As early as 700 B.C., there existed a giant University at Takshashila, located in the northwest region of Bharat (India).

The world's oldest recognized university

Taxila also known as Takshashila, flourished from 600 BC to 500 AD, in the kingdom of Gandhar. 68 subjects were taught at this university and the minimum entry age, ancient texts show, was 16. At one stage, it had 10,500 students including those from Babylon, Greece, Syria, and China. Experienced masters taught the vedas, languages, grammar, philosophy, medicine, surgery, archery, politics, warfare, astronomy, accounts, commerce, documentation, music, dance and other performing arts, futurology, the occult and mystical sciences,complex mathematical calculations. The panel of masters at the university included legendary scholars like Kautilya, Panini, Jivak and Vishnu Sharma. Thus, the concept of a full-fledged university was 

The University at Nalanda functioned from 500 to 1300 AD until destroyed by invaders?

During the 800 years that the university was operational, it attained great fame. Its campus was one mile in length and a half-mile in width. It also had 300 lecture halls with stone benches for sitting; laboratories and other facilities were also available. For example, the university had a towering observatory called the Ambudharaavlehi for astronomical research. It has boasted a massive library called Dharma Gunj or Mountain of Knowledge that was set up in three buildings named Ratna Sagar, Ratnodavi and Ratnayanjak. The entrance examination was very difficult and the pass rate was 3 out of every 10 students. Despite this hurdle, the Chinese traveler, Hien Tsang wrote in his diary that 10,000 students and 200 professors were at Nalanda University.

All the historic data confirm this statement, and the Church has been and is Mother and Master. The academic development needed to protect the interests of professors and of the students, and to maintain its character of "corpus", and in the XIII century had this development in Europe.

The oldest universities were in Europe, and I do not see very well how they could have established themselves without the support/approval of the catholic Church?

Then the question is how you define a 'university' given that a lot of famous scientists (e.g. mathematicians) were also in the Middle East?

It was, after all, in the High Middle Ages that the university came into existence. The university, which developed and matured at the height of Catholic Europe, was a new phenomenon in European history. Nothing like it had existed in ancient Greece or Rome. The institution that we recognize today, with its faculties, courses of study, examinations, and degrees, as well as the familiar distinction between undergraduate and graduate study, comes to us directly from the medieval world. And it is no surprise that the Church should have done so much to foster the nascent university system since, according to historian Lowrie Daly, it was "the only institution in Europe that showed consistent interest in the preservation and cultivation of knowledge."

The Church provided special protection to university students by offering them what was known as benefit of clergy. Clergymen in medieval Europe enjoyed a special legal status in that, first, it was an extraordinarily serious crime to lay a hand on them, and second, they had the right to have their cases heard in an ecclesiastical rather than a secular court.

According to historian of science Edward Grant, the creation of the university, the commitment to reason and rational argument, and the overall spirit of inquiry that characterized medieval intellectual life amounted to "a gift from the Latin Middle Ages to the modern world…though it is a gift that may never be acknowledged. Perhaps it will always retain the status it has had for the past four centuries as the best-kept secret of Western civilization."

http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/education/catholic-contributions/the-catholic-church-and-the-creation-of-the-university.html

According to [1] in Wiki the University of al-Qarawiyyin or Al Quaraouiyine is a university located in Fes, Morocco. It is the oldest existing, continually operating and the first degree awarding educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records and is sometimes referred to as the oldest university.

From another reference (See link) the following ranking is correct:

1. University of Al-Karaouine: Located in Fes, Morocco, this university originally was a mosque founded in 859 by Fatima al -Fihri, a woman.

2. Al-Azhar University: This university, located in Egypt, is the world's second oldest surviving degree-granting institute. Founded in 970-972,

3. Nizamiyya (established in 1065): This series of universities was established by Khwaja Nizam alMulk in the eleventh century in what is now present day Iran. The Nizamiyya schools served as a model for future universities in the region, and al Mulk often is seen as responsible for a new era of brilliance which caused his schools to eclipse all other contemporary learning institutions.

[1] Verger, Jacques: "Patterns", in: Ridder-Symoens, Hilde de (ed.): A History of the University in Europe. Vol. I: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-54113-8, pp. 35–76 (35)

http://muslimobserver.com/first-university-in-the-world/

Top 10 oldest universities in the world (see link)

http://collegestats.org/2009/12/top-10-oldest-universities-in-the-world-ancient-colleges/

From the very outset, we must say: no. Originally, in fact in Bologna, as it is well known, a number of notably families gathered to jointly pay teachers and professor to their students. These were the very first seeds of what was to become a university.

