1.
Medieval university
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A medieval university is a corporation organized during the High Middle Ages for the purposes of higher learning. The university is regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. With the increasing growth and urbanization of European society during the 12th and 13th centuries, learning became essential to advancing in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and teachers also gained prestige. Demand quickly outstripped the capacity of cathedral schools, each of which was run by one teacher. In addition, tensions rose between the students of schools and burghers in smaller towns. As a result, cathedral schools migrated to cities, like Bologna, Rome. Without any express authorisation of King, Pope, Prince or Prelate, in many cases universities petitioned secular power for privileges and this became a model. Emperor Frederick I in Authentica Habita gave the first privileges to students in Bologna, Hastings Rashdall considered that the integrity of a university was only preserved in such an internally regulated corporation, which protected the scholars from external intervention. The University of Paris was formally recognized when Pope Gregory IX issued the bull Parens scientiarum and this was a revolutionary step, studium generale and universitas existed even before, but after the issuing of the bull, they attained autonomy. By the year 1292, even the two oldest universities, Bologna and Paris, felt the need to seek similar bulls from Pope Nicholas IV. By the 13th century, almost half of the highest offices in the Church were occupied by degreed masters, in addition, some of the greatest theologians of the High Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas and Robert Grosseteste, were products of the medieval university. The development of the medieval university coincided with the reintroduction of Aristotle from Byzantine. As he puts it Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, sociological and historical accounts of the role of the university as an institutional locus for science and as an incubator of scientific thought and arguments have been vastly understated. Initially medieval universities did not have facilities such as the campus of a modern university. Classes were taught wherever space was available, such as churches and homes, a university was not a physical space but a collection of individuals banded together as a universitas. Soon, however, universities began to rent, buy or construct buildings specifically for the purposes of teaching, Universities were generally structured along three types, depending on who paid the teachers. The first type was in Bologna, where students hired and paid for the teachers, the second type was in Paris, where teachers were paid by the church. These structural differences created other characteristics, at the Bologna university the students ran everything—a fact that often put teachers under great pressure and disadvantage
2.
Ancient university
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The ancient universities are seven extant British and Irish medieval universities and early modern universities founded before the year 1600. Four of these are located in Scotland, two in England, and one in Ireland, the ancient universities in Britain and Ireland are amongst the oldest extant universities in the world. The ancient universities of Scotland also share several features and are governed by arrangements laid down by the Universities Acts. The ancient universities are distinctive in awarding the Magister Artium/Master of Arts as an academic degree. This is commonly known as the Oxbridge MA, Trinity MA, some confusion can arise as to whether such degrees are taught degrees or the most established two-year research degrees, although this is often specified. As mentioned above, the Universities Acts created a system of governance for the ancient universities in Scotland. Despite not being founded until after the first in series of Acts. As a result of these Acts, each of these universities is governed by a system of General Council, University Court. The chief executive and chief academic is the University Principal who also holds the title of Vice-Chancellor as an honorific, 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. Following the creation of the ancient universities, no universities were created in Britain. Precisely which of these 19th-century institutions was the earliest post-ancient university is a matter of debate, in addition the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow traces its origins back to the Andersonian Institute of 1796, but did not receive a Royal Charter until 1964. The more recent red brick universities of the later 19th century, thereafter in the 1950s and 60s the plate glass universities were formed and after the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, polytechnics were granted university status
3.
British Isles
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The British Isles are a group of islands off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. Situated in the North Atlantic, the islands have an area of approximately 315,159 km2. Two sovereign states are located on the islands, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the oldest rocks in the group are in the north west of Scotland, Ireland and North Wales and are 2,700 million years old. During the Silurian period the north-western regions collided with the south-east, the topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis rises to an elevation of only 1,344 metres, and Lough Neagh, the climate is temperate marine, with mild winters and warm summers. The North Atlantic Drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C above the average for the latitude. This led to a landscape which was dominated by temperate rainforest. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation, Ireland, which became an island by 12,000 BC, was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 5600 BC, Hiberni, Pictish and Britons tribes, all speaking Insular Celtic, inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Much of Brittonic-controlled Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD43, the first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century and eventually dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by permanent settlements. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence, the term British Isles is controversial in Ireland, where there are objections to its usage due to the association of the word British with Ireland. The Government of Ireland does not recognise or use the term, as a result, Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has had limited use among a minority in academia, while British Isles is still commonly employed. Within them, they are sometimes referred to as these islands. The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of sea-farers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia. The original records have been lost, however, later writings, e. g. Avienuss Ora maritima, in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has Prettanikē nēsos, the British Island, and Prettanoi, the Britons. Strabo used Βρεττανική, and Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί, the shift from the P of Pretannia to the B of Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar
4.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
5.
