How the University got its roles

A disgustingly abbreviated history of the modern university with a special focus on research and the creation of new knowledge and technology

This is the first draft of a section from a larger upcoming piece about unbundling the university, pre-commerical technology research, and how it all relates to things we’ve learned at Speculative Technologies and our plans for the future. We will be releasing sections early to supporters for comments and questions.

21st century universities have become a massive “bundle” of societal roles and missions — from skills training to technology development to discovering the secrets of the universe to think tank to young adult day care to hedge fund to sports team. Arguably they are no longer balancing these missions well. Any serious attempt to address this issue should involve understanding how this bundle of roles came to be.

Medieval Universities

The first universities emerged in the 12th century to train clergy, who needed to be literate (at least in Latin) and have some idea about theology. Obviously, institutions of higher education had existed before, and academia arguably predates Socrates, but we can trace our modern institutions back to these medieval scholastic guilds in places like Paris, Bologna, and Oxford. In a recognizable pattern, the types of people who became professors also were the type of person who also liked trying to figure out how the world worked and arguing about philosophy. Many of the people who became clergy were the second sons of noblemen, who quickly realized that learning to read and a smattering of philosophy was useful. Nobles started sending their other children to universities to learn as well.

So from the start, you have this bundle of vocational training (although very scoped), general skills training, moral instruction, and inquiry into the nature of the universe. The business model was straightforward: donations paid for the original structures, and then students paid instructors directly; there were a small number of endowed positions whose salaries weren’t tied to teaching.