The catholic church did indeed participate very actively later on, but strictly speaking it all was a lay - civil endeavour.

Not to mention that the very process by which Modernity separates from the Middle Age was a long and strenuous one.

A university requires the international procedence of the students and the universal validity of the titles. In this sense I said my question.

In a mosque it could teach to Islamic persons before, as in the Christian faith of the Catholic Church before, or in a sinagogue teach Jewish salvation history for its people before, or Mathematics in the Greek academia before, etc.

Dear All,

University must be a higher education institute where universal knowledge and not excluding religious learning has been taught. Another essential character must be the continual development of teaching and scientific research having outputs as progressive knowledge and degree holders in the form of baccalaureus, magister and doctor.  The first university must be the first higher education institute which may be the real precedent of today universities and suits the essence of them. Regarding these arguments, the first “universities” must have been established and maintained by the Catholic Church.  

As early as 700 B.C., there existed a giant University at Takshashila, located in the northwest region of Bharat (India).

The world's oldest recognized university

Taxila also known as Takshashila, flourished from 600 BC to 500 AD, in the kingdom of Gandhar. 68 subjects were taught at this university and the minimum entry age, ancient texts show, was 16. At one stage, it had 10,500 students including those from Babylon, Greece, Syria, and China. Experienced masters taught the vedas, languages, grammar, philosophy, medicine, surgery, archery, politics, warfare, astronomy, accounts, commerce, documentation, music, dance and other performing arts, futurology, the occult and mystical sciences,complex mathematical calculations. The panel of masters at the university included legendary scholars like Kautilya, Panini, Jivak and Vishnu Sharma. Thus, the concept of a full-fledged university was 

The University at Nalanda functioned from 500 to 1300 AD until destroyed by invaders?

During the 800 years that the university was operational, it attained great fame. Its campus was one mile in length and a half-mile in width. It also had 300 lecture halls with stone benches for sitting; laboratories and other facilities were also available. For example, the university had a towering observatory called the Ambudharaavlehi for astronomical research. It has boasted a massive library called Dharma Gunj or Mountain of Knowledge that was set up in three buildings named Ratna Sagar, Ratnodavi and Ratnayanjak. The entrance examination was very difficult and the pass rate was 3 out of every 10 students. Despite this hurdle, the Chinese traveler, Hien Tsang wrote in his diary that 10,000 students and 200 professors were at Nalanda University.

Dear Louis, thank you so much for reminding us not to be too biased to the West. In fact, the world hitters does not coincide with the history of the west. Thank you really!

Dear All,

“The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which means "community of teachers and scholars.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University

The university is determined by its spiritual quintessence which are academic freedom and the motto what matters is what was said and not who said it that is the unlimited discussion. Institutions where these exist, are real universities. Briefly, freedom and ratio determine a university.   

Artur Braun,

Galileo did not have a fair trial and was given the chance to publish in his lifetime.  Do you think that you would have fairer trial trying to publish a paper in cognitive science that is not conform to a materialistic conception of science?  Galileo face his opponent experts and we still have the records of the argumentation on the two sides.  Nowadays referees are anonymous and they simply tell you in a letter that is not good.  Nowadays referees and the old catholic bishops have no problem with those that are in the common creeds but nowadays like yesterday those not within the creeds wont passed the gate of publication.

There is evidence of existence of university concept in India in 320 BC. The university name is Taxshila niversity.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259822569_Analysis_of_Tertiary_Education-Trained_Human_Resource_Needs_in_the_Bicol_Region

Review of Related Studies and Literature

Higher education training originally was not concerned with material community

development. It was started and supported by “religious organizations, managed and

staffed by clergy primarily aimed to educate the church and civic leaders” (Grolier,

1995), and was limited to those in the “service of God”.

