MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES As I begin my history report on the medieval University, I would like to briefly explain its origin; it is crucial in understanding its development. The "university" as an institution or entity was established during the middle ages, or medieval period. During the ll00's, universities broke into specialty areas: Bologna - Law, Paris - Theology, and Salerno - Medicine. Moreover, universities were a group of faculty, not a group of buildings, contrary to our modern belief. By around the eleventh century, medieval educators developed Scholasticism, a method of inquiry, scholarship, and teaching. The scholastics, as these teaching clerics were called, turned to faith and reason as complementary sources of truth. Schools were governed and protected by the church. Hence, theology was the number one most important subject in medieval universities. In example, Thomas Aquinas (l225-l274), a Dominican theologian, taught at the University of Paris and made Realism acceptable to Christianity. Basing his Realist philosophy on education, concrete and visual, Aquinas believed humans possess a physical body and a spiritual soul. Aquinas portrayed the teacher's vocation as then combining faith, love, and learning. The Medieval contribution to western education has had several lasting effects. The primary contribution has been preserving and institutionalizing knowledge - that is by by presenting it within an organized framework. Within the university, medieval educators not only taught but also preserved knowledge by recording and codifying it. Another contribution to our present education system I wish to mention, in the form in which we have them are, according to Hastings, teaching corporations, courses of study, examinations, and degrees. I have especially found it interesting that the code of dress the students wore on a daily basis was a "cap & gown." We know this as our modern-day graduation "cap & gown." All of these elements are a direct inheritance from the Middle Ages. Again, the greatest contribution I wish to stress has been, above all, the creation of THE institution. As we know the "University" today and are familiar with what it represents in terms of higher education, we can come to appreciate it's value in society. From a historical perspective, we have come a long way in adopting and revising educational concerns to better serve society in this day and age we live in. However, through researching this topic of Medieval Universities, we can clearly see that the crucial foundation, the preservation of knowledge, has continued to perpetuate throughout these next several hundred years. RESOURCES: l. Hastings, Rashdall (l936) The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. 2. Levine, Ornstein (l997) Foundations of Education. (Pgs. 84-86) Prepared by Ljubinka Jocic