Universities and Higher Learning

The University as a Globalized Institution

Locating the first university in history is difficult. While some ancient higher learning institutions, like the Chinese Taixue (established in 3 CE) or the Islamic madrasah of Al-Azhar in Cairo (founded 970 CE), have longer histories, the University of [Page 1714]Bologna (1088 CE) is often labeled as the first modern university, being the first organization showing all the main characteristics: a combination of research (although not in the modern sense of the term) and teaching in a variety of subjects, granting academic degrees, and having a certain amount of academic freedom. From here, the idea of the university spread all over the world, with the university systems of Germany (“research university”), France (“the faculty/chair dominated system”), the United Kingdom (“the college system”) and, especially in the past few decades, the United States being the most influential for developments in other parts of the world. Even in their early years, the European universities were globalized organizations, teaching in a lingua franca (Latin) to international students.

However, the university became a global institution only during the 20th century, particularly with the unprecedented expansion after World War II. Enrollment in HE increased in nearly all world regions dramatically (with slightly smaller growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa and in Eastern Europe under communist rule). Whereas in 1900 less than 1% of an age cohort studied, this figure rose to about 20% in 2000, with an estimated absolute figure of 100 million worldwide. The main increase has happened since 1960. Exponents of the New Institutionalism claim that the emergence of a world polity, connecting (higher) education to economic as well as social progress ideologically, is the driving force behind the expansion, leading to similar HE trends in quite different countries. However, whereas access to HE has increased, questions of equity with regard to social class and minority groups remain.

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