Which is the first University in the world?when?

Answer 1

The term "university" originally meant simply a place where people gathered to talk about various subjects.

They came out of the cathedral schools set up by the Catholic Church. The first universities as we know them appeared in the late 12th century and the early 13th century. From what I can remember from my medieval history course, (1000-1450 C.E.), about a half-dozen appeared around the same time. Some catered to mostly one subject, be it law, medicine, etc. I can't give the exact date when the very first was established. But I'm guessing that the University of Paris might have been the first, because within the first hundred years of universities, it was clearly seen as the best.

Answer 2

The university was an invention of the Middle Ages. The word universitas means corporation or guild. The very first was a collection of schools of medicine at Salerno, Italy, about A.D. 900.

About A.D. 1100, there was a university of Paris, which was the collection of church parish and cathedral schools. For example, Peter Abelard taught at the parish church of Ste. Genevieve. The university was the guild of the masters of arts. Thewy decided who was a master, who was admitted to study, and what was the curriculum.

By contrast, at the university of Bologna, Italy, the principal guild was that of the students. They laid down such rules as that a master could have one day off for his honeymoon after marriage, but no longer. Also, masters had to begin lectures no earlier than 6 am in summer and 7 am in winter, because students could not afford a lot of candles to take notes earlier. Also, masters had to give a full explication of subject matter, such as the logic or Aristotle.

Some universities were founded because of quarrels with the town where they were. In the 1200's, masters and students at Oxford university left to go to Cambridge because of a town-gown quarrel. Now there are universities in both places.

Answer 3

The related Wikipedia page lists Bologna (1088) as the oldest in Europe, but it starts with three older ones in North Africa and the Middle East as follows:

Gundishapur, Iran (489 AD)
Al Karaouine, Fes, Morocco (859 AD)
Al-Azhar University, Cairo (988 AD)

By 1400 AD, there were a total of 24 universities in 10 different countries in Europe, with nearly half of them in Italy.

Answer 4

I believe it was the Academy in Athens (ancient Greece), that was founded by Plato on 385 BC. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy