Ancient university

Ancient university is a term used to describe the medieval and renaissance universities of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland that have continued to exist.

The British Isles

The ancient universities in the British Isles are, in order of formation:

University of Oxford – founded before 1167
University of Cambridge – founded 1209
University of St Andrews – founded 1413 by papal bull
University of Glasgow – founded 1451 by papal bull
University of Aberdeen – founded 1495 by papal bull (as King's College, Aberdeen)
University of Edinburgh – founded 1583 by Royal charter
University of Dublin – founded 1592 by Royal charter.

These universities often find themselves governed in a quite different fashion to more recent additions and also hold a number of privileges. The ancient universities of Scotland also share several distinctive features and are governed by arrangements laid down by the Universities (Scotland) Acts.

Following the creation of the ancient universities, no more universities were created in the United Kingdom until St Davids College, Lampeter was established in 1822 (Royal Charter 1828), University College London in 1826, King's College London in 1829 (both received their Royal Charter and became part of the University of London in 1836), and the University of Durham in 1832 (Royal Charter 1837). The Red Brick universities of the 19th century followed.

Anomalies

University of Aberdeen

The date of 1495 as the establishment of the University of Aberdeen is historically incorrect but legally accurate. The University itself was formed by a union, in 1860, of King's College (founded 1495) and Marischal College (founded 1593). While both institutions were universities and would be considered ancient, the Act of Parliament uniting the two specified that the date of the foundation of the new united university would be taken to be that of the older King's College.

It should be noted that Aberdeen was highly unusual at the time for having two universities in one city. As 20th century University of Aberdeen prospectuses wryly observed, this was the same number as existed in all of England at the time.

University of Dublin

The current University of Dublin (Trinity College) was a new foundation, granted a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. A prior University of Dublin had existed, created by papal bull in 1311. The latter institution ceased to exist following the Reformation. The University of Dublin is the only ancient university to be located outside of the present-day borders of the United Kingdom.

University of Dundee

The University of Dundee was established as an independent institution by Royal Charter in 1967, but has a history going back to the 19th century and was fully incorporated as a college of the University of St Andrews for most of its history, known as University College Dundee and Queen's College at various periods. Dundee shares all organisational features in common with the other ancient universities of Scotland by virtue of its descent through St Andrews such as awarding the undergraduate MA degree, and electing a Rector. Upon attaining its independence, Dundee also gained a number of significant schools from its parent university, including law, dentistry and the main medical school.

As a result, it is often considered alongside the ancient universities, particularly those in a Scottish context.

Undergraduate Master of Arts degree

The ancient universities are distinctive in offering the Magister Artium/Master of Arts (M.A.) as an undergraduate academic degree. This is commonly known as the Oxbridge MA, the Scottish MA, the Dublin MA or the Trinity MA.

The ancient M.A. has some differences between the ancient universities in Scotland and the ancient universities in England and Ireland. The former award the degree at graduation with honours and a final mark, however the latter is awarded without honours and on the basis of a period of good standing as a graduated Bachelor of Arts, usually around three years.

Because MA is in use for the undergraduate Arts degree, the ancient universities award differing titles for their postgraduate Masters degrees in the Arts and Humanities such as the taught Master of Letters ("MLitt (T)"). Some confusion can arise between whether such degrees are taught degrees or the most established (and advanced) two year research degrees, although this is often specified.

Universities (Scotland) Acts

Main article: Ancient university governance in Scotland

As mentioned above, the Universities (Scotland) Acts created a distinctive system of governance for the ancient universities in Scotland, the process beginning with the 1858 Act and ending with the 1966 Act. Despite not being founded until the after the first in these series of Acts, the University of Dundee shares all the features contained therein.

As a result of these Acts, each of these universities is governed by a tripartite system of General Council, University Court, and Academic Senate.

The chief executive and chief academic is the University Principal who also holds the title of Vice-Chancellor as an honorific. The Chancellor is a titular non-resident head to each university and is elected for life by the respective General Council, although in actuality a good number of Chancellors resign before the end of their 'term of office'.

Each also has a Students' Representative Council as required by statute, although at the University of Aberdeen this has recently been renamed the Students' Association Council.^[1]

Elsewhere in the world

While the term 'ancient university' is generally concentrated on the universities of the British Isles, there are several universities in the world which are very much ancient and often pre-date those in the UK and Ireland.

Several of the medieval universities of Continental Europe are the oldest examples of such institutions in the world. The University of Bologna was founded in 1088, the University of Paris was founded somewhere around 1150 and the University of Palencia (Spain) was founded in 1212.

The first Greek universities are considered to be Theodosius' University in Constantinople in the 4th century; the University of Constantinople was founded in the 9th century as a secular institute of higher learning, but its operation was discontinued after the Ottoman conquest. Plato's Academy (5th century B.C.) can also be considered the first university-like institution in Europe.

If the definition of a university is broadened to those that did not originally grant degrees but now do, then some ancient institutes predate even the University of Bologna (for example, Nalanda University had been established by the 5th century AD in India, Nanjing University was founded in 258 in China, Al-Azhar University was founded in 988 in Egypt and the University of Parma was founded in 1064 but only became a university in 1502). In China, there were also several other early universities, called Guozijian(國子監). Vietnam's first university, the Quoc Tu Giam (國子監; literally "National University", after the Chinese ones), functioned from 1076 to 1779.

Other early African universities included Dar Al-Hekma (founded in 1004); and the Sankore Madrasah (founded in 1325 in Timbuktu, in what was then the Mali Empire).

The term 'ancient university' can also be used in the context of the ancient universities of India.

References

^ "University of Aberdeen Students' Association Constitution". Retrieved 2007-04-21.

[1] "University of Aberdeen Students' Association Constitution". Retrieved 2007-04-21.

[1]