1.
University
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A university is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in various academic disciplines. Universities typically provide undergraduate education and postgraduate education, the word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means community of teachers and scholars. Universities were created in Italy and evolved from Cathedral schools for the clergy during the High Middle Ages, the original Latin word universitas refers in general to a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members, an important idea in the definition of a university is the notion of academic freedom. The first documentary evidence of this comes from early in the life of the first university, the University of Bologna adopted an academic charter, the Constitutio Habita, in 1158 or 1155, which guaranteed the right of a traveling scholar to unhindered passage in the interests of education. Today this is claimed as the origin of academic freedom and this is now widely recognised internationally - on 18 September 1988,430 university rectors signed the Magna Charta Universitatum, marking the 900th anniversary of Bolognas foundation. The number of universities signing the Magna Charta Universitatum continues to grow, the university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church by papal bull as studia generalia and it is possible, however, that the development of cathedral schools into universities was quite rare, with the University of Paris being an exception. Later they were founded by Kings or municipal administrations. In the early period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries, the first universities in Europe with a form of corporate/guild structure were the University of Bologna, the University of Paris, and the University of Oxford. The students had all the power … and dominated the masters, princes and leaders of city governments perceived the potential benefits of having a scholarly expertise develop with the ability to address difficult problems and achieve desired ends. The emergence of humanism was essential to understanding of the possible utility of universities as well as the revival of interest in knowledge gained from ancient Greek texts. The rediscovery of Aristotles works–more than 3000 pages of it would eventually be translated–fuelled a spirit of inquiry into natural processes that had begun to emerge in the 12th century. Some scholars believe that these represented one of the most important document discoveries in Western intellectual history. Richard Dales, for instance, calls the discovery of Aristotles works a turning point in the history of Western thought and this became the primary mission of lecturers, and the expectation of students. The university culture developed differently in northern Europe than it did in the south, Latin was the language of the university, used for all texts, lectures, disputations and examinations. Professors lectured on the books of Aristotle for logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, while Hippocrates, Galen, outside of these commonalities, great differences separated north and south, primarily in subject matter
2.
Secondary school
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A secondary school is both an organization that delivers level 2 junior secondary education or level 3 secondary education phases of the ISCED scale, and the building where this takes place. Level 2 junior secondary education is considered to be the second, Secondary schools typically follow on from primary schools and lead into vocational and tertiary education. Attendance is compulsory in most countries for students between the ages 11 and 16, the systems and terminology remain unique to each country. School building design does not happen in isolation, schools need to accommodate students, staff, storage, mechanical and electrical systems, storage, support staff, ancillary staff and administration. The number of rooms required can be determined from the roll of the school. A general classroom for 30 students needs to be 55m2, or more generously 62m2, a general art room for 30 students needs to be 83m2, but 104 m2 for 3D textile work. A drama studio or a specialist science laboratory for 30 needs to be 90 m2, examples are given on how this can be configured for a 1,200 place secondary. The building providing the education has to fulfil the needs of, The students, the teachers, the support staff, the adminstrators. It has to should meet health requirements, minimal functional requirements- such as classrooms, toilets and showers, electricity, textbooks, Government accountants having read the advice then publish minimum guidelines on schools. These enable environmental modelling and establish building costs. Future plans are audited to ensure that standards are not exceeded. The UK government published this downwardly revised space formula in 2014 and it said the floor area should be 1050m² +6. 3m²/pupil place for 11- to 16-year-olds + 7m²/pupil place for post-16s. The external finishes were to be downgraded to meet a build cost of £1113/m², a secondary school, locally may be called high school, junior high school, senior high school. Sweden, gymnasium Switzerland, gymnasium, secondary school, collège or lycée Taiwan, Junior High School, Senior High School, Vocational High School, Military School, in Nigeria, secondary school starts from JSS1 until SSS3. Most students start at the age of 10 or 11 and finish at 16 or 17, Students are required to sit for the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. To progress to university students must obtain at least a credit in Maths, English, in Somalia, secondary school starts from 9th grade until 12th. Students start it when they are around 14 to 15 years of age, Students are required to study Somali and Arabic, with the option of either English or Italian depending on the type of school. Religion, chemistry, physics, biology, physical education, textile, art, design, when secondary school has been completed, students are sent to national training camp before going to either college, or military training. In South Africa, high school begins at grade 8, Students study for five years, at the end of which they write a Matriculation examination
3.
English-speaking world
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Approximately 330 to 360 million people speak English as their first language. More than half of live in the United States, followed by some 55 million in England. English is the third largest language by number of speakers, after Mandarin. Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly, from 470 million to more than 1 billion, david Crystal calculates that non-native speakers as of 2003 outnumbered native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. When combining native and non-native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language worldwide, there are six large countries with a majority of native English speakers that are sometimes grouped under the term Anglosphere. They are, in descending order of English speakers, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, other substantial communities of native speakers are found in South Africa, and Nigeria. Also there are countries where in a part of the territory English became a language, e. g. Colombias San Andrés y Providencia. This was a result of the influence of British colonization in the area, English is one of the eleven official languages that are given equal status in South Africa. It is also the language in current dependent territories of Australia and of the United States. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been official status by 32 of the 50 state governments. It is, by treaty, the official language for aeronautical. English is one of the languages of the United Nations and many other international organizations. In 2012, excluding native speakers,38 percent of Europeans consider that they can speak English, in publishing, English literature predominates considerably with 28 percent of all books published in the world and 30 percent of web content in 2011. This increasing use of the English language globally has had a impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and even language death. English itself has more open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole. Variation in Nonnative Varieties of English, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Census 2011, Key Statistics for Northern Ireland December 2012, language in England and Wales,2011. Language Use in the United States,2011, Population by mother tongue and age groups,2011 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
President (corporate title)
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The President is a leader of an organization, company, community, club, trade union, university or other group. In many organizations, it is the legally recognized highest titled corporate officer, the president may also be the chairman. The relationship between the president and the Chief Executive Officer varies, depending on the structure of the specific organization, in a similar vein to the Chief Operating Officer, the title of corporate President as a separate position is also loosely defined. The powers of the president vary widely across organizations and such powers come from specific authorization in the bylaws, originally, the term president was used to designate someone who presided over a meeting, and was used in the same way that foreman or overseer is used now. It has now come to mean chief officer in terms of administrative or executive duties. In addition to the administrative or executive duties in organizations, the president has the duties of presiding over meetings, in committees or small boards, the president votes along with the other members. However, in assemblies or larger boards, the president should vote only when it can affect the result, at a meeting, the president only has one vote. The powers of the president vary widely across organizations, the amount of power given to the president depends on the type of organization, its structure, and the rules it has created for itself. If the president exceeds the given authority, engages in misconduct, or fails to perform the duties, such procedures may include censure, suspension, or removal from office. The rules of the organization would provide details on who can perform these disciplinary procedures. Usually, whoever appointed or elected the president has the power to discipline this officer, some organizations may have a position of President-Elect in addition to the position of President. Generally the membership of the organization elects a President-Elect and when the term of the President-Elect is complete, some organizations may have a position of Immediate Past President in addition to the position of President. In those organizations, when the term of the President is complete, the organization can have such a position only if the bylaws provide it. The duties of such a position would also have to be provided in the bylaws, riding Shotgun, The Role of the COO. National Association of Parliamentarians®, Education Committee, independence, MO, National Association of Parliamentarians®
6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
7.
