OCTOBER 27, 2024

5 oldest universities in the world

Let us explore the halls that the brightest minds in history have walked in with this list of the oldest operational universities in the world!

Data: topuniversities.com

Established: 1209
Location: United Kingdom
Established by a group of scholars who left Oxford University following a political spat, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. 

5. University of Cambridge

Established: 1160-1250
Location: France
Also called ‘la Sorbonne’, the University was a voice for Roman Catholic Orthodoxy. Its operations were suspended between 1793 and 1896, after the French Revolution.

4. University of Paris

Established: 1134
Location: Spain
Also called ‘la Sorbonne’, the University was a voice for Roman Catholic Orthodoxy. Its operations were suspended between 1793 and 1896, after the French Revolution.

3. University of Salamanca

Established: 1096-1167
Location: United Kingdom
While some claim that it was established even earlier than 1096, Oxford University is undoubtedly the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

2. University of Oxford

Established: 1088
Location: Italy
Established in 1088, and having never been out of operation, the University of Bologna is the oldest in the world.

1. University of Bologna

The Al-Azhar University, established in 970 AD in Egypt, is the first known centre of Islamic learning, but it did not gain university status until 1961.

Fun fact: 

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