In mediaeval higher education (Cox, 2000), “the university student was a cleric

whose studies did not advance beyond deacon and forsook the religious vocation as a

secular career”. Later in its developed stage (Cox, 2000), “higher education subjects

were Latin grammar (including literature), rhetoric (including law) and logic or dielectic

and was marked by the awarding, after four to seven years, of the degree Bachelor of

Arts (baccalaureate, or bicentiate)” which was only “preliminary to the mastership (later

called master, doctor or professor) covering the studies of arithmetic, geometry

(including geography and natural history), music, (chiefly that of the church), and

astronomy, normally followed by Hebrew or Greek philosophy and history”. After three

years of study, the degree Master of Arts was awarded. “At Oxford University, degrees

of divinity, law, medicine, and later in 1450-1500, physic were awarded”.

As other sectors of society became interested in higher education, to some, it

became more of a personal, knowledge-for-the-sake-of knowledge pursuit and was

limited to the well-to-do in the community. Soon after, more members of the society

grew interested in learning and the States, or the Governments took substantial

participation, if not control, of higher education.

“Higher Education” is the term that is used in the United States of America (____)

“to describe any schooling after secondary or high school education taking the form of a

university, college, technical school, vocational school, or professional school. “

“Institutions in the U.S.A. proffer an extensive array of subjects (or majors) to study,

everything from the fine and liberal arts to practical, career-oriented fields such as

engineering and marketing. There are four levels of degrees one can study for at an

American college or university. They are the Associate‟s degree, the Bachelor of Arts or

Bachelor of Science degree, the Master‟s degree and the Doctor of Philosophy or

Doctor of Education”.

In the early 1800s (Grolier, 1995) “colleges and universities in the United States

of America that intended to serve the growing diversity of educational needs, usually

practical, non-sectarian purposes, developed the state schools in Maryland,

Pennsylvania, and Michigan that offered agriculture, engineering, and applied science

curricula, whereas older colleges such as Harvard, Yale, and DARTMOUTH

incorporated scientific schools; normal colleges were instituted to respond to the

growing demand for elementary and secondary school teachers; and professional

schools for law and medicine were begun or added into other institutions”.

“During World War II and afterwards, scientific and technological advances

encouraged by the government stimulated many changes in universities (Grolier, 2005).

Research and outreach programs have extended education beyond the boundaries of

many campuses and faculty specialists were called upon oftentimes by business and

government to help solve problems “(Grolier, 2005).

The Philippine education which is patterned after the American system

(etravel,__), followed a similar trend.

Higher education in today‟s setting is no longer just concerned with „the pursuit of

knowledge” or the service of the church. It is charged with the obligation to be “relevant

and responsive” to the needs of the world, the country, the region, and the community”.

The trend in higher education today is towards career-oriented degrees- professions

that will gain employment-income on the part of the students, and profit or development

on the part of the employer- whether a private entity or the government. Indeed,

“colleges and universities are faced with revising their academic curricula based on

environmental changes and needs…”(Smith, 2005).

Data Analysis of Tertiary Education-Trained Human Resource Needs ...

The olden history on concept of  university can be traced back to 300-500B.C. in eastern India in sate Bihar as today it is known . Surely matches to medieval period . Its a nice question Mariano , gives lot of information for all of us to know about the roots of university since our roots are mainly confined to university only.

House of Wisdom as an example of a medieval research center

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom

The educational institution and Universities were patronised by the rulers/kings in ancient times. There could be a number of examples from Taxila and Nalanda from 4th century BC and later on Oxford etc from 11 Century BC. The list could be an extended one. Since the church or religion leaders has influence over the rulers and the society, it certainly has influence. To my mind, Perhaps we cannot call it a invention of Church !

The Catholic Church has done many good things to the world and bad ones. A good example would keep the Bible throughout time. A bad (terrible) the inquision. University appearance is not one of them. 

Dear Artur,

You have had a very characteristic and valuable opinion. However, you have not answered the original question. It is not fair to evaluate the very politically influenced often tactical aims of Catholic Church in that time. What matters is that the present time university aims and structures have the origin in the middle age European university. Thus, there has been a good initiation which has leaded to the present university organization. By the way, the Catholic Church has had a positive evolution that it is not anymore the church of the political power but it approaches the idea of Jesus who had never ever either political connections or political or economic intentions.

As the proofs, please regard the Catholic universities and the many teaching monk orders.

If somebody enters the garden of a Hungarian country house these days, s/he can see the garden structure taught by the monks in the middle age because they had an important role even in the agricultural development. In spite of the atheist decisions of EU and the political deformations of the former Catholic leadership, present day university existence and working cannot be imagined without the Catholic Church.   