Commonwealth of Nations
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The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the states as free. The symbol of free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, the other Commonwealth members have different heads of state,31 members are republics and five are monarchies with a different monarch. Member states have no obligation to one another. Instead, they are united by language, history, culture and their values of democracy, free speech, human rights. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth covers more than 29,958,050 km2, 20% of the worlds land area, and spans all six inhabited continents. She declared, So, it marks the beginning of that free association of independent states which is now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. As long ago as 1884, however, Lord Rosebery, while visiting Australia, had described the changing British Empire—as some of its colonies became more independent—as a Commonwealth of Nations. Conferences of British and colonial prime ministers occurred periodically from the first one in 1887, the Commonwealth developed from the imperial conferences. Newfoundland never did, as on 16 February 1934, with the consent of its parliament, Newfoundland later joined Canada as its 10th province in 1949. Australia and New Zealand ratified the Statute in 1942 and 1947 respectively, after World War II ended, the British Empire was gradually dismantled. Most of its components have become independent countries, whether Commonwealth realms or republics, there remain the 14 British overseas territories still held by the United Kingdom. In April 1949, following the London Declaration, the word British was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature, burma and Aden are the only states that were British colonies at the time of the war not to have joined the Commonwealth upon independence. Hoped for success was reinforced by such achievements as climbing Mount Everest in 1953, breaking the four minute mile in 1954, however, the humiliation of the Suez Crisis of 1956 badly hurt morale of Britain and the Commonwealth as a whole. More broadly, there was the loss of a role of the British Empire. That role was no longer militarily or financially feasible, as Britains withdrawal from Greece in 1947 painfully demonstrated, Britain itself was now just one part of the NATO military alliance in which the Commonwealth had no role apart from Canada
8.
Latin America
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Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Americas where Romance languages are predominant. It is therefore broader than the terms Ibero-America or Hispanic America—though it usually excludes French Canada and it has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km2, almost 13% of the Earths land surface area. As of 2015, its population was estimated at more than 626 million and in 2014, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of 5,573,397 million USD and a GDP PPP of 7,531,585 million USD. The term Latin America was first used in 1861 in La revue des races Latines, a further investigation of the concept of Latin America is by Michel Gobat in the American Historical Review. The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao and this term was also used in 1861 by French scholars in La revue des races Latines, a magazine dedicated to the Pan-Latinism movement. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish. By this definition, Latin America is coterminous with Ibero-America and this definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects. As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase Latin America, the distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America is a convention based on the predominant languages in the Americas by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished. Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and it may be subdivided on linguistic grounds into Hispanic America, Portuguese America and French America. *, Not a sovereign state The concept of Latin America has been criticized by a number of intellectuals, the earliest known settlement was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile. Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is disputed evidence of even earlier occupation. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents, by the first millennium CE, South Americas vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibcha and the Tairona groups and these groups are in the circum Caribbean region. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia, the region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Maya, and Inca. The Aztec empire was ultimately the most powerful civilization known throughout the Americas, with the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incas and Aztecs, lost power to the heavy European invasion. Hernándo Cortés seized the Aztec elites power with the help of local groups who had favored the Aztec elite, epidemics of diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large portion of the indigenous population. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations, intermixing between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry formed majorities in several colonies
9.
Brunei
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Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace, is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, the country is surrounded by the state of Sarawak. It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang, Brunei is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, the remainder of the islands territory is divided between the nations of Malaysia and Indonesia. Bruneis population was 408,786 in July 2012, the maritime state was visited by Spains Magellan Expedition in 1521 and fought against Spain in the 1578 Castille War. During the 19th century, the Bruneian Empire began to decline, the Sultanate ceded Sarawak to James Brooke and installed him as the White Rajah, and it ceded Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. In 1888, Brunei became a British protectorate and was assigned a British resident as colonial manager in 1906, after the Japanese occupation during World War II, in 1959 a new constitution was written. In 1962, an armed rebellion against the monarchy was ended with the help of the British. Brunei gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984, Economic growth during the 1990s and 2000s, with the GDP increasing 56% from 1999 to 2008, transformed Brunei into an industrialised country. It has developed wealth from petroleum and natural gas fields. Brunei has the second-highest Human Development Index among the Southeast Asian nations, after Singapore, according to the International Monetary Fund, Brunei is ranked fifth in the world by gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. The IMF estimated in 2011 that Brunei was one of two countries with a debt at 0% of the national GDP. Forbes also ranks Brunei as the fifth-richest nation out of 182, based on its petroleum, according to legend, Brunei was founded by Awang Alak Betatar, later to be Sultan Muhammad Shah. He moved from Garang, a place in the Temburong District to the Brunei River estuary, according to legend, upon landing he exclaimed, Baru nah, from which the name Brunei was derived. He was the first Muslim ruler of Brunei, before the rise of the Bruneian Empire under the Muslim Bolkiah Dynasty, Brunei is believed to have been under Buddhist rulers. It was renamed Barunai in the 14th century, possibly influenced by the Sanskrit word varuṇ, the word Borneo is of the same origin. In the countrys name, Negara Brunei Darussalam, darussalam means abode of peace. The people are pagans and are men of goodwill and their colour is whiter than that of the other sort. in this island justice is well administered. One of the earliest Chinese records is the 977 AD letter to Chinese emperor from the ruler of Po-ni, which some scholars believe to refer to Borneo
10.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
11.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
12.
Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
13.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
14.
Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
15.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
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Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous
17.
Ancient universities of Scotland
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The ancient universities of Scotland are medieval and renaissance universities which continue to exist in the present day. The Universities Act 1966 uses the older universities to refer to St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen. The same act provided for the independence from St Andrews of Dundee, the first new university of the era was the University of Strathclyde which received its royal charter in 1964, although it traces its origins back to the Andersonian Institute founded in 1796. Despite being held as an ancient university, the University of Aberdeen was only created in 1860. The Act of Parliament uniting the two universities specified that the date of the foundation of the new united university would be taken to be that of the older Kings College, another, short lived, university existed in the Aberdeenshire town of Fraserburgh from 1595 to 1605. All of the ancient universities, with the exception of St Andrews, were both simultaneously universities and colleges, with titles being used. The University of St Andrews was, however, a collegiate university with a number of colleges. Queens College in Dundee became an independent university, the University of Dundee, the University of St Andrews owed its origin to a society formed in 1410 by Laurence of Lindores, archdeacon Richard Cornwall, bishop William Stephenson and others. Bishop Henry Wardlaw issued a charter in 1411 and attracted the most learned men in Scotland as professors, in 1413 Avignon Pope Benedict XIII issued six bulls confirming the charter and constituting the society a university. University College Dundee was absorbed into St Andrews University, subsequently metamorphosing into Queens College, the University of Dundee separated from the University of St Andrews in 1967. Today the University of St Andrews has just over 10,000 students, the independent IpsosMORI National Student Survey 2006 commissioned by HEFCE placed it third among the UK universities. St Andrews reported the highest student satisfaction overall in Scotland for 2007,2008,2009 and 2010, nearly nine in ten graduates obtain a First Class or an Upper Second Class Honours degree. The university was ranked 3rd in the UK by the Guardian University Guide 2017 and its founding came about as a result of King James IIs wish that Scotland have two Universities, to equal Oxford and Cambridge of England. Today Glasgow University now boasts almost 27,000 students with 40% coming from the West of Scotland and is a member of the Russell Group of leading British universities. Both the Universitys teaching quality and income from research contracts are assessed to be among the top 10 in the United Kingdom. The Times University ranking list places Glasgow among the best Scottish universities while the QS ranks it 2nd in Scotland, there are currently almost eight applications for every place, making it one of the most competitive universities in the UK to obtain entry into. No college is mentioned in the bill, only a university. Subsequently a single college, originally known as St. Mary of the Nativity, was established, soon the entity came to be called Kings College, after its royal founder James IV
18.
