the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. (Due to a 35 year hyatus from 1824-1859, it is not the oldest continuously operating university in America)
Jundishapur University,Academy of Gundishapur around 200 BC, founded by Shapur I, Sassanian king (Sassanids Dynasty of Iran ) still in operation in Iran, established ca. 2200 years ago
Lithuania: University of Vilnius, 1579, successory to the Vilnius Academy 1570, although its operation was not continuous: the university was closed from 1832 to 1919 and again in 1943-44
Peru: National University of San Marcos, Lima, 1551, "dean university of America? (the oldest, and the first "official"), since it is the only university on the American continent that survives, uninterruptedly, since the XVIth century
University of San Carlos, established as the Colegio de San Ildefonso 1595 by the Jesuits, closed in 1769, reopened in 1783 by the local bishop, transferred ownership to the Dominicans (1852), then to the Vincentians (1867), and finally to the Society of the Divine Word fathers in 1935. Closed in 1941 during World War II; reopened in 1945. Received university charter in 1948.
University of Santo Tomas, established as the Colegio de Nuestra Seńora del Santísimo Rosario in 1611, received university charter in 1645, closed during World War II, reopened during post-war rebuilding. Owned by the Dominicans in its entirety of existence.
Syria: University of Damascus was founded in 1923 through the merger of the School of Medicine (established 1903) and the Institute of Law (established 1913).
The actual date a university started to function is often rather hazy and differs a good deal from legend, or from the date its ancestor-institution was founded. For example, it is generally admitted today that Oxford's foundation cannot be precisely dated, but must lie somewhere in the mid-to-late 12th century. However, the notion that a college could be empowered to give the bachelor's degree is a modern American one; by European terms, Harvard College had already adopted the powers (if not the style) of a university in 1642. The University of Pennsylvania was simply the first U.S. institution to call itself a university; but neither it, Harvard, or any of the seven other Colonial American colleges were nearly as large or diverse as European universities of the time. The first U.S. university to create a modern graduate school and award a Ph.D. degree was Yale University, in 1861.
Encyclopedia
top
