Institutions of Higher Education from the Beginnings of Civilization to 600 A.D.

Abstract

The human being tried, in one way or another, to satisfy his thirst for knowledge and look for ways to acquire, expand or generate it. In this sense, there are records of formal organizations dedicated to higher education (HE) since 1000 BC in China, and since 800 BC in India. Many of them functioned in monasteries dedicated mainly to religious studies, but without ceasing to impart knowledge about other disciplinary branches such as Medicine, Mathematics or Grammar. Other institutions, such as the Imperial Chinese Academy or the Great Taehak School in Korea, were oriented to the training of future workers in the imperial administration, with a marked pragmatic and Confucian cut. An advantage among HE centers in antiquity was the ease of allowing the migration of students and, therefore, of knowledge; because they did not yet have political or religious restrictions. Among its amazing characteristics, its organization with academic bodies, curricula, certificates of completion of studies and its own facilities stands out. The only distinction between HE establishments in antiquity and proper universities developed in the european middle ages was the legal autonomy of the latter, which allowed them to grant academic degrees.