Iberian Peninsula
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The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnɪnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe. The peninsula is divided between Portugal and Spain, comprising most of their territory. With an area of approximately 582,000 km2, it is the second largest European peninsula, at that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people. Strabos Iberia was delineated from Keltikē by the Pyrenees and included the land mass southwest of there. The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from the Phoenicians, hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia, which he wrote about circa 500 BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with. According to Strabo, prior historians used Iberia to mean the country side of the Ἶβηρος as far north as the river Rhône in France. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, elsewhere he says that Saguntum is on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia. Strabo refers to the Carretanians as people of the Iberian stock living in the Pyrenees, according to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia as synonyms. The confusion of the words was because of an overlapping in political, the Latin word Hiberia, similar to the Greek Iberia, literally translates to land of the Hiberians. This word was derived from the river Ebro, which the Romans called Hiberus, hiber was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BC. Virgil refers to the Ipacatos Hiberos in his Georgics, the Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania. As they became interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces, Hispania Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Lusitania, Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. Whatever language may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones, the Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the Ebro, Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin. The association was so known it was hardly necessary to state, for example. Pliny goes so far as to assert that the Greeks had called the whole of Spain Hiberia because of the Hiberus River, the river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BC between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian, uses Ibērus, with reference to this border, Polybius states that the native name is Ibēr, apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination
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University of Coimbra
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The University of Coimbra is a Portuguese public university in Coimbra, Portugal. It is a member of the Coimbra Group, a group of leading European research universities. The University of Coimbra has over 20,000 students, and hosts one of the largest communities of international students in Portugal, on 22 June 2013, UNESCO added the university to its World Heritage List. The university was founded, or ratified, in 1290 by King Dinis, the Papal confirmation was also given in 1290, during the Papacy of the Pope Nicholas IV. In accordance with the Papal Bull, all the licit Faculties, with the exception of that of Theology, thus the Faculties of Arts, Law, Canon Law and Medicine were the first to be created. It was, however, not to remain in Lisbon for long, in 1308, likely due to problems of emancipation from the Church and conflicts between the inhabitants of the city and the students, the University moved to Coimbra. This town already had old traditions in education, being home to the highly successful school of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, the university was then established on the site known as Estudos Velhos, which corresponds roughly to the area where the Main Library now stands. In 1338, during the reign of Afonso IV, it was again transferred to Lisbon, from whence it returned in 1354. In 1377, during the reign of King Fernando, it was transferred yet again to Lisbon, where it would remain for over a century, the authorization for a Faculty of Theology probably dates from this period – around 1380. In 1537, during the reign of João III, the university moved definitively to Coimbra, the entire university institution, including the teaching staff and all the books from its library, were moved from Lisbon to Coimbra. At the same time, university colleges were created, a restructuring of the curricula was undertaken and new teachers, during many decades it was the only university in Portugal, since its foundation in 1290 until 1559, and again between 1759 and 1911. The long history and past predominance of the University of Coimbra made it an important focus of influence in Portugal, not only educational, only in the 2008/2009 school year did the entire university fully adopt the new programs within its 8 faculties. Its governance is assured by the Rector, the Senate and the University Assembly, the last responsible for the election of the Rector and the Senate. The Rector has the responsibility for the strategic direction and the overall administration of the university, together with the Senate. The university is divided into eight different faculties, comprising about 25,000 students, in addition, the university manages several museums and other cultural organizations, including a science museum, a museum of sacred art, and an academic museum. It also harbours a very dynamic associative life, with its numerous sports and cultural sections and it is an important structure of extracurricular formation of the University of Coimbras students and a major institution of the city itself. The AAC develops activities such as theatre, cinema, radio and television broadcast, music, choral singing, journalism or philately, as well as rowing, athletics, every student, and occasionally some non-students, are entitled to belong to these sections. The universitys academic traditions and institutions color the life of the city, the color of the university seal and of the Rectors office, representing the entire institution as a whole, is dark green
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University of Salamanca
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The University of Salamanca is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the town of Salamanca, west of Madrid, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1134 and given the Royal charter of foundation by King Alfonso IX in 1218 and it is the oldest founded university in Spain and the third oldest university in the world in continuous operations. The formal title of University was granted by King Alfonso X in 1254 and its origin, like all older universities, was a Cathedral School, whose existence can be traced back to 1130. The university was founded in 1134 and recognized as a General School of the Kingdom by the Leonese King Alfonso IX in 1218, granted Royal Chart by King Alfonso X, dated 8 May 1254, as the University of Salamanca this established the rules for organization and financial endowment. On the basis of a bull by Alexander IV in 1255, which confirmed the Royal Charter of Alfonso X. The historical phrases Quod natura non dat, Salmantica non praestat, in the reign of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, the Spanish government was revamped. Contemporary with the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims, and this involved the massive employment of letrados, i. e. bureaucrats and lawyers, who were licenciados, particularly, of Salamanca, and the newly founded University of Alcalá. While Columbus was lobbying the King and Queen for a contract to seek out a route to the Indies. In the next century, the morality of colonization in the Indies was debated by the School of Salamanca, along with questions of economics, philosophy, by the end of the Spanish Golden Age, the quality of academics in Spanish universities declined. The frequency of the awarding of degrees dropped, the range of studies shrank, the centuries-old European wide prestige of Salamanca declined. Like Oxford and Cambridge, Salamanca had a number of colleges and these were founded as charitable institutions to enable poor scholars to attend the University. By the eighteenth century they had become closed corporations controlled by the families of their founders, most were destroyed by Napoleons troops. Today some have turned into faculty buildings while others survive as halls of residence. In the 19th century, the Spanish government dissolved the universitys faculties of canon law and they were later reestablished in the 1940s as part of the Pontifical University of Salamanca. The faculty of this university discussed the feasibility of Christopher Columbuss project and it was the period when some of the brightest minds attended the university and it was known as the School of Salamanca. The schools members renovated theology, laid the foundation for law, international law, modern economic science. The schools mathematicians studied the reform, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII. By 1580,6,500 new students had arrived at Salamanca each year, Salamanca draws undergraduate and graduate students from across Spain and the world, it is the top-ranked university in Spain based on the number of students coming from other regions
21.
Landtag
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A Landtag is a representative assembly in German-speaking countries with legislative authority and competence over a federated state. Landtage assemblies are the bodies for the individual states of Germany and states of Austria. Likewise, the Landtag of South Tyrol is the legislature of the province of South Tyrol in northeast Italy. In the sovereign principality of Liechtenstein the national parliament is called the Landtag of Liechtenstein, the German word Landtag is composed of the words Land and Tag. The German word Tagung is derived from the German word Tag, as such meetings were held at daylight, the English word diet likewise comes from Latin, dies. Therefore, the representatives primarily defended class interests, and decisions were based on an electoral system. The precise composition obviously varied greatly, and could change over time, as the result of privileges granted or lost, entities split or merged, since 1466, Prussian Landtag were held in Royal Prussia. Prior to that, Prussian Landtag meetings were held in the Monastic state of the Teutonic Order, since 1525, Prussian Landtag were held in Ducal Prussia. 1806 the German Confederation was founded as successor of the Holy Roman Empire, §13 of the Bundesakte forced the German states to pass constitutions and implement parliaments called Landstände or Landtag. The first constitution was passed in Nassau, until 1841 all but 2 states got their constitution and parliaments. 1871 the German Empire was founded, all 25 states of the German Empire and the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen had Landtage as legislative authorities. The most important one was the Prussian Landtag, in the Weimar Republic 1918 till 1933 all German states had Landtage. In difference to the former Landstände and Landtage the Weimar Republik Landtage have been elected in free an equal elections,1933 the Nazis abandoned the federal structure of the Weimar Republic and established a unitary state. The Landtage were abolished as a result, since then, the official term in Swedish is riksdag, equivalent of the German Reichstag. In the contemporary Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Austria and the Italian Republics province of South Tyrol, in the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Landtag is the sole national parliament, because Liechtenstein has no federal structure due to its size. The national bicameral Parliament comprises the directly elected Bundestag and the Bundesrat which represents the governments in Federal matters which affect the Länder. The representatives are elected in general, free, secret and direct ballots according to the principle of proportional representation, the largest of the parliamentary groups usually nominates the Landeshauptmann governor. The modern Landtage are the successors of the estates assemblies in the corresponding crown lands of the Austrian Empire
22.
