University

University

Noun · /ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsɪti/ · an institution of higher education and research that awards academic degrees

Definition

University is a noun denoting an institution of higher education that offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and conducts research. A university is typically divided into multiple faculties or schools — law, medicine, engineering, arts — each offering specialised programmes. The word can refer to a specific named institution or to the concept of higher education in general: she is at university, he studied at a red-brick university, the university accepted three hundred students this year.

Origin

University comes from the medieval Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium — the community of masters and scholars. The Latin universitas itself meant a whole corporation or guild — a body of persons organised for a common purpose. The earliest universities — Bologna 1088, Oxford circa 1096, Paris circa 1150 — were self-governing communities of scholars before they were buildings or curricula. English adopted the word in the fourteenth century, and it has remained stable in meaning ever since.