Universities (Scotland) Acts
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The ancient university governance structure in Scotland is the organisational system imposed by a series of Acts of Parliament called the Universities Acts 1858 to 1966. The Acts applied to what were termed the older universities, the University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh. Whilst the Acts do not directly apply to the University of Dundee, Together these five universities are commonly referred to as the ancient universities of Scotland. The ancient structure applies a tripartite relationship of bodies with authority over the university and these are the university court, the general council and the senatus academicus. The senatus academicus is the academic body of a university. In practice, the power of the senatus academicus is to elect a number of assessors to serve on the university court. The powers granted to the body are theoretically contained s, often the full senatus rarely meets and under Section 5 has a quorum of one-third of its membership. The senatus often devolves some of its authority to an academic council. The university courts were first established for the ancient universities by the 1858 Act and are responsible for the finances and administration of each university. Each university, subject to approval by the Privy Council, determines the constitution of its court, with coming from within each university. In all the ancient universities other than Dundee, the court is chaired by the rector, members are also appointed by the general council, senatus academicus and some ex officio members drawn from the local authority. There will be a number of lay-members on the court, as well as representatives drawn from the representative council. The general council is a body of all senior academics and graduates presided over by the chancellor of the university. Members who are not also members of the senatus academicus are entitled to elect assessors to the university court, chiefly the general council is an advisory body, and exists to connect alumni with their alma mater. The general councils were also connected with the Scottish university constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until their abolition in 1950, the officers of the ancient universities often predate the Universities Acts which give them statutory authority by centuries. The Chancellor is nominal head of the university and he is elected for life by the General Council by virtue of s.2 of the Universities Act 1858. The Chancellor is given the duty of awarding degrees, but may delegate this to a Vice Chancellor. The involvement of university chancellors varies from institution to institution, in some always participating in academic ceremonies, the Chancellor is often a member of the Royal Family, a local dignitary or noble or significant academic with some tie to the university or local area
6.
Royal charter
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A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organisations such as cities or universities, Charters should be distinguished from warrants and letters of appointment, as they have perpetual effect. Typically, a Royal Charter is produced as a high-quality work of calligraphy on vellum, the British monarchy has issued over 980 royal charters. Of these about 750 remain in existence, the earliest was to the town of Tain in 1066, making it the oldest Royal Burgh in Scotland, followed by the University of Cambridge in 1231. Charters continue to be issued by the British Crown, a recent example being that awarded to the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, Charters have been used in Europe since medieval times to create cities. The date that such a charter is granted is considered to be when a city is founded, at one time, a royal charter was the sole means by which an incorporated body could be formed, but other means are generally used nowadays instead. In the period before 1958,32 higher education institutes had been created by royal charter and these were typically engineering or technical institutions rather than universities. Royal decrees can therefore no longer grant higher education status or university status. A Royal Charter is granted by Order in Council, either creating an incorporated body and this is an exercise of the Royal Prerogative, and, in Canada, there are hundreds of organisations under Royal Charters. Such organisations include charities, businesses, colleges, universities, today, it is mostly charities and professional institutions who receive Royal Charters. Application for a charter is a petition to the Queen-in-Council, however, meeting these benchmarks does not guarantee the issuance of a Royal Charter. Companies, corporations, and societies in Canada founded under or augmented by a Royal Charter include, Royal Charter was issued in August 1826 to purchase and develop lands. Purchased the Crown Reserve of 1,384,413 acres, cities under Royal Charter are not subject to municipal Acts of Parliament applied generally to other municipalities, and instead are governed by legislation applicable to each city individually. The Royal Charter codifies the laws applied to the particular city, the Universitys Pontifical Charter was granted by Pope Leo XIII in 1889. Several Canadian private schools were founded or reconstituted under Royal Charter, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office was granted Royal Charter in 2005. The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club obtained Royal Charter in 1959 and it is one of the three banknote-issuing banks in Hong Kong. The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch Chartered originally in 1847, disbanded 1859, the Institution of Engineers was incorporated by royal charter in 1935. A number of Irish institutions retain the Royal prefix, even though Republic of Ireland severed all remaining connections between the state and the British monarch in 1949, the University of South Africa received a Royal Charter in 1877
7.