Styria
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Styria is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. In area it is the second largest of the nine Austrian federated states and it borders Slovenia and the Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Burgenland, and Carinthia. The capital city is Graz which had 276,526 inhabitants at the beginning of 2015, the March of Styria derived its name from the original seat of its ruling Otakar dynasty, Steyr, in todays Upper Austria. In German, the area is still called Steiermark while in English the Latin name Styria is used, the ancient link between Steyr and Styria is also apparent in their nearly identical coats of arms, a white Panther on a green background. The term Upper Styria used by an Austrian refers to the northern and northwestern parts of the federal-state, the term West Styria is used for the districts to the west of Graz, the districts east of Graz are referred to as East Styria. The western and eastern parts of the district Graz-Umgebung may or may not be considered parts of West and East Styria, the southern parts of the Duchy of Styria, which have formed part of Yugoslavia or Slovenia since 1918, were referred to as Lower Styria. During early Roman times, Styria was inhabited by Celtic tribes, after its conquest by the Romans, the eastern part of what is now Styria was part of Pannonia, while the western one was included in Noricum. During the Barbarian invasions, it was conquered or crossed by the Visigoths, the Huns, the Ostrogoths, the Rugii, the Lombards, the Franks, in 595 the latter were defeated by the Slavs, who thenceforth ruled it. In 1180 Styria separated from the Duchy of Carinthia and became a Grand Duchy of its own, after the hereditary subdivision of the latter, Styria formed the central part of Inner Austria. Styria developed culturally and economically under John, Archduke of Inner Austria between 1809 and 1859, as elsewhere in the developed world, there has been a shift away from the manufacturing sector towards the service sector in Styria. This has had consequences for the industrial regions of upper Styria which have suffered a steady decline in population in recent years. Styria is home to more than 150 clean technology companies, of one dozen are world technology leaders in their field. The revenue of Styrian cleantech companies totals €2.7 billion and this equals to 8 percent of the Gross Regional Product, and is one of the highest concentrations of leading clean technology companies in Europe. The companies have a growth rate of 22 percent per year—well above the worldwide cleantech market growth of 18 percent per year. The region created roughly 2,000 additional green jobs in 2008 alone, the state is divided into 13 districts, one of them a statutory city. Graz however is a stronghold of the left-wing Communist Party, the governor has usually been an ÖVP member. In these elections, the KPÖ also received votes after it had gained much popularity through its role in local politics in Graz during the preceding few years. The two right-wing populist parties, the Freedom Party of Austria and the Alliance for the Future of Austria, gebirgsdivision Robert Stolz, composer born in Graz Getty Kaspers, lead vocals of Dutch band Teach-In, who won the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest
23.
Innsbruck
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Innsbruck is the capital city of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn valley, at its junction with the Wipp valley, Innsbruck lies about halfway between Munich in Germany and Verona in Italy. Located in the valley between high mountains, the so-called North Chain in the Karwendel Alps to the north. Innsbruck is an internationally renowned winter sports centre, and hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics as well as the 1984 and 1988 Winter Paralympics, Innsbruck also hosted the first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012. The name translates as Inn bridge, earliest traces suggest initial inhabitation in the early Stone Age. Surviving pre-Roman place names show that the area has been populated continuously, in the 4th century the Romans established the army station Veldidena at Oenipons, to protect the economically important commercial road from Verona-Brenner-Augsburg in their province of Raetia. The first mention of Innsbruck dates back to the name Oeni Pontum or Oeni Pons which is Latin for bridge over the Inn, the Counts of Andechs acquired the town in 1180. In 1248 the town passed into the hands of the Counts of Tyrol, the citys arms show a birds-eye view of the Inn bridge, a design used since 1267. The route over the Brenner Pass was then a major transport, the revenues generated by serving as a transit station enabled the city to flourish. Innsbruck became the capital of all Tyrol in 1429 and in the 15th century the city became a centre of European politics, the city benefited from the emperors presence as can be seen for example in the Hofkirche. Here a funeral monument for Maximilian was planned and erected partly by his successors, the ensemble with a cenotaph and the bronze statues of real and mythical ancestors of the Habsburgian emperor are one of the main artistic monuments of Innsbruck. A regular postal service between Innsbruck and Mechelen was established in 1490 by the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post, in 1564 Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria received the rulership over Tirol and other Further Austrian possessions administrated from Innsbruck up to the 18th century. He had Schloss Ambras built and arranged there his unique Renaissance collections nowadays mainly part of Viennas Kunsthistorisches Museum, up to 1665 a stirps of the Habsburgian dynasty ruled in Innsbruck with an independent court. In the 1620s the first opera house north of the Alps was erected in Innsbruck, in 1669 the university was founded. Also as a compensation for the court as Emperor Leopold I again reigned from Vienna, during the Napoleonic Wars Tyrol was ceded to Bavaria, ally of France. Andreas Hofer led a Tyrolean peasant army to victory in the Battles of Bergisel against the combined Bavarian and French forces, the combined army later overran the Tyrolean militia army and until 1814 Innsbruck was part of Bavaria. After the Vienna Congress Austrian rule was restored, until 1918, the town was part of the Austrian monarchy, head of the district of the same name, one of the 21 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in the Tyrol province. The Tyrolean hero Andreas Hofer was executed in Mantua, his remains were returned to Innsbruck in 1823, during World War I, the only recorded action taking place in Innsbruck was near the end of the war
24.
Tyrol (state)
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Tyrol is a federal state in western Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical Princely County of Tyrol and it is a constituent part of the present-day Euroregion Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino. The capital of Tyrol is Innsbruck, the state of Tyrol is separated into two parts, divided by a 7-kilometre wide strip. The larger territory is called North Tyrol and the area is called East Tyrol. With a land area of 12,683.85 km2, Tyrol shares its borders with the federal state of Salzburg in the east and Vorarlberg in the west. In the north, it adjoins to the German state of Bavaria, in the south, it borders with South Tyrol. East Tyrol also shares its borders with the state of Carinthia to the east. The states territory is located entirely within the Eastern Alps at the Brenner Pass, the highest mountain in the state is the Großglockner, part of the Hohe Tauern range on the border with Carinthia. It has a height of 3,797 m, making it the highest mountain in Austria, in ancient times, the region was split between the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum. From the mid-6th century, it was resettled by Germanic Bavarii tribes, when the Counts of Tyrol died out in 1253, their estates were inherited by the Meinhardiner Counts of Görz. The last Tyrolean countess of the Meinhardiner Dynasty, Margaret, bequeathed her assets to the Habsburg duke Rudolph IV of Austria in 1363, in 1420, the committal residence was relocated from Merano to Innsbruck. The Tyrolean lands were reunited when the Habsburgs inherited the estates of the extinct Counts of Görz in 1500, later, South Tyrol was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy, a client state of the First French Empire, by Bavaria in 1810. After Napoleons defeat, the whole of Tyrol was returned to Austria in 1814, Tyrol was a Cisleithanian Kronland of Austria-Hungary from 1867. After World War I, these became part of the Kingdom of Italy according to the 1915 London Pact. After World War II, Tyrol was governed by France until Austria regained independence again in 1955, the capital, Innsbruck, is known for its university, and especially for its medicine. Tyrol is popular for its famous ski resorts, which include Kitzbühel, Ischgl, the 14 largest towns in Tyrol are, Tyrol has long been a central hub for European long-distance routes and thus a transit land for trans-European trade over the Alps. As early as the 1st century B. C, Tyrol had one of the most important north-south links of the Roman Empire, the Via Claudia Augusta. From there roads branched along the River Inn, the Via Raetia went westwards and up onto the Seefeld Plateau, where it crossed into Bavaria where Scharnitz is today
25.