Another point must be the availability of reliable documentation of the events of this evolution, the evolution of university. If you look after the performance or education of such important scientists like Paracelsus – your countryman - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus or Descartes ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes or Nostradamus whose scientific fame is questioned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostradamus you can find reliable documentation on their university education.  This is the difference to unreliable data or guessing according to obscure historical resources.

In summary, what matter are the cause and effect relationship and their reliability.

Here you can see graduation registry for Descartes at the University of Poitiers, 1616:

Mariano:

Yes, I do believe that the University is an European institution created at the hands of the Catholic Church. But, it is disheartening to see that these same universities have rejected their "corner stone" and become very secular with all the associated "ills" that come with such secularism.

http://www.academicapparel.com/caps/College-University-History.html

Many thanks,

Debra

 Dear All,

Mariano’s question concerns the precedence of present day university as it is and not what was the main aim of Catholic leadership in the middle age.  

I repeat what matter are the cause and effect relationship and their reliability.  

By the way, I am glad to see the social and cultural stratifications in the answers.

Dear All,

It is time to enlarge the discussion. Many denied that the Ancient Greek education would be a predecessor of present day university. This may be right regarding its structure and organisation but not its main essence as academic freedom and free discussion. Anyway, the results of Ancient Greek philosophy and science were the basis of medieval university.

Another approach may be the “priest training institutes” in Ancient Egypt. There are not written documentation but one can speculate about them.

In addition, regarding Maya culture there must have been some training institutes for priest architects and astronomers. Who knows?

Pushing a little bit farther András' comments, one can also easily see some religious biases on some answers, rather than strictly logical or historical replies.

Dear Artur,

Your note to Martina is an open question. Whose invention was the university of these days? Was it a universal human invention? Which teaching institute can be called university?

Are madrasas or jeshiwa schools universities?

I do not think so.

Here you can read the correct evaluation of Toby Huff:

“From a structural and legal point of view, the madrasa and the university were contrasting types. Whereas the madrasa was a pious endowment under the law of religious and charitable foundations (waqf), the universities of Europe were legally autonomous corporate entities that had many legal rights and privileges. These included the capacity to make their own internal rules and regulations, the right to buy and sell property, to have legal representation in various forums, to make contracts, to sue and be sued."

Toby Huff, Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West, 2nd ed., Cambridge, 2003, p. 133-139, 149-159, 179-189 (179)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrasa#cite_note-50

Dear Carlos,

Without bias errors would be perfect.

The first center of knowledge and learning around the mediteranean sea was probably Memphis for the Egyptian priests who were scientists, doctors, architects, mathematicians, astronomers, myth 101, etc, etc,  

Later it was Plato's academy in Athen which was for rich greek aristocrats.

And at the time of Alexander became for a long time, the biggest center of learning became Alexandia with its gigantic and legendary library.

When the roman empire became more and more dominated by Christianity they closed the Academia and the other ancient non-christian learning centers.  

The University of al-Qarawiyyin or Al Quaraouiyine (Arabic: جامعة القرويين‎) is a university located in Fes, Morocco. It is the oldest existing, continually operating and the first degree awarding educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records.The Al Quaraouiyine mosque-religious school / college was founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859 A.D.

Dear Napoleon,

The original question was „Was the University an European invention at hands of the Catholic Church?” and not „Was a higher education unit an European invention at hands of the Catholic Church?”

Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, Indian, Arabic maybe Maya etc. education units existed but were not universities.

I suggest you again to read: Toby Huff, Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West, 2nd ed., Cambridge, 2003, p. 133-139, 149-159, 179-189 (179)

Expressions like plagiarism, dark ages, inquisition, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, Martin Luther and Protestantism have nothing to do with the subject of the thread. Earlier I mentioned documentation and objective proofs, these are what I need because the "devil" lurks in the details.

By the way, were dark ages darker than our age is at the moment?

I repeat, I am glad to see the social and cultural stratifications in the answers as well as signs of political correctness.

In seems to me that university (in it's modern definition) was not an invention, it was an outcome of deterministic slow evolution of  ancient education units.

Dear Artur,

Your Catholic madrasa, was a good or a bad madrasa?  How do you remember that time?