Universities in Scotland
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Universities in Scotland includes all universities and university colleges in Scotland, founded between the fifteenth century and the present day. The first university college in Scotland was founded at St Johns College, St Andrews in 1418 by Henry Wardlaw, St Salvators College was added to St. Andrews in 1450. The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 and Kings College, St Leonards College was founded in St Andrews in 1511 and St Johns College was re-founded as St Marys College, St Andrews in 1538, as a Humanist academy for the training of clerics. Public lectures that were established in Edinburgh in the 1540s, would become the University of Edinburgh in 1582. After the Reformation, Scotlands universities underwent a series of associated with Andrew Melville. After the Restoration there was a purge of Presbyterians from the universities, many of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment were university professors, who developed their ideas in university lectures. At the beginning of the century, Scotlands five university colleges had no entrance exams. Students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and left without qualifications, there was a concerted attempt to modernise the curriculum to meet the needs of the emerging middle classes and the professions. The result of reforms was a revitalisation of the Scottish university system. In the first half of the twentieth century Scottish universities fell behind those in England and Europe in terms of participation, after the Robbins Report of 1963 there was a rapid expansion in higher education in Scotland. By the end of the decade the number of Scottish universities had doubled, in 1992 the distinction between universities and colleges was removed, creating a series of new universities. There are fifteen universities in Scotland and three institutions of higher education that have the authority to award academic degrees. All Scottish universities are public and funded by the Scottish Government, in 2008–09, approximately 231,000 students studied at universities or institutes of higher education in Scotland, of which 56 per cent were female and 44 per cent male. In the 2011–12 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, five Scottish universities are among the top 200 worldwide, until the fifteenth century those Scots who wished to attend university had to travel to England or to the Continent. This situation was transformed by the founding of St Johns College, St Andrews in 1418 by Henry Wardlaw, St Salvators College was added to St. Andrews in 1450. The other great bishoprics followed, with the University of Glasgow being founded in 1451 and Kings College, initially, these institutions were designed for the training of clerics, but they would increasingly be used by laymen. St Leonards College was founded in Aberdeen in 1511 and St Johns College was re-founded as St Marys College, St Andrews in 1538, public lectures that were established in Edinburgh in the 1540s would eventually become the University of Edinburgh in 1582. After the Reformation, Scotlands universities underwent a series of associated with Andrew Melville
8.
University of St Andrews
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The University of St Andrews is a British public research university in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland, St Andrews was founded between 1410 and 1413, when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy. St Andrews is made up from a variety of institutions, including three constituent colleges and 18 academic schools organised into four faculties, the university occupies historic and modern buildings located throughout the town. The academic year is divided into two terms, Martinmas and Candlemas, in term time, over one-third of the towns population is either a staff member or student of the university. It is ranked as the third best university in the United Kingdom in national league tables, the Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking names St Andrews among the worlds Top 50 universities for Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. St Andrews has the highest student satisfaction amongst all multi-faculty universities in the United Kingdom, St Andrews has many notable alumni and affiliated faculty, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, theologians, philosophers, and politicians. Six Nobel Laureates are among St Andrews alumni and former staff, a charter of privilege was bestowed upon the society of masters and scholars by the Bishop of St Andrews, Henry Wardlaw, on 28 February 1411. Wardlaw then successfully petitioned the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII to grant the university status by issuing a series of papal bulls. King James I of Scotland confirmed the charter of the university in 1432, subsequent kings supported the university with King James V confirming privileges of the university in 1532. A college of theology and arts called St Johns College was founded in 1418 by Robert of Montrose, St Salvators College was established in 1450, by Bishop James Kennedy. St Leonards College was founded in 1511 by Archbishop Alexander Stewart, St Johns College was refounded by Cardinal James Beaton under the name St Marys College in 1538 for the study of divinity and law. Some university buildings that date from this period are still in use today, such as St Salvators Chapel, St Leonards College Chapel, at this time, the majority of the teaching was of a religious nature and was conducted by clerics associated with the cathedral. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the university had mixed fortunes and was beset by civil. He described it as pining in decay and struggling for life, in the second half of the 19th century, pressure was building upon universities to open up higher education to women. In 1876, the University Senate decided to allow women to receive an education at St Andrews at a roughly equal to the Master of Arts degree that men were able to take at the time. The scheme came to be known as the L. L. A and it required women to pass five subjects at an ordinary level and one at honours level and entitled them to hold a degree from the university. In 1889 the Universities Act made it possible to admit women to St Andrews. Agnes Forbes Blackadder became the first woman to graduate from St Andrews on the level as men in October 1894
9.