Bohemia
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Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia, later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently a part of the Habsburg Monarchy, after World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state, Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1945, border regions with sizeable German-speaking minorities of all three Czech lands were joined to Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland, in 1990, the name was changed to the Czech Republic, which become a separate state in 1993 with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Until 1948, Bohemia was a unit of Czechoslovakia as one of its lands. Bohemia was bordered in the south by Upper and Lower Austria, in the west by Bavaria and in the north by Saxony and Lusatia, in the northeast by Silesia, and in the east by Moravia. In the 2nd century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy, the Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia and the Battle of Mutina. After this, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps, much later Roman authors refer to the area they had once occupied as Boiohaemum. The earliest mention was by Tacitus Germania 28, and later mentions of the name are in Strabo. The name appears to include the tribal name Boi- plus the Germanic element *haimaz home and this Boiohaemum was apparently isolated to the area where King Marobods kingdom was centred, within the Hercynian forest. The Czech name Čechy is derived from the name of the Slavic ethnic group, the Czechs, Bohemia, like neighbouring Bavaria, is named after the Boii, who were a large Celtic nation known to the Romans for their migrations and settlement in northern Italy and other places. Another part of the nation moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, to the south, over the Danube, the Romans extended their empire, and to the southeast in Hungaria, were Sarmatian peoples. In the area of modern Bohemia the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king Marobodus and he took advantage of the natural defenses provided by its mountains and forests. In late classical times and the early Middle Ages, two new Suebic groupings appeared to the west of Bohemia in southern Germany, the Alemanni, many Suebic tribes from the Bohemian region took part in such movements westwards, even settling as far away as Spain and Portugal. With them were also tribes who had pushed from the east, such as the Vandals, other groups pushed southwards towards Pannonia. These are precursors of todays Czechs, though the amount of Slavic immigration is a subject of debate. The Slavic influx was divided into two or three waves, the first wave came from the southeast and east, when the Germanic Lombards left Bohemia. Soon after, from the 630s to 660s, the territory was taken by Samos tribal confederation and his death marked the end of the old Slavonic confederation, the second attempt to establish such a Slavonic union after Carantania in Carinthia. Other sources divide the population of Bohemia at this time into the Merehani, Marharaii, Beheimare, Christianity first appeared in the early 9th century, but only became dominant much later, in the 10th or 11th century
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President of the Czech Republic
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The President of the Czech Republic is the elected head of state of the Czech Republic and the commander-in-chief of the Military of the Czech Republic. Unlike counterparts in other Central European countries such as Austria and Hungary, who are generally considered figureheads, however, the stature of the first president, Václav Havel, was such that the office acquired greater influence than the framers intended. The President of the Czech Republic has the authority to act independently in a number of substantive areas, one of the offices strongest powers is that of veto, which returns a bill to parliament. Although the veto may be overridden by parliament, the ability to refuse to sign legislation acts as a check on the power of the legislature, the only kind of bills a president can neither veto nor approve are acts that would change the constitution. There are some reserved to the president, but can be exercised only under limited circumstances. Chief among these is the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, while the president can dissolve the Chamber on his own authority, forcing a new election of that body within 60 days, this can be done only under conditions prescribed by the constitution. Many of the powers can only be exercised with the assent of the Government. These include all matters having to do with foreign relations and the use of the military, the appointment of judges to lower courts,54 and 65 of the constitution, the president may not be held liable for any alleged criminal acts while executing the duties of office. Such prosecution may not occur either while the president is in office or at any time thereafter, furthermore, Art 65 prevents trial or detention for prosecution of a criminal offense or tort while in office. Many of the duties of the Czech president can be said to be ceremonial to one degree or another, a good example of this is the status as commander in chief of the military. No part of these duties can take place but through the assent of the Prime Minister, in matters of war, he is in every sense merely a figurehead, since the constitution gives all substantive constitutional authority over the use of the armed forces to the parliament. Many of the ceremonial duties fall under provisions of the constitution that allow the exercise of powers not explicitly defined in the constitution. In other words, parliament has the power to allow the president whatever responsibilities they deem proper, such a law was passed in 1994 with respect to the awarding of state decorations. Hence, this duty is effectively shared between the parliament and the president. The act even allows the president to choose someone to perform the presentation ceremony. Until 2012, the office of president was filled following an election by the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The term of office of the president is 5 years, a newly elected president will begin the five-year term on the day of taking the official oath. Candidates standing for office must be 40 years of age, since the only term limit is that no person can be elected more than twice consecutively, a person may theoretically achieve the presidency more than twice
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Jan Hus
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Jan Hus, often referred to in English as John Hus or John Huss, was a Czech priest, philosopher, Master at Charles University in Prague, church reformer and a key predecessor to Protestantism. After John Wycliffe, the theorist of ecclesiastical Reformation, Hus is considered the first Church reformer, as he lived before Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. He was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, including those on ecclesiology, the Eucharist, a century later, as many as 90% of inhabitants of the Czech lands were Hussites. Jan Hus was born in Husinec, Bohemia, c, at an early age he traveled to the Imperial City of Prague, where he supported himself by singing and serving in Churches. His conduct was positive and his commitment to his studies was remarkable, in 1393, Hus earned the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the University of Prague, and he earned his masters degree in 1396. In 1400, he was ordained as a priest, in 1402 Hus began preaching inside the city demanding for the reformation of the Church. He served as rector of the University of Prague in 1402–03 and he was appointed a preacher at the newly built Bethlehem Chapel around the same time. Hus was an advocate for the Czechs, and therefore the Realists. Although Church authorities banned many works of Wycliffe in 1403, Hus translated Trialogus into Czech, Hus attacked the Church by denouncing the moral failings of clergy, bishops, and even the papacy from his pulpit. Archbishop Zbyněk Zajíc tolerated this, and even appointed Hus preacher at the clergys biennial synod, on 24 June 1405, Pope Innocent VII, however, directed the Archbishop to counter Wycliffes teachings, especially the doctrine of impanation in the Eucharist. The archbishop complied by issuing a decree against Wycliffe, as well as forbidding any further attacks on the clergy. In 1406, two Bohemian students brought to Prague a document bearing the seal of the University of Oxford, Hus proudly read the document from his pulpit. Then in 1408, Pope Gregory XII warned Archbishop Zajic that the Church in Rome had been informed of Wycliffes heresies, in response, the king and University ordered all of Wycliffes writings surrendered to the archdiocesan chancery for correction. Hus obeyed, declaring that he condemned the errors in those writings, in 1408, the Charles University in Prague was divided by the Western Schism, in which Gregory XII in Rome and Benedict XIII in Avignon both claimed the papacy. Wenceslaus felt Gregory XII might interfere with his plans to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor and he denounced Gregory, ordered the clergy in Bohemia to observe a strict neutrality in the schism, and said that he expected the same of the University. Archbishop Zajíc remained faithful to Gregory, at the University, only the scholars of the Bohemian nation, with Hus as their leader, vowed neutrality. As a consequence, between five thousand and twenty thousand foreign doctors, masters, and students left Prague in 1409 and this exodus resulted in the founding of the University of Leipzig, among others. Thus Charles University lost its importance and became a strictly Czech school
28.
