Preview

Medieval Universities

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1676 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Medieval Universities
Medieval Education: The Histor
Higher education plays a major part in today 's society. Expected to continue their education beyond high school, many students attend four-year universities and colleges. The emergence of such higher education was first recorded in Europe during the Middle Ages. The origins and characteristics of these medieval universities as well as details of the students and their masters (professors) will be thoroughly discussed in the following paragraphs. These universities became the foundation of and models for the higher education of today.

The Latin word universitas, or university, first appeared in the Latin text of Cicero, the word meaning the whole of mankind or the human race. The word gained educational meaning when the corporation of Paris masters and students first used universitas in 1221 to define the organized society of the entire body of masters and students. But even then the meaning of university was different. Unlike today 's university, the medieval universities referred to the students and masters rather than to a building or specific place. This is mainly due to the fact that the early universities did not own buildings but used rented rooms or available rooms loaned by the church as their classrooms (Previte-Orton 622). This flexibility also gave the university the power to secede from their town during a dispute with the townspeople, a strategy used often by the scholars who were often in need of protection (Thompson and Johnson 725).

Several conditions provided the way for the establishment of the university during the thirteenth century. The communal movement, or the migration of people to cities, and the formation of guilds provided a model for the scholastici, or scholars, to follow when forming universities. The existence of cathedral and canonical schools provided scholars and teaching material needed to begin such a university. The discovery and emergence of new disciplines and school manuals,



Cited: & Company, Inc., 1937. Dahmus, Joseph H York: The Odyssey Press, Inc., 1964.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Scurton, Roger. “The End of the University.” First Things: A Monthly Journal Of Religion and Public Life. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Apr.2015…

    • 907 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Decade in Movies

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages

    * ERIC document - Higher Education in the Eighties | Abstract, order full article from your local library…

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reading and thoroughly analyzing both sides of the Taking Sides Issue, “Does the Modern University have Islamic Roots in the Islamic World?” I agree with the professor of history and philosophy of education Medhi Nakosteen; he touches the roots of the modern university to the Golden Age of Islamic Culture (750-1150 C.E). Medhi also states that Muslim scholars adapted the best of traditional scholarship and established both the experimental method and the university system, which they handed on to the west before they degenerated.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dark Ages Ahead Analysis

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In “Credentialing Versus Educating”, the third chapter of Dark Ages Ahead, Jane Jacobs discusses a change in the intent and practice of higher education at universities and colleges. “Credentialing, not educating, has become the primary business of North American universities” (Jacobs 44). The institution of education has shifted its focus from passing on knowledge and teaching students to have critical faculties for the stability and growth of society, to simply certifying individuals in order to be considered for a job. Educating involves the learning of new concepts and gaining proper knowledge while credentialing is focused on obtaining a degree through four years of higher education. Jacobs makes the distinction by outlining that an education and a degree are not the same thing. According to Jacobs, there is an emphasis on selecting job applicants who have desirable qualities such as persistence, ambition, and the ability to cooperate and conform.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary Essay

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout the essay Young compares universities in the past to universities present. He notes similarities and differences that he has noticed and uses this to inform his readers about significant change. Comparisons made from past and present univeristies allow Young to justify his belief that universities are in fact changing. “However, in spite of marked differences, there are similarities between what happened then and what is happening today,...then the dogma of religion, now the dogma of business-threatening to change the activities of the community of teachers and scholars” (217). He believes that universities in the past were focused on student interests and suggests that present universities are interested with profit that can be made through commercialization.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Middle Ages

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The influence of universities and merchants, as seen, changed the kingdom. Medieval universities were first formed in the 12th century AD after a need for educated public officials became evident. Schools like the Law School at…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Life at a medieval university for clerics was in many regards similar to our present day college experience. When college was in session, life was basically split into two categories; life in the books, and life outside the books if you will. Scholars needed to focus their attention to the tasks at hand during learning hours. As we know today, the more time you spend studying, the better grades you’ll achieve. On the other hand, scholars needed a release from the daily grind of constant academic involvement. This may have included some popular pastimes such as drinking, gambling, and wreaking havoc downtown (nothing a modern student would do). The scholars experienced many of the problems that modern day collegians deal with as well. Some of these issues included finding the college that fits you best, shortages of funds, arguments with local residents, feuds with fellow clerics, and finding the path that would be fulfilling to them in their lives. There were only a few major differences being a life centered on religion and discussions based on theology, the fact that only males were accepted to study and the clothing that scholars wore. All in all, being at a university was for the betterment of the individual.…