University of Glasgow
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The University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotlands four ancient universities. Along with the University of Edinburgh, the University was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century and it is currently a member of Universitas 21, the international network of research universities, and the Russell Group. Glasgow University served all of students by preparing them for professions, the law, medicine, civil service, teaching. It also trained smaller but growing numbers for careers in science, originally located in the citys High Street, since 1870 the main University campus has been located at Gilmorehill in the West End of the city. Additionally, a number of university buildings are located elsewhere, such as the Veterinary School in Bearsden, and it is the second-oldest university in Scotland after St Andrews and the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world. The universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen were ecclesiastical foundations, as one of the Ancient Universities of the United Kingdom, Glasgow University is one of only eight institutions to award undergraduate masters degrees in certain disciplines. The University has been without its original Bull since the mid-sixteenth century, in 1560, during the political unrest accompanying the Scottish Reformation, the then chancellor, Archbishop James Beaton, a supporter of the Marian cause, fled to France. He took with him, for safe-keeping, many of the archives and valuables of the Cathedral and the University, including the Mace, although the Mace was sent back in 1590, the archives were not. If they had not been lost by time, they certainly went astray during the French Revolution when the Scots College was under threat. Its records and valuables were moved for safe-keeping out of the city of Paris, the Bull remains the authority by which the University awards degrees. Teaching at the University began in the chapterhouse of Glasgow Cathedral, subsequently moving to nearby Rottenrow, the University was given 13 acres of land belonging to the Black Friars on High Street by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1563. The Lion and Unicorn Staircase was also transferred from the old site and is now attached to the Main Building. To continue this work in his will he founded Andersons College, in 1973, Delphine Parrott became its first woman professor, as Gardiner Professor of Immunology. In October 2014, the university court voted for the University to become the first academic institution in Europe to divest from the fuel industry. The University is currently spread over a number of different campuses, the main one is the Gilmorehill campus, in Hillhead. The University has also established joint departments with the Glasgow School of Art, the Universitys initial accommodation including Glasgow University Library was part of the complex of religious buildings in the precincts of Glasgow Cathedral. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Hamilton Building was replaced with a very grand two-court building with a decorated west front facing the High Street, called the Nova Erectio, over the following centuries, the Universitys size and scope continued to expand. In 1757 it built the Macfarlane Observatory and later Scotlands first public museum and it was a centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and subsequently of the Industrial Revolution, and its expansion in the High Street was constrained
10.
University of Aberdeen
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The University of Aberdeen is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. The university as it is today was formed in 1860 by a merger between Kings College and Marischal College, a university founded in 1593 as a Protestant alternative to the former. Today, Aberdeen is consistently ranked among the top 200 universities in the world and is one of two universities in the city, the other being the Robert Gordon University. The universitys iconic buildings act as symbols of wider Aberdeen, particularly Marischal College in the city centre, there are two campuses, the predominantly utilised Kings College campus dominates the section of the city known as Old Aberdeen, which is approximately two miles north of the city centre. Although the original site of the foundation, most academic buildings were constructed in the 20th century during a period of significant expansion. The universitys Foresterhill campus is next to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and houses the School of Medicine, Aberdeen has approximately 13,500 students from undergraduate to doctoral level, including many international students. An abundant range of disciplines are taught at the university, with 650 undergraduate degree offered in the 2012-13 academic year. Five Nobel laureates have since associated with Aberdeen. The first principal was Hector Boece, graduate and professor of the University of Paris, despite this founding date, teaching did not start for another ten years, and the University of Aberdeen celebrated 500 years of teaching and learning in 2005. Following the Scottish Reformation in 1560, Kings College was purged of its Roman Catholic staff, George Keith, the fifth Earl Marischal was a moderniser within the college and supportive of the reforming ideas of Peter Ramus. In April 1593 he founded a university in the city. It is also possible the founding of another college in nearby Fraserburgh by Sir Alexander Fraser, Aberdeen was highly unusual at this time for having two universities in one city, as 20th-century University prospectuses observed, Aberdeen had the same number as existed in England at the time. In addition, a university was set up to the north of Aberdeen in Fraserburgh from 1595. Initially, Marischal College offered the Principal of Kings College a role in selecting its academics, Marischal College, in the commercial heart of the city, was quite different in nature and outlook. For example, it was integrated into the life of the city. The two rival colleges often clashed, sometimes in court, but also in brawls between students on the streets of Aberdeen, as the institutions put aside their differences, a process of attempted mergers began in the 17th century. During this time, both colleges made notable contributions to the Scottish Enlightenment. Both colleges supported the Jacobite rebellion and following the defeat of the 1715 rising were largely purged by the authorities of their academics and officials
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