Jan Jesenius
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Jan Jesenius was a Bohemian physician, politician and philosopher. He was from an old family, the House of Jeszenszky. He presented himself in his own works as eques Ungarus, according to publications, he had Slovak, Polish or German roots. His father, Boldizsár Jeszenszky de Nagyjeszen, left Turóc County because of the Ottomans military campaign against Upper Hungary and he married Marta Schülerin, who came from a wealthy German bourgeois family. Jesenius was born in Breslau, where he studied at the Elisabeth gymnasium, from 1583 he studied at the University of Wittenberg, from 1585 at the University of Leipzig, and from 1588 at the University of Padua. From 1593 Jesenius was the physician of the Prince of Saxony, after 1600 he settled down in Prague as professor and anatomical consultant for Rudolf II, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, in 1617 he was elected rector of Charles University of Prague. In 1600 he attracted public interest by performing a public autopsy in Prague. In 1618, Jesenius was arrested in Pressburg after being sent as a deputy by the Bohemian estates, in December, he was released in exchange for two Habsburg captives. There is a legend that, before his release, he wrote the inscription IMMMM on the wall of his prison cell, ferdinand explained this as Imperator Mathias Mense Martio Morietur, and he wrote another prophecy next to it, Iesseni, Mentiris, Mala Morte Morieris. His most important philosophical work was Zoroaster, a work of philosophy which attempted to recover the lost wisdom of the ancients. Bohemian Revolt Ľudo Zúbek, Doktor Jesenius, Szlovákiai Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó-Móra Ferenc Könyvkiadó, Ľudo Zúbek, Doktor Jesenius, Móra Ferenc Könyvkiadó, Budapest,1966. Ruttkay László, Jeszenszky János és kora 1566-1621, Semmelweis Orvostörténeti Múzeum és Könyvtár, Budapest,1971
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Age of Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private
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Josef Vratislav Monse
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Josef Vratislav Monse was a Moravian lawyer and historian. He was a leading enlightenment figure in the Habsburg Monarchy and an exponent of the Moravian Revival in Moravia. Monse played a key role in the development of modern Moravian historiography and he was a professor of law and, in 1780, the rector at the University of Olomouc. Josef Vít Monse was the eighth of nine children born into the family of a legal official in Vysočina Region. His parents were Johann Karl Monse and Anna Monse, the family lived at house number eight on the main square at Nové Město na Moravě. Josef Monse attended the local school, when Monse was 14, his father died. His uncle, a local priest also named Josef Monse, sent him to study at a Jesuit gymnasium in Telč. He covered the six high school curriculum in four years and then, in 1752 he left for Prague. Monse left Prague for Vienna, where he attended the Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna, while still in Vienna, Monse published his dissertation, married Marie Anna and mastered Italian. In 1764 Monse moved to Olomouc, where he became an advocate, in 1768 he was appointed a professor of law at the University of Olomouc for which he received 900 gulden a year, lecturing on public and natural law. He still also found time to continue with his advocacy work, after Professor Josef Antonín Sommer, died in 1774, Monse added to his responsibilities Sommers courses on Roman and Canon law. 1774 was also the year in which he changed his name from Vít to Vratislav. The lectures on Canon law for students were given separately at the Faculty of Theology until 1771. Classes normally comprised some 50 law students, but for Monses Cannon law classes, by this time Monse had become a fierce proponent of the newly developing enlightenment ideals. In his lectures he defended the reforms of Joseph II, while the traditional theologians were merely resentful of to his spoken lectures, the publication of his ideas evoked real outrage. The treatise was found by one of the Monses former students in a library at Znojmo monastery and he sent the work to Monse, who translated it, adding an introduction and commentary while preserving the original content, and published it. Monse received harsh criticism not only from Olomouc, but also from Prague and Vienna, despite the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the Catholics maintained a strong grip over the University of Olomouc. At the same time as this relocation the Directorate of Law was established, however Monse was not able now to continue with his advocacy career
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Gymnasium (school)
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In its current meaning, it usually refers to secondary schools focused on preparing students to enter a university for advanced academic study. In the US, the German Gymnasium curriculum was used at a number of universities such as the University of Michigan as a model for their undergraduate college programs. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men, in the Polish educational system the gimnazjum is a middle school for pupils aged 13 to 16. The same applies in the Greek educational system, with the option of Εσπερινό Γυμνάσιο for adults. The gymnasium is a school which prepares the student for higher education at a university. They are thus meant for the more academically minded students, who are sifted out at about the age of 10–13, in addition to the usual curriculum, students of a gymnasium often study Latin and Ancient Greek. Some gymnasiums provide general education, others have a specific focus, today, a number of other areas of specialization exist, such as gymnasiums specializing in economics, technology or domestic sciences. In some countries, there is a notion of progymnasium, which is equivalent to beginning classes of the full gymnasium, here, the prefix pro indicates that this curriculum precedes normal gymnasium studies. The term was derived from the classical Greek word gymnasion, which was applied to an exercising ground in ancient Athens. Here teachers gathered and gave instruction between the hours devoted to exercises and sports, and thus the term became associated with. This use of the term did not prevail among the Romans, but was revived during the Renaissance in Italy, in 1538, Johannes Sturm founded at Strasbourg the school which became the model of the modern German gymnasium. In 1812, a Prussian regulation ordered that all schools which had the right to send their students to the university should bear the name of gymnasia, by the 20th century, this practice was followed in almost the entire Austrian-Hungarian, German, and Russian Empires. In the modern era, many countries which have gymnasiums were once part of three empires. In Albania a gymnasium education takes three years following a compulsory nine-year elementary education and ending with an aptitude test called Matura Shtetërore. The final test is standardized at the level and serves as an entrance qualification for universities. There are both public and private schools in these countries. Therefore, gymnasiums often base their admittance criteria on an entrance exam, in Austria the Gymnasium has two stages, from the age of 11 to 14, and from 15 to 18, concluding with Matura. The Humanistisches Gymnasium focuses on Ancient Greek and Latin, the Neusprachliches Gymnasium puts its focus on actively spoken languages
32.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected
33.
University of Cambridge
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The University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, England, often regarded as one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Founded in 1209 and given royal status by King Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople, the two ancient universities share many common features and are often referred to jointly as Oxbridge. Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 constituent colleges, Cambridge University Press, a department of the university, is the worlds oldest publishing house and the second-largest university press in the world. The university also operates eight cultural and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridges libraries hold a total of around 15 million books, eight million of which are in Cambridge University Library, a legal deposit library. In the year ended 31 July 2015, the university had an income of £1.64 billion. The central university and colleges have an endowment of around £5.89 billion. The university is linked with the development of the high-tech business cluster known as Silicon Fen. It is a member of associations and forms part of the golden triangle of leading English universities and Cambridge University Health Partners. As of 2017, Cambridge is ranked the fourth best university by three ranking tables and no other institution in the world ranks in the top 10 for as many subjects. Cambridge is consistently ranked as the top university in the United Kingdom, the university has educated many notable alumni, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, politicians, lawyers, philosophers, writers, actors, and foreign Heads of State. Ninety-five Nobel laureates, fifteen British prime ministers and ten Fields medalists have been affiliated with Cambridge as students, faculty, by the late 12th century, the Cambridge region already had a scholarly and ecclesiastical reputation, due to monks from the nearby bishopric church of Ely. The University of Oxford went into suspension in protest, and most scholars moved to such as Paris, Reading. After the University of Oxford reformed several years later, enough remained in Cambridge to form the nucleus of the new university. A bull in 1233 from Pope Gregory IX gave graduates from Cambridge the right to teach everywhere in Christendom, the colleges at the University of Cambridge were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself, the colleges were endowed fellowships of scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels, the hostels were gradually absorbed by the colleges over the centuries, but they have left some indicators of their time, such as the name of Garret Hostel Lane. Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, Cambridges first college, the most recently established college is Robinson, built in the late 1970s
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Lincoln College, Oxford
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Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, then Bishop of Lincoln and it is the ninth oldest of Oxford Universitys extant colleges. As of 2016, it has an endowment of £108 million. Notable alumni include John Radcliffe, Howard Florey, Edward Abraham, Norman Heatley, Nevil Sidgwick, John Wesley, John le Carré, Rachel Maddow and Theodor Seuss Geisel. Philip May, husband of Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, also attended Lincoln College, roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa at Lincoln College in 1946. Lincoln College has one of the oldest working medieval kitchens in the UK, Richard Fleming founded the College in order to combat the Lollard teachings of John Wyclif. He intended it to be a college of true students of theology who would defend the mysteries of Scripture against those ignorant laymen who profaned with swinish snouts its most holy pearls. To this end, he obtained a charter for the College from King Henry VI, which combined the parishes of All Saints, St. Michaels at the North Gate, and St. Mildreds within the College under a rector. The College now uses All Saints Church as its library and has ties with St Michaels Church at the North Gate. Richard Fleming died in 1431, and the first rector, William Chamberleyn, in 1434, leaving the College with few buildings, the second rector, John Beke, secured the Colleges safety by attracting donors. By 1436, the College had seven fellows, John Forest, Dean of Wells and a close friend of Bekes, donated such an amount that the College promised to recognise him as a co-founder, it did not keep this promise. His gifts saw the construction of a chapel, a library, hall, after a pointed sermon from the incumbent rector, Thomas Rotherham was compelled to give his support and effectively re-founded it in 1478, with a new charter from King Edward IV. His appearances at College became less frequent after he departed for Georgia as a chaplain in 1735. Indeed, he took to signing his publications as John Wesley, a portrait of him hangs in the Hall and a bust overlooks the front quad. The room where he is believed to have worked is also named him and was renovated by American Methodists at the beginning of the 20th century. As is common with Oxford colleges, the College has a rivalry with neighbour Brasenose College. The two colleges share a tradition revived annually on Ascension Day, an alternative is that a Lincoln man bested a Brasenose man in a duel. Since the nineteenth century, the beer has been flavoured with ivy so as to discourage excessive consumption, academically, Lincoln has been one of the top ten in the Norrington Table each year since 2006
35.