The most ancient european universities were founded previous to the splitting of the Christendom by the reformation.  So these most ancient one were all by default catholic.  But most european universities were created after 1500 and those that were created in reformed districts were christian protestant and those created in catholic districts were originally catholic.  Any university professor whose doctrine would deviated form the local christian faith or their morality deviated from local christian faith were expulsed.  Protestant university had no place for catholic and vice versa.  Then after the French revolution a new type of religious player enter the religious market of europe : Secularity. Many part of Europe became almost fanatically secular and some university in these part declared themself as officially SECULAR with not toleration of religion under the name of tolerance of all religions and the new sacralisation of the separation of religion from politic and thus its removal from the public sphere and its containment in the private sphere.  

Historically speaking, the wonder is that in the midst of a prevailing ideology there are e number of phenomena that arise without being caused by the hegemonic powers of the moment. Along history and geography we can find numerous such cases. Well, the origins of the university - in Europe - is one of those.

I have studied a doctorate in sociology in the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, with around 8 centuries of teaching in Spain, and was a good pass in my academic life. I am grateful to the teachers and administrative personnel. Very good pass. This university was created in the times of creation of the modern European universities.

Dear Louis,

Secularity that is objective religious indifference was an important impetus in the evolution of universities. Unfortunately, secularism has not been achieved even these days at many higher educational units called universities. How can these institutions realise the free opinion and freedom for discussions when not even religion and state have been separated?

Historically speaking, dear Carlos, these institutions have remained in the middle age. Have not they?

Dear All,

There is a fine contribution on the essence and evolution of the university in French https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universit%C3%A9

I propose to read it.

Coat of arms of the university of Oxford does matter even these days: “Dominus illiminatio mea”.

András ,

That wikepedia page is Eurocentric:

''Cependant, ces différentes organisations ne revendiquaient pas la compilation et l'élaboration de l'ensemble des savoirs, mais seulement leur enseignement, ce qui les distinguait alors de l'université''

It may be useful to point out that the rise of university in western Europe was occurred simultaneously with the flourishing of Gothic architecture style. These two phenomena might be under the same influences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_architecture

Dear Abdul,

I have read in RG that the religion is very important in the selection of teachers in majority muslim countries. In the actual Europe, I think the public universities do not put the main point in the religion, because there are atheist, agnostic, practicing and non practicing religion teachers. Also in private universities.

But, in the origin, the teachers were practicing Catholic and there was communion in the corpus, I think in the sense explained by St. Paul in his letters of the New Testament. Or the same Jesus Christ in the Gospel.

Dear Louis,

Yes, this is a fact however, European universities have provided the spiritual basis of free idea, free discussion and secularity in natural science (Naturwissenschaften).   Another factor is the data, evidences and documentation. There is a valuable homepage, https://books.google.com/ngrams where you can look for all kinds of expressions, words published in scanned Google books. This is a fine opportunity to make interesting studies in computational linguistic as well as in phenomena and events in natural sciences, history etc. However, the availability of languages as well as the quantity of books is limited. There are searchable data mainly in major European languages and Chinese (simplified) no Arabic, no Urdu etc. This cannot be the mistake of America and Europe that they invest even in a field like that. Another example: Some years ago I collected dozens of insects in Tunisia. I wanted them to identify. Unfortunately, I were not able to find any Asian or African resources, books, museums etc. to get a key. What I found were European and American opportunities. It cannot be a misdeed that people, governments in this culture invest for common scientific aims.  These are facts in which political correctness cannot help.  

 Wikipedia is democratic, everybody has right to make contributions but that needs work and preparation.            

In my Universities we had the lectures on the Universal religions.I tried to enter the course  "Lessons on Spirituality",doing by our priest.It was greatest to discuss the eternal moral values with students.Nowadays there is a subject "Universal religions" in our curriculum.Besides,I work in Sunday school,where education is created on the spiritual values.I'm sure,education on the spiritual foundation is important, but God must be in the human soul.

مقالات چاپ شده می خواهم درباره کتاب خودخوان و محتواسازی برای دانشگاه کتاب محور و محتوا محور مثل دانشگاه پیام نور؟؟؟؟

 Sacred activity-Peace through dialogue!

http://forpost-sevastopol.ru/living-art/item/5082-vpervye-v-istorii-patriarkh-i-pontifik-ob-edinyatsya-dlya-spaseniya-khristian

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/4258655.html

http://baptist.org.ru/read/article/97822

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/3208413.html

https://mospat.ru/archive/2001/04/nr104203/

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/62862.html

They had schools, but the own organization of the modern University I think it is due in origin to that time, centuries XII and XIII, with the auspices of the Catholic Church in Europe. But this is not a dogma of the Catholic Church, Napoleon, but only my viewpoint.

