Where was the world's first university established?

Question

I have read that the world's first universities were set up in Thakshasila (Taxila) and Nalanda. Can anyone out there have any findings or links that can help me in finding this answer out?

The last few centuries have been dominated by Europeans, and as someone said, "History is written by winners". Europeans ruled the world and it is natural that most of the answers point to Greece. Unfortunately, civilisations to the east bore a lot of brunt from the invading armies and valuable information was lost. In light of this, I think it is difficult to come to a conclusion on this question. Thanks for all the information you have provided. It was very valuable.

Answer 1

My answer would by Bologna. Here's why --

As you can see the pieces several have cut and pasted from the wikipedia "University" article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University) there is a long history of various educational institutions. And several of these might lay claim to having "the first university", depending on how you define the term.

But if you are specifically concerned with "the modern university system" this can be traced directly back to a European developments around AD 1100. (One of the most important contributions of this system, not found in the other claimants --ancient Greek, Chinese etc -- was the foundations of the modern scientific method.)

For a history of the rise of the medieval university see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university
http://www.ku.edu/kansas/medieval/108/lectures/universities.html

See also Rodney Stark's article, "False Conflict", http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.17713/article_detail.asp

The wikipedia article just cited lists many medieval universities and their founding dates. The earliest is the Universiity of Bologna, recognized as a university in 1088 (Paris and Oxford came shortly after this).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university#List_of_medieval_universities

Answer 2

Difficult question. The first public learning institutions were scribal schools in mesopotamia, which date from the 3rd Millenium BC. However, these could hardly be called universities since they only taught people up to the age of about 16 or 17 and taught fairly basic skills such as litteracy and basic numeracy. University level education was provided in royal courts, merchants' offices and temples, and people learnt on the job, as it were, as aprentices.
The first institute of higher learning in recorded history was Plato's accedemy in athens (the Accademia) which taught philosophy, maths, politics and eventually such subjects as natural history and theology to people who had allready received a basic education there or elsewhere. However, the Acceademia and the institutions that mimicked it were not universities in the modern sense. The oldest accademic institution that still exist is the university of Perugia in Italy, founded in about 1200, and this was also the first university in anything like the modern sense. It taught such subjects as maths, philosophy, theology, law, medicine and astromomy to its students, and was essentially run by the church. Other universities all over Europe date from a similar time. The modern, state funded, secular university orrigianated in the Ukraine, where the University of Kiev was run along these lines untill the Russian conquest, at which point the professors and many of the students were transferred to Moscow.
Other contenders for the titel of the world's oldest university include the beauraucratic schools of madarin China, established in the fifth century AD, the religious and philisophical schools of ancient India, first attested in the sixth century AD and the muslim universities established in such cities as Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.

Answer 3

There is some controversy regarding which is the world's oldest university. If we consider a university as a corporation of students, then Plato's Academy is the first historically documented university. The original Latin word "universitas", first used at the time of renewed interest in Classical Greek and Roman tradition, tried to reflect this feature of Academy.

If we consider university simply as a higher education institution, then it could be Shangyang, which was founded before the 21st c. BC in China

Answer 4

If you are talking about the word University then I guess Plato's wud be the answer. But if u are talking about the first organised body of students, then Nalanda is the first as it predates Plato's by about 300 years.

Answer 5

A third university whose ruins were only recently excavated was Ratnagiri University in Orissa. Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo (Egypt) in the 10th century, offered a variety of post-graduate degrees, and is usually regarded as the first full-fledged university.

Answer 6

Good question. I'm completely guessing, but I reckon it would have to be a university from the early Greek days, perhaps as early as 500BC, 30 years before Socrates graced humankind.

Answer 7

In ancient times India had very good educational system in mathematics and astrology. scholars from Greece and Rome attended it.

Answer 8

Lyceum of Aristotle in Athens. See link for further details

Answer 9

I agree with Heathen....it must have been in the days of the Ancient Greeks and the great thinkers.

Answer 10

Plato's Academy is the first historically documented university