HISTORY OF

UNIVERSITY I
3 week
Today Learning Outcomes

• What were the traditional aims of higher education?

• Have they been changed? Why have they been changed?

• Has any value been remained? What are the common value of higher

education across the time?

Is the University a European invention?
• What about?

• Taehak in Korea
• The Confucian schools of imperial China;
• The Hindu gurukulas and Buddhist vihares for the priests and monks of medieval India;
• The madrasas for the mullahs and Quranic judges of Islam;
• The Aztec and Inca temple schools for the priestly astronomers of pre-Columbian
America;
• The Tokugawa han schools for Japanese samurai
Which one is the first university in the world?
• University of Bologna: Italy • University of Salamanca: Spain
• Nizamiyya: Iran • University of Nalanda, India

• University of Cambridge: England • University of Oxford, England

• Plato’s Academy, Athens • University of Nanjing, China

• University of Padua: Italy • University of Montpellier: France

• University of Paris: France • University of al-Karaouine, Morocco

• Al-Azhar University: Egypt • Seonggyungwan: Korea

• Taehak: Korea • University of Valencia: Spain
History of higher education
• Establishment Year
• Mission or goals
• Campus (Space)
• Main characteristics : ex) department, students and faculty members
Plato’s Academy, Athens: 387 BC
University of Nanjing,
China: 258 AD
Taehak: Korea, 372
The University of Nalanda,
India: 5th century
University of al-Karaouine,
Morocco: 859 AD
Al-Azhar University: Egypt: 972
Nizamiyya: Iran: 1065
European universities: Current concept of university

The European medieval university emerged from the

12th century onwards as a corporate, autonomous,
and flexible institution characterized by free
speculative thought and challenging authority.
Critical thinking was central.
Main path of the Crusaders
University of Bologna: Italy: 1088
University of Paris: France: 1090
University of Oxford: England: 1096
University of Salamanca: Spain, 1134
University of Cambridge: England: 1209
University of Valencia: Spain: 1212
University of Padua: Italy, 1222
University of Montpellier: France: 1289
Seonggyungwan: Korea, 1398
History of higher education
Idea vs. organization vs. ‘university’ ?
How Where When

The first institution of higher learning Plato’s Academy, Athens 387 BC

Nanjing, China 258

Taehak 372
Institutions for specific aims (e.g. Nalanda, India 5th century
religion, commercial) based on higher Al-Karaouine, Morocco 859
learning Al-Azhar, Egypt 972
Nizamiyya, Iran 1065
Seonggyungwan 1398
University of Bologna: Italy 1088
University of Paris: France 1090
University of Oxford: England 1096
University of Salamanca: Spain 1134
‘University’ in institutional name
University of Cambridge: England 1209
University of Valencia: Spain 1212
University of Padua: Italy 1222
University of Montpelier: France 1289
The Greek Idea of Higher Education
• There was no large-scale communities of students and teachers, but they had an
idea of higher education.
• Lack of institutional appearance, but pure form of idea in higher learning
• Plato’s dialogues
• A process of dialogue involving the learner
• Students critically examine the knowledge acquired: Reflexive process
• This process is connected with the idea of freedom
The medieval idea of higher education
• Modern institution of higher learning
• Long tradition of tensions between society and university
• Democratic: They were open to all, the members constitute guild of
students and masters, joint-participants, independence from the rest of
society
• Self-governing community of scholars, independence
• Study objects were restricted, but it required continual reassertion and
demonstration
• Award of degree when you complete the certain process
• Participative approach to learning and inquiry, a collaborative form of
internal government, institutional autonomy, institutions being open to all
comers, study as critical discourse
• Emerging from its institutional forms in Classical Greece and in the Middle ages

• To be articulated in written form is successive versions in the nineteenth and

twentieth centuries.
Humboldt University of Berlin: Germany, 1810
• The Humboldt University of Berlin was founded in Berlin in 1810, and the foundation
concept which Wilhelm von Humboldt had put forward made it the "mother of all modern
universities“
• The first semester at the newly founded Berlin university occurred in 1810 with 256
students and 52 lecturers in faculties of law, medicine, theology and philosophy.
• Wilhelm von Humboldt and a select group of contemporaries were the first to call for the
independence of academia, to envision the integration of the natural, social sciences
and humanities and to demand the unity of research and teaching
Land-grant university: USA, 1862
• A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an
institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the
benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890.
• The mission of these institutions as set forth in the 1862 Act is to focus on the teaching of
practical agriculture, science, military science and engineering, as a response to the
industrial revolution and changing social class.
• This mission was in contrast to the historic practice of higher education to focus
on an abstract liberal arts curriculum.
A modern definition of university
1: an institution of higher learning providing facilities for teaching and research and
authorized to grant academic degrees; specifically : one made up of an
undergraduate division which confers bachelor's degrees and a graduate division
which comprises a graduate school and professional schools each of which may
confer master's degrees and doctorates

2: the physical plant of a university

Merriam-Webster encyclopedia
Group discussion I

• Have the aims of higher education always been the same or

have they changed? If so, why?

(1) The medieval idea of higher education

(2) modern idea of higher education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

(3) current idea of higher education in the twenty-first century

The aims of universities at various times
have included:
• Training establishments for the clergy and other ‘traditional’ professions. ie the law,
medicine

• The development of research to meet the needs of the state and industry

• The pursuit of a ‘liberal education’ or of knowledge ‘for its own sake’

• The development of students to meet the needs of a global economy

• To develop students to be responsible citizens

Common values
• Community of individuals collaborating in a particular form of life, knowledge and
truth
• Inter-connectness of different domains of knowledge
• Inquiry should be conducted in a critical spirit
• Liberal concept: Freedom
Summary

• Over the last 150 years, there have been a number of concepts of higher education,
and we can see different configurations of social interests and values in each age.

• Although the idea of higher education has undergone considerable development

and change, there was always a high level of agreement over the conceptual core
of higher education, those are the key aims of higher education.
Your short research work!
• Let's do short research work for individual assignment!
- Subject: history of university (A4 3 pages, pdf. 15-March)
- What kinds of university do you study?
You need to choose three universities among Korean universities and international
universities.
I hope you choose various universities from three different countries.
• You can find related information from their homepage or website.
• Please write this University's history and characteristics with 3 pages of A4 and submit it by
PDF form until March 15.
Your short research work!
• History
• Mission and vision if they present in their homepages
• University type: public vs private, four-year or college community and so on
• Main characteristics