Exeter College, Oxford
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Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The college is located on Turl Street, where it was founded in 1314 by Devon-born Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, as a school to educate clergymen. From its foundation Exeter was popular with the sons of the Devonshire gentry and has associated with a number of notable people. As of 2012, the college had a financial endowment of £48.7 million. During its first century, it was known as Stapeldon Hall and was significantly smaller, the college grew significantly from the 15th century onward, and began offering rooms to its students. The College motto is Floreat Exon, as a result, over time, Exeter College became one of the leading colleges in the University. In the 18th century the college experienced declining popularity, as did all of Oxfords other colleges, University reforms in the 1850s helped to end this period of stagnation. Until 1979 the college did not allow students, but in 1993 Exeter College became the first of the former all-male colleges to elect a woman, Marilyn Butler. When Butlers tenure expired in October 2004, the college elected another woman – Frances Cairncross, in 2014, the author J. K. Rowling was elected an honorary fellow of the college. Exeter College is the basis for the fictional Jordan College in Philip Pullmans novel trilogy His Dark Materials, the 2007 film version of the first novel, The Golden Compass, used the college for location filming. The Front Quadrangle sits on roughly the site of the college, although of the earliest buildings. The quadrangle is dominated by the chapel, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and constructed in 1854–60, on the opposite side stands the Hall, constructed in 1618, notable for its vaulted ceilings and numerous fine portraits, underneath which is the college bar. Building work over the century resulted in the quadrangle taking on its current appearance in 1710. The Front Quadrangle also houses the Junior, Middle and Senior Common Rooms, as well as lodgings for fellows, the Rectors Lodgings were designed by Gilbert Scott and constructed in 1864, with staircases nine, ten and eleven also being erected during the 19th century. A passageway from the Front Quadrangle leads through to the colleges Fellows Garden, in which stands the library, the area is also bounded on the left hand side by Convocation House, the Divinity School and the Bodleian Library, and on the right by Brasenose Lane. The Mound, situated at the end of the Garden, offers views over Radcliffe Square, including All Souls College, in 2007–08, the college purchased the main site of Ruskin College on nearby Walton Street for £7 million. It will be refurbished as a city centre quadrangle. As one of the smaller Oxford colleges, Exeter has a reputation for having a student body
36.
St Chad's College, Durham
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St Chads College is a recognised college of Durham University in England, founded in 1904 as an Anglican hall for the training of Church of England clergy. The main part of the college is located on the Bailey and it neighbours Hatfield College to its north, while St Johns College and St Cuthberts Society are to its south. The college is named after St Chad of Mercia, a 7th-century bishop, St Chads was founded as an Anglican hall in 1904, principally to provide a university education for those considering ordination in the Church of England. For the first 70 years of its existence, a proportion of students completed their undergraduate degree at St Chads. The college remains a Church of England foundation but it ceased formal ordination training in 1971 and its current students study for degrees across all departments of the university. The college has its roots in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England, Archbishop Michael Ramsey described the college thus, I have always loved Saint Chads College and it has been a joy to see the college go from strength to strength. My spiritual home in Durham since 1939, Saint Chads College represents to me the wholeness of faith and practice so needed in the universities and in the nation. The financial support of Douglas Horsfall, a wealthy Liverpool businessman and devoted churchman, St Chads Hostel, Hooton Pagnell, was retained until 1916 as a preliminary place of study to prepare students to qualify for matriculation at Durham. In 1918, after the college had established a number of endowed fellowships, a number of other halls subsequently styled themselves colleges as well. St Chads was among the last university colleges in the UK to admit women undergraduates, as a part of a co-ordinated step-change in the university, the final all-male year entered in September 1987. The colleges motto, non vestra sed vos reflects the colleges beginnings, the motto commits the college to being concerned with the person, rather than with what the person owns. For over a half-century, the college has conducted an Advent procession in Durham Cathedral, the candle-lit choral service is unusual in not solely anticipating Christmas, but in anticipating the Second Coming, which is the traditional theological focus of the Advent season itself. The choir splits into two, with one group seated in the choir and the other processing from the entrance to the cathedral, the two groups call back and forth to each other, using chants based on the Great Advent Antiphons. These antiphons form the basis not only of the advent procession, the procession is advertised widely in the City of Durham, after the event the college hosts its annual reception for city residents. Main College houses the public areas and most college offices. At the centre of Main College is the Quad, a glassed-in quadrangle built for the centenary in 2004. The colleges dining hall, the Moulsdale Hall, is adjacent to the Quad, the Policy Research Group, the college bar and gymnasium are located in this building. There are three rooms on the ground floor of Main College
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Durham University
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Durham University is a collegiate public research university in Durham, North East England, with a second campus in nearby Stockton-on-Tees. It was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837 and it was one of the first universities to commence tuition in England for more than 600 years and claims to be the third oldest university in England, although this is disputed. The Durham University estate includes 63 listed buildings, ranging from the 11th-century Durham Castle to a 1930s Art Deco Chapel, the university also owns and manages the Durham World Heritage Site in partnership with Durham Cathedral. The universitys ownership of the World Heritage Site includes Durham Castle, Palace Green, the chancellor of the University is Sir Thomas Allen, who succeeded Bill Bryson in January 2012. As a collegiate university, its functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and 16 colleges. The university is a member of the Russell Group of leading UK universities after previously being a member of the 1994 Group, Durham is also affiliated with several university groups including the N8 Research Partnership, the Matariki Network of Universities and the Coimbra Group. The university is currently ranked 4th to 6th by recent national league tables of the British universities, in terms of average UCAS points of new entrants in 2014, Durham ranked 4th with the average entrant amassing 524 UCAS points. Long established as the rival to Oxford and Cambridge, the university attracts a largely middle class student body according to The Timess Good University Guide. In 2014, Durham had the fifth highest proportion of educated students at 36. 6%. The university was Sunday Times University of the Year for 2005, also making the shortlist for the 2004 and 2016 awards, Durham graduates have long used the Latin post-nominal letters Dunelm after their degree, from Dunelmensis. However, there was concern expressed by Oxford and Cambridge that the awarding of degree powers could hinder their position. The act received Royal Assent from King William IV on 4 July 1832, the University opened on 28 October 1833. In 1834 all but two of the bishops of the Church of England confirmed that they would accept holders of Durham degrees for ordination, accommodation was provided in the Archdeacons Inn from 1833 to 1837. On the accession of Queen Victoria an order of the Queen-in-Council was issued granting the use of Durham Castle to the university, in 1846, Bishop Hatfields Hall was founded, providing for the opportunity for students to obtain affordable lodgings with fully catered communal eating. Those attending University College were expected to bring a servant with them to deal with cooking, cleaning, elsewhere, the university expanded from Durham into Newcastle in 1852 when the medical school there became a college of the university. This was joined in 1871 by the College of Physical Sciences and these merged to form a mixed college in 1975. From 1896 these were associated with the university and graduates of St Hilds were the first female graduates from Durham in 1898, during the expansion phase the University also became the first English university to establish relationship with overseas institutions. Firstly in 1875 with Codrington College, Barbados, and secondly in early 1876 with Fourah Bay College, under the arrangements the two colleges became affiliated colleges of the university with their students sitting examinations for and receiving Durham degrees
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University College London
