A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars".

Early history

see: List of oldest universities in continuous operation

• Academies such as Shang Hsiang, and later Taixue and Guozijian, succeeded by the medieval Academies of Classical Learning
• TaxilaJoseph Needham (2004), Within the Four Seas: The Dialogue of East and West, Routledge, ISBN 0415361664:
  quote: "When the men of Alexander the great came to Taxila in India in the fourth century BC they found a university there the like of which had not been seen in Greece, a university which taught the three Vedas and the eighteen accomplishments and was still existing when the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien went there about AD 400." in Gandhara and the Buddhist Nalanda University"Nalanda". Microsoft Encarta (2007).
  quote: Nalanda, Bihār State, India, an ancient seat of learning, probably founded in the 5th century AD. It flourished until the 12th century and at its height had 2000 teachers and 10,000 students. Teachings included the study of the Buddhist scriptures of both the Mahayana and Theravada schools, the Vedas, philosophy, mathematics, logic, theology, and medicine. Attendance was free, since the university was supported by revenue and food donations collected from local villages.... The site now lies in ruins, but excavation work has revealed a complex of lecture halls, dormitories, gardens, and many stupas, in addition to stone images of the Buddha. in Bihar, India (5th century BC)
• The Sassanid Academy of Gundishapur was founded in the 5th century.

The University of Constantinople, founded as an institution of higher learning in 425 and reorganized as a corporation of students in 849 by the regent Bardas of emperor Michael III, is considered by some to be the earliest institution of higher learning with some of the characteristics we associate today with a university (research and teaching, auto-administration, academic independence, et cetera). If a university is defined as "an institution of higher learning" then it is preceded by several others, including the Academy that it was founded to compete with and eventually replaced. If the original meaning of the word is considered "a corporation of students" then this could be the first example of such an institution.