. Briefly trace the development of the European university and its curriculum; then, compare this original curriculum with the course of study in which you are currently engaged

Question

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

1. The first European institution of higher learning to call itself a university was founded in Bologna, Italy, in 1088. The University of Bologna quickly established itself as a center for the study of law, an advanced area of study for which students prepared by mastering the seven liberal arts--the quadrivium, or the mathematical arts, consisting of music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, and the trivium, the language arts, which included grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. The University of Paris was chartered in 1200, and soon after came Oxford and Cambridge in England. These northern universities emphasized the study of theology.
2. Proficiency in Latin was mandatory, and students studied Latin in all courses of their first four years of study. They read the writings of the ancient Greeks—Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid—in Latin translation. Augustine of Hippo’s On Christian Doctrine was required reading, as were Boethius’s writings on music and arithmetic.
3. To obtain their artium baccalaureus (or bachelor of arts) degree, students took oral exams after three to five years of study. Further study to acquire mastery of a special field led to the artium magister (master of arts) degree and might qualify a student to teach theology or practice medicine or law. Four more years of study were required to acquire the title of doctor (from the Latin, doctus, “learned”), culminating in a defense of a thesis before a board