Ancient higher-learning institutions which give learning an institutional framework date back to ancient times and can be found in many cultures. These ancient centres were typically institutions of philosophical education and religious instruction. They are to be distinguished from the modern Western-style university which is an organizational form originating in medieval Europe and adopted in other world regions since the onset of modern times (see list of oldest universities in continuous operation).[1]
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The Platonic Academy (sometimes referred to as the University of Athens[2][3]), founded ca. 387 BC in Athens, Greece, by the philosopher Plato, lasted 916 years ( until 529 AD ) with interruptions.[4] It was emulated during the Renaissance by the Florentine Platonic Academy whose members saw themselves in Plato's tradition.
Around 335 BC, Plato's successor Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school whose pupils met at the Lyceum gymnasium in Athens ( ceased to exist in 86 BC during famine/siege/sack of Athens by Sulla).[5]
In the Hellenistic period, the Museion in Alexandria ( suppressed/burned between 216 and 272 AD ) which included the world-famous Library of Alexandria ( destroyed between 272 and 391 AD ) became the leading research institute for science and technology from which many Greek innovations sprang. The engineer Ctesibius (fl. 285–222 BC) may have been its first head.
The reputation of these Greek think tanks was such that three modern institutions derive their names from them: the academy, the lyceum and the museum.
The Pandidakterion of Constantinople, founded as an institution of higher learning in 425 and reorganized as a corporation of students in 849 by the regent Bardas of emperor Michael III, is considered by some to be the earliest institution of higher learning with some of the characteristics we associate today with a university (research and teaching, auto-administration, academic independence, et cetera). If a university is defined as "an institution of higher learning" then it is preceded by several others, including the Academy that it was founded to compete with and eventually replaced. If the original meaning of the word is considered "a corporation of students" then this could be the first example of such an institution.[6]
In early medieval Europe, bishops sponsored cathedral schools and monasteries sponsored monastic schools, chiefly dedicated to the education of clergy. The earliest evidence of a European episcopal school is that established in Visigothic Spain at the Second Council of Toledo in 527.[7] These early episcopal schools, with a focus on an apprenticeship in religious learning under a scholarly bishop, have been identified in Spain and in about twenty towns in Gaul during the 6th and 7th centuries.[8]
In addition to these episcopal schools, there were monastic schools which educated monks and nuns, as well as future bishops, at a more advanced level.[9] Around the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, some of them developed into autonomous universities. A notable example is when the University of Paris grew out of the schools associated with the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Monastery of Ste. Geneviève, and the Abbey of St. Victor.[10][11]
The first higher education institution in medieval Europe was the University of Salerno (9th century). The Preslav Literary School and Ohrid Literary School were the two major literary schools of the First Bulgarian Empire.
Taxila or Takshashila, in modern-day Pakistan, was an early Indian centre of learning. According to scattered references which were only fixed a millennium later,[12] it may have dated back to at least the 5th century BC.[13] Some scholars date Takshashila's existence back to the 6th century BC.[14]
Takshashila is described in some detail in later Jātaka tales, written in Sri Lanka around the 5th century AD.[15]
It became a noted centre of learning at least several centuries BCE, and continued to attract students until the destruction of the city in the 5th century AD. Takshashila is perhaps best known because of its association with Chanakya. The famous treatise Arthashastra (Sanskrit for The knowledge of Economics) by Chanakya, is said to have been composed in Takshashila itself. Chanakya (or Kautilya),[16] the Maurya Emperor Chandragupta[17] and the Ayurvedic healer Charaka studied at Taxila.[18]
Generally, a student entered Takshashila at the age of sixteen. The Vedas and the Eighteen Arts, which included skills such as archery, hunting, and elephant lore, were taught, in addition to its law school, medical school, and school of military science.[18]
Nalanda was established in the 5th century AD in Bihar, India.[21]. Founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal, it survived until 1197. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war.[22].
The center had eight separate compounds, 10 temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, housing 10,000 students in the university’s heyday and providing accommodation for 2,000 professors. [23] Nalanda University attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey.
Further centers include Odantapuri, in Bihar (circa 550 - 1040), Somapura, in Bangladesh (from the Gupta period to the Muslim conquest), Jagaddala, in Bengal (from the Pala period to the Muslim conquest), Nagarjunakonda, in Andhra Pradesh, Vikramaśīla, in Bihar (circa 800-1040), Sharada Peeth, in modern day Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Valabhi, in Gujarat (from the Maitrak period to the Arab raids), Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (8th century to modern times), Kanchipuram, in Tamil Nadu, Manyakheta, in Karnataka, Puspagiri, in Orissa and Ratnagiri, in Orissa. In Sri Lanka, Sunethradevi Pirivena, a centre of Buddhist learning in Sri Lanka, founded circa 1415 AD.
In China, the ancient imperial university known as Taixue was established in Han Dynasty at 124 BC. It was inherited by later dynasties until Qing, in some of which the name was changed to Guozixue or Guozijian. Peking University (Imperial University of Peking) established in 1898 is regarded as the replacement of Taixue (or Guozijian). In Korea, Taehak was founded in 372 and Gukhak was established in 682. The Seonggyungwan was founded by the Joseon Dynasty in 1398 to offer prayers and memorials to Confucius and his disciples, and to promote the study of the Confucian canon. It was the successor to Gukjagam from the Goryeo Dynasty (AD 992). It was reopened as a private Western-style university in 1946. In Japan, Daigakuryo was founded in 671 and Ashikaga Gakko was founded in 9th century and restored in 1432. In Vietnam, the Quoc Tu Giam (國子監, literally "National University") functioned for more than 700 years, from 1076 to 1779.
In Persia (Iran), the Academy of Gundishapur was an important medical centre of the 6th and 7th centuries AD. Gundishapur or Jundishapur, however, was the most prominent example of higher education model in pre-Islam Iran. 'The most ancient institution, which was similar to universities today, was set up in a city called Jundishapur about six and a half centuries after Plato’s academy, that is, in 271 AD'[24] . It was established four centuries before the advent of Islam in Jundishapur in third century AD under the rule of Sassanid kings and continued its scientific activities up to four centuries after Islam came to Iran. It is considered as one of the world’s oldest higher educational institutes. When Athenian school was closed in 529 AD, its scholars went to Jundishahpur. At Jundishapur University, research and scientific circles were of utmost importance and Iranian scientists along with their Indian, Greek and Roman counterparts conducted research and scientific studies. Historians in the field of education maintain that it took positive aspects of higher education in Greece and India, which were recognized as the new methods of education and research; as a result, it was the cradle of medicine, philosophy, astrology, and mathematics up to the fifth century AH. Therefore, as it is invoked, Jundishapur University had basically had a transnational scientific-cultural approach[25] .