this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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The oldest continuously operating university is in Bologna. The one that the post is about was actually a mosque and did not become a university until less than a century ago.
Al-Qarawiyyin is recognized by UNESCO and Guinness as the world's oldest continually running institution of higher learning.
We can apply a purity test here (ie. what qualifies as a university) but.. why except for pedantry? No matter how you frame it, it doesn't take away from the scale or impact of the institution itself.
Well, because it's only true for a veeeeeery narrow definition of "university". If you include other schools, there are British ones that predate it by three centuries. If you don't require current operation in the same building, or allow name changes, there are ancient Greek ones that predate it by more than a millenium.
I appreciate your examples but there must be more to the story since, as another example, it is a Buddhist monastery in India that is often regarded are the world's oldest residential university. Perhaps dormitory style living was not part of the ancient European model. I also wonder why Western founded institutions like UNESCO and Guinness would give this designation to al-Qarawiyyin when they would likely be more familiar with the examples (albeit nonspecific) you've listed.
If you want to go that way, a lot of places could qualify as oldest university, some christian monasteries way older than al-qarawiyyin are still inactivities and the main focus of monasteries is to learn and apply "god" teachings...
I wonder why UNESCO and Guinness do not recognize those Christian monasteries then. Perhaps they did not confer degrees or certificates of scholarly competence (ijazahs) the way that al-Qarawiyyin did.
My nephews gets stars stickers when he successfully learn something, does it qualify as degrees and its school qualify for university?
UNESCO can say whatever they want, it never have been a university in the sense that 90% of the population would not identify it as a university... An ersatz of university? Yeah sure if it make you feel better...
It was common for religious institutions to also be places of higher learning during this era.
The Nalanda Mahavihara (Buddhist grand monastery) is regarded as world's oldest residential university. It is in present day India, though not operating today. Scholars such as Xuanzang (known as Mokṣadeva in Sanskrit) travelled from China (in his case Luoyang) to Nalanda for his studies and returned with thousands of sutras which were then translated. It was knowledge transfer through such universities during the Tang dynasty that brought the number system we use today (originally described in the Bakhshali manuscripts and further refined by Aryabhata and Bhramagupta) to China.
Are you saying the post is baloney ? 😁
I see what you did there
A lot of higheducation place were also a religious place. For a lot of time education was't just seen as positive science also education of soul.
Honestly feminists need to learn how to turn off the comment section, every time they post A WOMAN ACTUALLY DID X FIRST, the comment section is there to ruin the delusion
So you want to be deluded?
Good advice. Feminist Hivemind Ancillary 6969 here, and yeah, all we do is post junk history and try to be deluded.
Most of us don't give a shit who did what first and what was in their pants, I just want free tampons and less rape.
Take solace (not really) in knowing that a woman didn't do X first, but only because of rampant misogyny (half of the time I suppose)