History of Higher

Education
LIBSCI 37 ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP
As recently as 1870
just 50,000 men and women attended college
– just 1.7 percent of the college aged
population.

Today, in stark contrast, 20.5 million (57

percent female and 17 percent African
American, Hispanic, Asian, or Native
American) attend a postsecondary institution.
That’s over 40 percent of 18 to 24 year olds.
 Early Universities
The modern Western university evolved from the medieval
schools known as studia generalia.

The earliest studia arose out of efforts to educate clerks and

monks beyond the level of the cathedral and monastic schools.
Salerno, Italy

The earliest Western institution that can be

called a university and a famous medical
school in the 9th century drew students from
all over Europe.

Bologna

The first true university in the West in the

late 11th century.
It became a widely respected school of
canon and civil law.
 University of Paris

The first university

Composed of colleges,
to arise in northern
It became noted for its which were actually
Europe was
teaching of theology. endowed residence
founded between halls for scholars.
1150 and 1170.
 These early universities were
corporations of students and masters The University of Naples,

and received their charters from

popes, emperors, and kings. Founded by Emperor Frederick II
(1224), was the first to be
established under imperial authority,

University of Toulouse,
These universities were free to
govern themselves, provided they
taught neither atheism nor heresy. Founded by Pope Gregory IX (1229),
was the first to be established by
papal decree.
 University of Cambridge

Those early universities mentioned previously had no

permanent buildings and little corporate property, and they
were subject to the loss of dissatisfied students and masters
who could migrate to another city and establish a place of
study there.

University of Cambridge began in 1209 when a number of

disaffected students moved there from Oxford, and 20 years
later Oxford profited by a migration of students from the
University of Paris.
Beginning of the 13th century

Universities were founded in Montpellier.

Aix-en-Provence (1409) in France.
Padua (1222),
Rome (1303), and Florence (1321) in Italy,
Salamanca (1218) in Spain, Prague (1348), and Vienna (1365) in
central Europe.
Heidelberg (1386).
Leipzig (1409),
Freiburg (1457), and Tübingen (1477) in what is now Germany.
Louvain (1425) in present-day Belgium, and;
Saint Andrews (1411) and Glasgow (1451) in Scotland.
 Until end of 18th centiry

Western
Status Failures
Universities
Students then proceeded Final examinations
Offered a core curriculum based to study under one of the were grueling, and
on the seven liberal arts: professional faculties of many students failed.
grammar, logic, rhetoric, medicine, law, and
geometry, arithmetic, theology.
astronomy, and music.
 References:

Mintz, S. (2017). 11 lessons from the history of Higher ed: Inside

higher ed. Higher Ed Gamma. Retrieved from
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/11-
lessons-history-higher-ed

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). University. Encyclopædia

Britannica. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/university