I think that the respect to the rights of teachers and students were auspiced by the Church in a more open society in these centuries of creation of modern universities in Europe.

Doctors of the Church existed since the first centuries, for example St. John Crisostome was a doctor of the Church of the fourth century after Jesus Christ.

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.”

― George Bernard Shaw

Dear Mariano, is that a good or great or significant thing to be a Doctor of the Church, within the frame of RG?

Dear Carlos, is that significant or great or good to be doctor of an university, within the frame of the Church?

Dear Stefan,

To be doctor in an actual university, it is not necessary to be professor or teacher. Only student.

The titles of doctor of the Church are based on their faith and facts, as the written legacy of them. These titles exist in the Church for some historic persons that cannot be teachers of a university because the modern university dates of the last millenium but many doctors of the Church were of the preceeding millenium and of the firsts centuries. An example was St. John Crisostome (4th century).

Dear all,

Churches played a pivotal role in educating societies. In Ethiopia, the church was the center of learning and the schools were called church schools. They have different levels of training with a highest certification equivalent to a degree in the church tradition.   Students were trained to  read, write, do arithmetic, arts, architecture, law, governance and medication for centuries. 

http://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/english/ethiopian/school.html

Other doctor of the Church was St. Leon Magno, who was Pope of the Catholic Church in the 5th century.

In times of Jesus, in the Gospel it says that Jesus with 12 years old was in the Temple of Jerusalem, and he was talking with doctors of the Temple. So, the title of doctor existed in the Jew tradition too. The difference is that a Jew doctor was living with the title of doctor, but the Church named doctors between dead persons in this world but living their souls in the heaven (they were between the saints).

Dear Barbara,

About anticonceptives, you can read many documents of the Church in which it talks of them: Encyclicals as Humanae vitae or Evangelium vitae are very clear for the dignity of the procreation. There exist many medical references of the inutility of condoms to control epidemies.

Dear Louis,

According to Jew tradition and the Bible, there was provisional institucionalized religious tradition since Moses (year 1300 before Christ). Its name in Spanish: Tienda del Encuentro. It had an undoubtable educative function.

Other doctor of the Church was St. Ambrosio, bishop of Milan, who lived in the century V.

I think that if the actual university had its origin in the Catholic church, only it remains its interest in search and research the truth. But the church in origin taught these truths freely before the existence of universities. For this, the essence of knowledge belongs to the interpretation of the church, which was confered by Jesus Christ to it for all times and all places.

Dear Mariano,

Dear All,

I agree whit you on the merit of the Catholic Church as founding and starting classical university education. However, unfortunately where people may have uncontrolled power without democratic or logical feedbacks even good structures and the positive aims may be destroyed and damaged as this happened in Hungary. At a Catholic college in Vác where the so called rector Mária Erdő (the sister of Péter Erdő, the cardinal of  Hungary) devastated during 5 years the education as she fired over 50% of teachers, substituted them with her cronies and relatives, changed the operating system a vassal state similar structure where everybody was frightened. It is thought that she has had not even a proper PhD degree because there was no Hungarian university where she could obtain a scientific degree. So she went to Slovakia, Ruzomberok to get one. The Ruzomberok Catholic University may have 10-13 years of past in operation full with triumph. It may be a fine university, they wrote on scientific activity of the Catholic University in Ružomberok that documents show realised scientific project and grants, publishing activities in their home page. Unfortunately, the given source is wholly empty.  I tried to find this university in RG but in vain. I also started to find scientific activity of the rector, a dean and an associate professor but their names were unknown for RG. I notice that Mária Erdő speaks no foreign language thus it is a secret how could she got a PhD degree in pedagogy in Slovakia?

http://www.ku.sk/en/

http://24.hu/belfold/2017/01/31/botranyai-utan-tavozik-a-katolikus-foiskola-rektora/

http://index.hu/belfold/2017/01/31/nem_kirugtak_hanem_feleves_szabadsagot_vett_ki_a_vaci_rektor/

http://nepszava.hu/cikk/1100101-csalassal-szerezte-doktorijat-a-rektorno

This kind of nepotism and injustice is more demoralising and harmful than other proved troubles in the structure of the Church. This is a sad message to the common people but even more sad for Catholic believers.