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University College London is a public research university in London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It is the largest postgraduate institution in the UK by enrollment and is regarded as one of the worlds leading research universities. UCL also makes the claims of being the third-oldest university in England. In 1836 UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London, which was granted a charter in the same year. UCL has its campus in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London. UCL is organised into 11 constituent faculties, within there are over 100 departments, institutes. In 2015/16, UCL had around 38,300 students and 12,000 staff and had an income of £1.36 billion. UCL ranks highly in national and international league tables and its graduates rank among the most employable in the world, UCL academics discovered five of the naturally occurring noble gases, co-discovered hormones, invented the vacuum tube, and made several foundational advances in modern statistics. There are at least 29 Nobel Prize winners and 3 Fields medalists amongst UCLs alumni and current, UCL was founded on 11 February 1826 under the name London University, as an alternative to the Anglican universities of Oxford and Cambridge. London Universitys first Warden was Leonard Horner, who was the first scientist to head a British university and this suggests that while his ideas may have been influential, he himself was less so. In 1827, the Chair of Political Economy at London University was created, with John Ramsay McCulloch as the first incumbent, in 1828 the university became the first in England to offer English as a subject and the teaching of Classics and medicine began. In 1830, London University founded the London University School, which would later become University College School, in 1833, the university appointed Alexander Maconochie, Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society, as the first professor of geography in the UK. In 1834, University College Hospital opened as a hospital for the universitys medical school. In 1836, London University was incorporated by charter under the name University College. The Slade School of Fine Art was founded as part of University College in 1871, in 1878, the University of London gained a supplemental charter making it the first British university to be allowed to award degrees to women. The same year, UCL admitted women to the faculties of Arts and Law and of Science, although women remained barred from the faculties of Engineering and of Medicine. Armstrong College, an institution of Newcastle University, also allowed women to enter from its foundation in 1871. Women were finally admitted to medical studies during the First World War in 1917, in 1898, Sir William Ramsay discovered the elements krypton, neon and xenon whilst professor of chemistry at UCL
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King's College London
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Kings College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, and a founding constituent college of the federal University of London. Kings was established in 1829 by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington, in 1836, Kings became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. It is a member of organisations such as the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association. Kings has five campuses, its main campus on the Strand in central London. In 2015/16, Kings had an income of £738.4 million, of which £193.2 million was from research grants and contracts and as of 2014/15. It has the fifth largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, and its academic activities are organised into nine faculties which are subdivided into numerous departments, centres and research divisions. Kings is home to six Medical Research Council centres and is a member of the Kings Health Partners academic health sciences centre, Francis Crick Institute. Kings College London, so named to indicate the patronage of King George IV, was founded in 1829 in response to the controversy surrounding the founding of London University in 1826. The need for such an institution was a result of the religious and social nature of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which then educated solely the sons of wealthy Anglicans. The secular nature of London University was disapproved by The Establishment, indeed, thus, the creation of a rival institution represented a Tory response to reassert the educational values of The Establishment. Winchilsea and about 150 other contributors withdrew their support of Kings College London in response to Wellingtons support of Catholic emancipation. In a letter to Wellington he accused the Duke to have in mind insidious designs for the infringement of our liberty, the letter provoked a furious exchange of correspondence and Wellington accused Winchilsea of imputing him with disgraceful and criminal motives in setting up Kings College London. The result was a duel in Battersea Fields on 21 March 1829, Winchilsea did not fire, a plan he and his second almost certainly decided upon before the duel, Wellington took aim and fired wide to the right. Accounts differ as to whether Wellington missed on purpose, Wellington, noted for his poor aim, claimed he did, other reports more sympathetic to Winchilsea claimed he had aimed to kill. Honour was saved and Winchilsea wrote Wellington an apology, duel Day is still celebrated on the first Thursday after 21 March every year, marked by various events throughout Kings, including reenactments. Kings opened in October 1831 with the cleric William Otter appointed as first principal, despite the attempts to make Kings Anglican-only, the initial prospectus permitted, nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely. William Howley, the governors and the professors, except the linguists, had to be members of the Church of England but the students did not, though attendance at chapel was compulsory. Kings was divided into a department and a junior department, also known as Kings College School
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Imperial College London
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Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned an area comprised of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, the Imperial Institute was opened by his wife, Queen Victoria, who laid the foundation stone in 1888. Imperial College London was granted a charter in 1907. In the same year, the joined the University of London. The curriculum was expanded to include medicine after merging with several medical schools. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School, Imperial is organized through faculties for Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Business. The main campus is located in South Kensington, the universitys emphasis is on emerging technology and its practical application. Imperials contributions to society include the discovery of penicillin, the development of fibre optics, Imperial is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. In 2017, it ranked 8th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 9th in the QS World University Rankings, in 2015, Imperial was also ranked the most innovative university in Europe, and in 2017 as the 5th most international university in the world. Staff and alumni include 15 Nobel laureates,2 Fields Medalists,70 Fellows of the Royal Society,82 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and 78 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. The Great Exhibition in 1851 was organised by Prince Albert, Henry Cole, Francis Fuller and other members of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. The Great Exhibition made a surplus of £186,000 used in creating an area in the South of Kensington encouraging culture and education for everyone. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned an area composed of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall. Several royal colleges and the Imperial Institute merged to form what is now Imperial College London, as a result of a movement earlier in the decade, many politicians donated funds to establish the college, including Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone and Robert Peel. It was also supported by Prince Albert, who persuaded August Wilhelm von Hofmann to be the first professor, William Henry Perkin studied and worked at the college under von Hofmann, but resigned his position after discovering the first synthetic dye, mauveine, in 1856. It is considered the highest honour given in the chemical industry. The Royal School of Mines was established by Sir Henry de la Beche in 1851, developing from the Museum of Economic Geology and he created a school which laid the foundations for the teaching of science in the country, and which has its legacy today at Imperial. The Royal College of Science was established in 1881, the main objective was to support the training of science teachers and to develop teaching in other science subjects alongside the Royal School of Mines earth sciences specialities
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Rector of Imperial College London
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The President and Rector of Imperial College London is the highest academic official of Imperial College London. The Rector is the executive, elected by the Council of the college. The position is held by Alice Gast after the resignation of Keith ONions in August 2014. Alice Gast now serves as President & Rector, while James Stirling became the first Provost of Imperial College London in August 2013, the Rectors residence is a large house on Queens Gate, at the southwest corner of the colleges campus in South Kensington, London
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Rector". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "