Editing Academy (section)

==Ancient and medieval institutions==
{{main|Ancient higher-learning institutions|Madrasa|Medieval university}}
{{See also|University#History{{!}}History of universities}}

===Ancient world===
{{main|Ancient higher-learning institutions}}

====Greece and early Europe====
In ancient Greece, after the establishment of the original Academy, [[Plato]]'s colleagues and pupils developed spin-offs of his method. [[Arcesilaus]], a Greek student of Plato established the [[Middle Academy]]. [[Carneades]], another student, established the [[New Academy]]. In 335 BC, [[Aristotle]] refined the method with his own theories and established the [[Lyceum]] in another gymnasium.

====Africa====
The [[Musaeum]], [[Serapeum of Alexandria|Serapeum]] and [[library of Alexandria]] Egypt was frequented by [[intellectual]]s from Africa, Europe and Asia studying various aspects of philosophy, language and mathematics.

The [[University of Timbuktu]] was a medieval university in [[Timbuktu]], present-day Mali, which comprised three schools: the Mosque of Djinguereber, the Mosque of Sidi Yahya, and the Mosque of Sankore. During its zenith, the university had an average attendance of around 25,000 students within a city of around 100,000 people.

====China====
In China a higher education institution [[Shang Xiang]] was founded by [[Shun (Chinese leader)|Shun]] in the [[Emperor Shun|Youyu]] era before the 21st century BC. The Imperial Central Academy at [[Nanjing]], founded in 258, was a result of the evolution of Shang Xiang and it became the first comprehensive institution combining education and research and was divided into five faculties in 470, which later became [[Nanjing University]].

In the 8th century another kind of institution of learning emerged, named [[Shuyuan]], which were generally privately owned. There were thousands of Shuyuan recorded in ancient times. The degrees from them varied from one to another and those advanced Shuyuan such as [[Bailudong Shuyuan]] and [[Yuelu Shuyuan]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Introduction of Hunan University|url=http://www-en.hnu.edu.cn/About_HNU/Introduction.htm|website=Hunan University}}</ref> (later become [[Hunan University]]) can be classified as higher institutions of learning.

====India====
[[Taxila (modern)|Taxila]] or [[Taxila (ancient)|Takshashila]], in ancient [[Hindustan|India]], modern-day Pakistan, was an early centre of learning, near present-day [[Islamabad]] in the city of [[Taxila (modern)|Taxila]]. It is considered one of the ancient universities of the world. According to scattered references which were only fixed a millennium later it may have dated back to at least the 5th century BC.<ref>Hartmut Scharfe (2002): ''Education in Ancient India'', Brill Academic Publishers, {{ISBN|90-04-12556-6}}, p. 141: {{blockquote|We have to be extremely cautious in dealing with the literary evidence, because much of the information offered in the secondary literature on Taxila is derived from the Jataka prose that was only fixed in Ceylon several hundred years after the events that it purports to describe, probably some time after Buddhaghosa, i.e. around A.D. 500.}}</ref> Some scholars date Takshashila's existence back to the 6th century BC.<ref name="Britannica Education">"History of Education", ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.</ref> The school consisted of several monasteries without large dormitories or lecture halls where the religious instruction was most likely still provided on an individualistic basis.<ref>Hartmut Scharfe (2002): ''Education in Ancient India'', Brill Academic Publishers, {{ISBN|90-04-12556-6}}, p. 141</ref> Takshashila is described in some detail in later [[Jataka tales|Jātaka]] tales, written in Sri Lanka around the 5th century AD.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Marshall | first = John | author-link = John Marshall (archaeologist) | title = Taxila: Volume I | orig-year = 1951 | year = 1975 | publisher = [[Motilal Banarsidass]] | location = Delhi | page = 81}}</ref>

It became a noted centre of learning at least several centuries BC, and continued to attract students until the destruction of the city in the 5th century AD. Takshashila is perhaps best known because of its association with Chanakya. The famous [[treatise]] [[Arthashastra]] ([[Sanskrit]] for The knowledge of [[Economics]]) by Chanakya, is said to have been composed in Takshashila itself. Chanakya (or Kautilya),<ref>[http://britannica.com/eb/article-9044882 Kautilya]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080110120535/http://britannica.com/eb/article-9044882 |date=2008-01-10 }}. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> the [[Maurya Empire|Maurya]] Emperor [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]]<ref>Radhakumud Mookerji (1941; 1960; reprint 1989). ''Chandragupta Maurya and His Times'' (p. 17). Motilal Banarsidass Publ. {{ISBN|81-208-0405-8}}.</ref> and the [[Ayurvedic]] healer [[Charaka]] studied at Taxila.<ref name=Mookerji>Radha Kumud Mookerji (2nd ed. 1951; reprint 1989). ''Ancient Indian Education: Brahmanical and Buddhist'' (pp. 478–489). Motilal Banarsidass Publ. {{ISBN|81-208-0423-6}}.</ref>

Generally, a student entered Takshashila at the age of sixteen. The [[Vedas]] and the [[Eighteen Arts]], which included skills such as [[archery]], [[hunting]], and [[elephant]] lore, were taught, in addition to its [[law school]], [[medical school]], and school of [[military science]].<ref name=Mookerji/>

[[File:Nalanda University India ruins.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|[[Nalanda]], ancient center of higher learning in [[Bihar]], India,<ref name="Altekar1965">Altekar, Anant Sadashiv (1965). ''Education in Ancient India'', Sixth, Varanasi: Nand Kishore & Bros.</ref><ref name="New York Times">"[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/opinion/09garten.html Really Old School]", Garten, Jeffrey E. New York Times, 9 December 2006.</ref> from 427 to 1197]]

[[Nalanda]] was established in the 5th century AD in [[Bihar (India)|Bihar]], India.<ref name="Altekar1965"/> It was founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal. It survived until 1197 when it was set upon, destroyed and burnt by the marauding forces of [[Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji]]. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war.<ref name="New York Times"/>

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:The ancient university of Nalanda in Bihar, India, November 1996.jpg|thumb|Excavated ruins at [[Nalanda]], [[Bihar]], India 1996]] -->The center had eight separate compounds, 10 temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, housing 10,000 students in the university's heyday and providing accommodation for 2,000 professors.<ref name="Nalanda">{{Cite web |url=http://nalanda.ind.in/index.html |title=Official website of Nalanda University |access-date=2018-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316100842/http://nalanda.ind.in/index.html |archive-date=2012-03-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Nalanda University attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey.

===Persia===
The geographical position of [[Persia]] allowed it to absorb cultural influences and ideas from both west and east. This include the spread of the Greek form of schools in the new Hellenistic cities built in Persia after the invasion of [[Alexander the Great]].<ref name=Lowe />

Under the [[Sassanian Empire|Sasanians]], [[Classical Syriac|Syriac]] became an important language of the administration and intellectuals, rivaling Greek. Several cities developed centers of higher learning in the Sasanian Empire, including [[Mosul]], [[al-Hira]], and [[Harran]] (famous for the [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean]] School of the [[Sabians of Harran|Sabians]]). The Grand School was the main center of learning in the Persian capital [[Ctesiphon]], but little is known about it. Perhaps the most famous center of learning in Persia was the [[Academy of Gundishapur]], teaching medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and logic. The academy was later instrumental in founding the Muslim city of Baghdad as a center of learning, and serving as the model for the first Muslim hospital (''[[bimaristan]]'') at Damascus.<ref name=Lowe>{{cite book |last1=Lowe |first1=Roy |last2=Yasuhara |first2=Yoshihito |title=The Origins of Higher Learning: Knowledge networks and the early development of universities |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317543275 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9DolDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |language=en}}</ref>

====Islamic world====
{{Main|Islamic Golden Age#Education}}
Founded in Fes, [[University of Al-Karaouine]] in the 9th century and in Cairo, [[Al-Azhar University]] in the 10th century, and in Mali, the [[University of Timbuktu]] in about 1100. [[Mustansiriya Madrasah]] in [[Baghdad]], Iraq, was established in 1227 as a [[madrasah]] by the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid Caliph]] [[Al-Mustansir (Baghdad)|al-Mustansir]]. Its library had an initial collection of 80,000 volumes, given by the Caliph. The collection was said to have grown to 400,000 volumes.

===Medieval Europe===
{{Main|Medieval university}}
[[File:ChiostroPietroMartireNapoli.jpg|thumb|Established in 1224 by [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor]], [[University of Naples Federico II]] in Italy is the world's oldest state-funded academic institution in continuous operation.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Storia d'Italia |date=7 August 1981 |publisher=UTET |isbn=88-02-03568-7 |volume=4 |location=Torino |page=122}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Fulvio|last=Delle Donne|title=Storia dello Studium di Napoli in età sveva|publisher=Mario Adda Editore|year=2010|language=it|isbn=978-8880828419|pages=9–10}}</ref>]]

In Europe, the academy dates to the ancient Greeks and Romans in the pre-Christian era. Newer universities were founded in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the European institution of academia took shape. Monks and priests moved out of monasteries to [[cathedral|cathedral cities]] and other towns where they opened the first schools dedicated to advanced study.

The most notable of these new schools were in [[Bologna]] and [[Salerno]], [[Naples]], [[Salamanca]], [[Paris]], [[Oxford]] and [[Cambridge]], while others were opened throughout Europe.

The seven [[liberal arts]]—the [[trivium (education)|Trivium]] ([[Grammar]], [[Rhetoric]], and [[Logic]]), and the [[Quadrivium]] ([[Arithmetic]], [[Geometry]], [[Music]], and [[Astronomy]])—had been codified in [[late antiquity]]. This was the basis of the curriculum in Europe until newly available Arabic texts and the works of Aristotle became more available in Europe in the 12th century.

It remained in place even after the new scholasticism of the [[School of Chartres]] and the encyclopedic work of [[Thomas Aquinas]], until the humanism of the 15th and 16th centuries opened new studies of arts and sciences.