Dear András,

Yes, it is possible the sin in the Church, who not? I do not judge, but I prefer do not talk of the sins of the world to long distance of the Church. Do you know these sins? Talk bad of a mother is not correct. Thank you.

Dear Mariano,

One can forgive sins but not tolerate sins which are consequences of greed, desire for power, intolerance and ignorance. A sister of a cardinal or a cardinal must not darken and taint the Church.

Dear András,

I do not know the case you told. The possible sin of a sister is not sin of the brother. I remember the words of Moses when he said that the father is not responsible of the sins of the sons, and the sons are not responsible of the sins of the father. Each one will be judged by his/her own sins (I understand all ones will be judged by God).

Dear Mariano,

Thanks for your opinion. I cannot judge anybody. The cardinal as the leader of the Hungarian Catholic Church must have had an eye on the activity of his sister. One thing is sure now, unfortunately, the repute and fame of the Church have been degraded.

Universal and Catholic means the same thing. The academic titles given by the universities of the Church in origin were valids for all the world. But actually the titles could serve for the same university or for the state or country.

The education of a good teacher is the most important, and the Church had the best teacher, to Jesus Christ. Their disciples wrote books for all men since the first century with fidelity to the historical facts.

The organization of a serious university in times of century XII or XIII was impossible very possibly out of the Church and of Europe.

''Some scholars such as Syed Farid Alatas have noted some parallels between Madrasahs and early European colleges and have thus inferred that the first universities in Europe were influenced by the Madrasahs in Islamic Spain and the Emirate of Sicily''

''between the 11th and 14th centuries for the study of the Arts and the higher disciplines of Theology, Law, and Medicine.

...

University studies took six years for a Master of Arts degree (a Bachelor of Arts degree would be awarded after completing the third or fourth year). The studies for this were organized by the faculty of arts, where the seven liberal arts were taught: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric.''

So none of the topics taught in these early european university was involving empirical study of Nature, i.e. what we call modern science.  It was school for the teaching of theology and the teaching of traditional knowledge and traditional skills, like the Madrasahs.  They were not places of innovation and discoveries.

Yes, without a good organization and qualities, much of them taught by the Church, it would have not been possible modern universities as we know now.

The coordination for the organization of a university could be impossible without a communion in basic morale principles. The Church practiced such principles since the first century and keep the good of all culture along centuries in the Middle Age.

Practice of virtues is necessary for the credibility of a university, and it is in the Church where such virtues are teached and put in practice mainly.

The concept of modern universities in which it is transmitted the science had in Europe such begin, but the science existed before, during and after such origin of universities. Its quality was the openess of knowledge to all students in a serious administration.

Dear Stefan,

The question may be raised whether the mentioned connections were individual  scarce  (they met by chance in an ancient pub) or institutional  abundant relations (they discussed what they thought on “science” and philosophy)?

Dear Louis,

Medicine was science. Was not it?

"The first Western European institutions generally considered to be universities were established in the Kingdom of Italy, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of Spain, and the Kingdom of Portugal between the 11th and 14th centuries for the study of the Arts and the higher disciplines of Theology, Law, and Medicine.[1]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university

Here you are some data on the history of medicinal training http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/6345/1/Medical-Education-The-Rise-of-the-Universities.html

Dear Louis,

You can understand that occult sciences cannot be taught in a modern university. Excuse me.

Talking with sincerity, the human relations necessary to the well developping of a good institution was very possibly inthinkable out of the context of the Church in such times of the end of the Middle Age.

András,

You have a good point.  Medecine has always been an empirical science as far back we can trace.  

The good relations provided by the Church between its members facilitate a culture of colaboration and deinterested help which can determine a good organization to the service of the students.

The Church is mother and teacher, the university is a natural extension of its mission.

At the times of creation of universities in Europe, the Church was the unique institution widely acceptable and appreciated. This was one of the reasons of its fostering and mentoring of students.

Actually the Church is one of the institutions most implicated in the education in the five continents.

Yes, I think that the Church does not abandon to the students in their will of learning, as Jesus did with his disciples.

But the mission of the Church is not give academic titles primarily but announcing and teaching the Gospel and to baptize to all the people who believes in Jesus.