Who ran the first universities: the professors or the students?
At Bologna, students hired and fired their professors and a committee called the "Denouncers of Professors" reported their misbehaviour.
▶ Start the storyAt Bologna, the students; at Paris, the teachers. A medieval university was a corporation, and the word originally meant the guild or corporation of students and masters. At Bologna the students, grouped into foreign "nations", could strike to enforce their demands, and an elected council of student nations hired and fired the professors. Paris was the opposite model: there the teachers ran the school and were paid by the church, which made Paris the favourite destination of teachers from all over Europe.
Bologna's students had a good reason to organise. Foreign students there formed mutual aid societies for protection against city laws that imposed collective punishment on foreigners for the crimes and debts of their countrymen. By striking or threatening to strike, they could demand changes to courses and pay. Professors could even be fined for not finishing classes on time, and a student committee called the "Denouncers of Professors" reported any misbehaviour. The professors fought back by forming committees in each and securing the right to set examination fees and degree requirements.
Bologna: students
- Students hired and paid the teachers
- An elected council of student nations hired and fired professors
- Strikes over courses and pay
Paris: teachers
- Teachers ran the school
- Teachers were paid by the church
- A magnet for teachers from all over Europe
Before universities, higher education took place in and monastic schools. But demand outstripped them: each cathedral school was essentially run by one schoolmaster, and tensions rose between their students and townspeople.
Fights with the town could create new universities. Oxford grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II prohibited English students from attending Paris, and after conflict between students and townspeople some academics fled to Cambridge, where they founded a university in 1209.
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Recap
Early universities were guilds of students and masters: at Bologna the students held power, at Paris the teachers.
💡 A trick to remember it · Bologna: students hold the purse; Paris: teachers hold the chalk; Cambridge: runaways from Oxford.
Surprising fact · Cambridge was founded in 1209 by academics who fled Oxford after conflict with townspeople.
Sources (3)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (18 claims) cites at least one of these.