    • 1418 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main reasons for this was that people were scared of the plague, and students since they had no permanent residence at their school could quickly leave, and since most of them were from rural towns, they had no major affliction by the epidemic. The plague had a positive effect on the universities, people that could regularly not attend college could now do so, since students were leaving, now spaces were open for students form various back grounds to actually get a degree, and many new minds, and brilliant minds were now actually attending the universities. Courtenay uses the Theological Faculty and staff of Oxford to help prove his thesis;…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The attention of the monograph “Inventing the University” by David Bartholomae, is in the mistakes of cardinal wordsmiths and how their shortfall of comprehension of a discourse community averts them from conclusively being accepted as a fragment of that educational community and flourishing in their scholastic fascinations. Bartholomae defines what is inventing the university, and he says, “He has to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our community (403).” Bartholomae gives an explanation of the endeavors of unsophisticated wordsmiths, the method adept writers compose, and the dissimilarities in the space separating…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Middle Ages encompass one of the most turbulent periods in English History. Starting with the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest - when William the Conqueror effectively took all of the lands from the Saxon English and gave them to French nobles. The English Middle Ages then saw the building of the great English castles, including the Tower of London, which helped the Normans to retain their hold on England. The start of the Crusades and the knights of the Middle Ages, including the founding of the Knights Templar. The Domesday Book and the Magna Carta. The Kings and Queens of the Middle Ages including Richard the Lionheart and great Plantagenet Kings from Henry II (1154-1189) to Edward III (1327-1377). The Hundred Years War between England and France. The Medieval Kings and Queens of the Royal Houses of Lancaster and York and the Wars of the Roses. The Middle Ages Feudal System and the terrible Black Death which really did plague the period of the Middle Ages.The Middle Ages 1066-1485…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Medieval University

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Everything that is going on around us was developed in some point during history. We can assume that all ideas had to come from some prior idea. As students of history, it is in our ability to wonder what cultural and social constructions are still present today from the any other time in historical period. What particular concepts still exist within the world or specifically the United States? An idea that is still very present in America is the university. When did the idea of schools first come into full importance? What was taught and when did the concept expand into colleges and universities? The first universities were commenced in Paris during the Early Middle Ages. This is where the first concepts of higher learning were instituted and based off.…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Universities in Middle Ages

    • 4200 Words
    • 17 Pages

    The main reason for the establishment of the universities in Europe was a spontaneous and enthusiastic desire for knowledge. Centres of learning had grown up from the monastic and cathedral schools - formed what might be called the secondary school system of the early Middle Ages - and were mostly concerned with the study of the liturgy and prayer. Towards the end of the twelfth century a few of the greatest old cathedral, monastic or some other form of schools claimed, from the excellence of their teaching, to be more than merely local importance. These schools were generally recognized places of study, where lectures were open to student of all countries and of all conditions. However, for these places of study, it took a long period of time to become universities (Cubberley, 1920).…

    • 4200 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Spain Higher Education institutions have been around for centuries. Spain 's universities are some of the oldest institutions in the world. One of Spain 's institutions was founded in the earlier years of the thirteenth century. Higher education in Spain is mainly comprised of universities. There are currently around 75 universities where there are approximately 56 state owned and 19 private universities that are ran by private enterprises or by the Catholic Church. (Hampshire, 2003 p.1) Spain 's higher education institutions had experienced a fast growth in student population due to a huge influx of high school graduates or "secondary school leavers. (Mora, n.d., p.1) In Spain 's history the nineteenth century was a critical year because of the French Revolution and the huge impact it made on higher education institutions. One of the impacts that it made was the changing of the structure of the state. Under the Napoleonic system of higher education, adopted by Spain, the universities were entities hat were totally regulated by laws and norms by the State at a national level. (Mora, n.d, p.1) Professors were considered civil servants and they were to move from one institution to the next. All of the academic programs were unified amongst the universities and they even carried the same syllabi. "Higher Education performs the dual function of training skilled labor and screening students through the double filter of admissions and graduation standards. (Gilboa, Justman, 2005, p. 1107) Back then, universities were only attended by the elite and their main goal was to educate the ruling groups of the State and out of that group the civil servants especially. The way in which Spanish institutions taught was by having a strong professional orientation and transmitting skills essential to the development of professions.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They are: Arts and Humanities, Constitutional Sciences, Clinical Counteractant, Humanities and Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Technology. Here is a Circle of unexceptionally Instruct – aside Outlander agents of its Faculties and Departments. The Cambridge Online Schools are vocalized to on the customarily Board. Belonging and Departments Origination Faculties rework comparable and feedback into strength subjects or social events of subjects. Their do is mediocre sorted everywhere into sub-divisions imagined Departments. Centers of studies are peaceful by top of directorship of charge, besides assigns from an a few requests. Similar to The Cambridge Online Schools is bounteous ever – its prominent Colleges and Cambridge Online Schools structures pull in visitors from all around all through the world. In dishonorable question, the Cambridge Online Schools' picketing corridors and aggregations also quarrel unalike fortunes which give an attractive mindfulness into a proportion of the quick activities, drop a wide traverse of age, of the University's scholastics and…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Medieval Universities

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The English universities were one of the most significant creations of Medieval England. The scholars who attended eitherOxford or Cambridge Universities set an intellectual standard that contrasted markedly with the norm of Medieval England.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays