What are the Oldest Universities in the World?

The oldest university is definitely nslanda. It was built during the time of hautama buddha. That is 6th century bc. Like its taxila branch it was destroyed by Muslim invaders who murdered the monks and burned it down. Taxila is now in hands of Muslim invaders who occupy Pakistan which they stole from Hindu and Buddhist Indians. Taxila is occupied territory like Pakistan and Bangladesh.

@anon14032 / Karin: Cracow is the second oldest university in Central Europe (with Prague being the oldest). Europe's oldest universities are clearly located in Italy (except Oxford and Paris).

As a result, Prague and Cracow are therefore older than for instance all German universities. As well they are older than most universities north of the Alps including those in Western Europe, except - as mentioned - Oxford and Paris.

However, Europe's oldest universities - up to 300 older - are the aforementioned Italian and Spanish one's plus Oxford and Paris.

The important limitation that Prague and Cracow are the oldest universities in Central Europe is always mentioned when I hear or read about them. Therefore, I think you just overheard 'Central' when the tour guide was speaking.

Al-Azhar University is definitely the oldest still functioning University in the world, but Nalanda is not running any longer and if I'm not mistaken, it never handed out degrees. There are a lot of ancient schools but al-Azhar is the only one still functioning and growing.

Nalanda was world's first proper university, i.e., it had dormitories for students and teachers. It is also one of the most famous universities. In its heyday, it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers in the fifth century AD to 1197 AD. I have been there!

The earliest teaching institutions in India are called Ashrams, with one Acharya who used to be knowledgeable in almost all subjects and and many Punditas having mastery in one or more subjects.

These Ashrams were Indian treasures, cultivators, and developer of knowledge which even the most modern universities are unable to do.

According to Rigveda, presently 2013 AD, is

1 927 949 113 Shrishtyabda, i.e., the advent of the first living being on the Earth.

As regards the oldest university of the world, we remember "Nalanda Vishwavidyalaya" or University of India, which was destroyed by Muslim invaders. After a gap of about 800 years, Nalanda University is being revived as an international university.

Takshila University and VikramShila University of India were also destroyed by Islamic invaders in India. I won't call them educated in any university or civilized at all, who knowingly destroyed universities here and there.

timbuktu in mali of the afro islamic civilization was one of the earliest modern universities in the world - and in cordoba, spain where muslims ruled for some 800 centuries. christendom and westerndom was at its darkest at the time. why don't educational books give this prominence?

Al Azhar was also a muslim university. muslims were pioneers in science, algebra, astronomy, architecture and medicine. scholars from spain came to timbuktu. if readers are curious as to what made a barbaric nation rise to such prominence they should read the only universal religion, islam.

As early as 2300 bce, the "Nanjing Higher School" was known to exist, teaching mathematics, astronomy, and accountancy. I visited Nanjing Normal University a few weeks ago, and the students there say three current universities in the area all claim descent from the Nanjing Higher School: Nanjing U, Nanjing Normal, and another one, I believe called Northeastern.

The University of Santo Tomas, Philippines just celebrated its 400 years of existence last April 2011. UST was founded in April 28, 1611.

As far as my research goes the oldest seat of learning, whether you call it a university or give any other name, is the Nalanda University, India.

If you will all pardon the pun, this is an academic argument - there is no way to compare a 'university' in the ancient Indian sub-continent with one medieval Europe with one in the pre-Spanish South and Central America.

I have studied at Glasgow University [1400s], Stanford University [1800s], Caledonian University [2000s], but the common factor is me - universities are the product of what they produce - students who become educated graduates.

What about Plato's Academy founded about 387 BC in Athens (the School of Athens), or Arisotle's Lyceum? You missed the greatest civilization of all time.

The University of Al-Karaouine or Al-Qarawiyyin is a university located in Fes, Morocco which was founded in 859[1] The madrasa has been (and still is) one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world.

The Al Karaouine madrasa played a leading role in the cultural and academic relations between the Islamic world and Europe in the middle ages. The cartographer Mohammed al-Idrisi (d. 1166), whose maps aided European exploration in the Renaissance is said to have lived in Fes for some time, suggesting that he may have worked or studied at Al Karaouine. The madrasa has produced numerous scholars who have strongly influenced the intellectual and academic history of the Muslim and Jewish worlds. Among these are Ibn Rushayd al-Sabti (d. 1321), Mohammed Ibn al-Hajj al-Abdari al-Fasi (d. 1336), Abu Imran al-Fasi (d. 1015), a leading theorist of the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, Leo Africanus, a renowned traveler and writer, and Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon.

The Al Karaouine institution is considered by the Guinness book the oldest continuously operating academic degree-granting university in the world

It's somewhat disappointing that you mention Australia (19th century), and forget that in the 16th century there were already six universities in South America.

The oldest university in the world is Nalanda, India. Date: 427 to 1197 CE. Nalanda was sacked by Turkish Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1193.

The oldest university in the world is theNalanda uni in India, then the Al Ahzar in Egypt. Lets face it most Europeans were living in mud huts and were uncivilised when Indians were civilized with power and knowledge. The western education system is very narrow and does not produce wholesome thinking.

Nalanda is truly the oldest university in the world.

It is the university of Timbuktu in Africa.

phil, I wonder what oxford were teaching at the time? Any scholastic work to prove your claim from that that era?

To call other centres of learning not worthy of the name 'university' is showing ignorance.

Al- farabi the muslim philosopher and polymath wrote his four famous works (870AD-950AD): #The virtuous city.

#Epistle on the intellect. #The book of letters. #The book of enumeration of sciences and #The great book of music.

On alchemy he wrote "The necessity of the Art of the Elixir."

He was based in baghdad at the time of the Abbasid Caliphate but also travelled to Damascus and Cairo for teaching and learning. The mosque not only was it a place of worship but also a center of education. Learning was not only found in the mosque but also in private institutions that had endowments from rulers and wealthy individuals.

Al-Farabi influenced Averroes[1126-1198] another muslim polymath.

P.S. You can't run an empire for hundreds of years without knowledge. Peace!

i think the university of the Andes should get some credit.

there are various "university". there are Islam university (madrasah), the western university (originally based on Christianity), Buddhist university, etc. A more holistic list should be made.

the oldest and the greatest university ever existed in the universe is Nalanda University, India.This university was at its height when most of the world people lived just to eat and survive. Nalanda had its branches at Takshila and Ujjain, both on the Indian land.

The oldest known (as expected) is Nalanda, India.

This was summarily destroyed by arab/islamic invaders after absorbing all knowledge most important of which was the Indian numeral system (including decimals, fractions and zero).

The arabic candidates are the winners on this. They were the ones transmitting the knowledge from romans and greeks during Middle Ages and were the ones structuring knowledge in subjects. The oldest university will be in the ancient arab kingdoms.

The narrow view of defining university as a western invention is wrong as the oldest universities in europe were copies of the teaching institutions in the arab world. Besides, a mosque in the old sense was rather equivalent to a monastery (the surviving focal point of knowledge in medieval times), but much less prone to religious dogma than the christian counterpart.

Dominican Republic isn't in South America, any 5th grader should know that!

You had also forgotten to mention Coimbra (the University in Portugal) which was established in 1290, and the Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic) which was established in 1348.

The world's oldest university is in Morroco, built the year 659 A.D by a woman named Fatima. It's in a city of Fez, and the name of university is Al Qarrawiyin University.

University of Santo Tomas in Espana, Manila and University of San Carlos in Cebu belongs to the world's oldest universities. Both from the Philippines.

there is not any university of iran.

iranians had oldest university and scientist.

The University of Santo Tomas was founded in 1611 and the University of San Carlos in 1595 in the Philippines.

Lol what about Gundishapur university of iran its also belong to 5th century bc! don't you want to people know iran had the first university in the world?!

Dear Phil, As someone who has also studied at Oxford and Cambridge as well as Princeton and Al-Azhar I must correct your rather arrogant western-minded viewpoint which quite frankly is rather tiresome. Al-Azhar was a university associated with a mosque and degrees WERE conferred as titles of teaching.

However, the latter debates are irrelevant as Taxila University in the North-West Frontier Province was discovered by Alexander the Great's army to be an established seat of learning in multiple subjects and the confirmation of acquired knowledge was documented. This was circa 367 BC. Beat that!

The University Of Pecs in Hungary has been there since 1367.

I was recently in Krakow and they claimed that they had the second oldest University in Europe after Prague. Perhaps someone should put them right or do they use a different criteria? --Karin

No one would question that there are some very ancient seats of learning in the world, but many 'Universities' claims to being founded before the 1100's are simply false. The University of Bologna for example, 'The university of Bologna received a charter from Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, but in the 19th century, a committee of historians led by Giosuè Carducci traced the birth of the University back to 1088, making it arguably the longest-lived university in the West'. A contrived date to make it the oldest University and people fall for it even now. It is also said that Paris is older than Oxford because King Henry banned students from studying there and they came back to Oxford. That fact doesn't make Paris the older University. Also a University must offer more than just one or two subjects, have an organized structure where the staff admit the students, not students seeking out teachers, and also must offer academic degrees and higher degrees. A mosque is not and never will be a University by any stretch of the imagination in the same way that a church isn't a University.

Oxford was the first University to fulfill these criteria, and even if a date as late as 1167 is accepted, this still puts it ahead of other ancient European Universities. Having worked at Oxford and now at Cambridge and having spent a lot of time looking into the matter I think this is the case.

Nalanda is truly the oldest university in the world. From a little investigation i have personally made, Nalanda was built over 500 years before the Al-Azhar University was built.

you forgot to mention Al-Azhar University. It was built in 970 AD and the school of theology was established in 988 AD.