Top 10 Oldest Universities in the World: Ancient Colleges

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Unfortunately, the U.S. will never boast a medieval university, as this country’s origins, established in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, were formed when the oldest university in the world already was about nine centuries old. If you’re interested, we do have a list of the oldest universities in the U.S., by accreditation year.

The following list of ten oldest universities in the world shows, through their brief histories, a trend: The university as an autonomous self-governing institution first was developed as religious institutions (madrasahs) that originated in the medieval Islamic world. But, Europe did not fall far behind these Islamic developments, as Italy founded its first university approximately two centuries after the first university developed in Morocco. The last university on this list, the University of Padua in Italy, was founded in 1222 — 270 years before Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in 1492.

This list is compiled of extant universities, although a few of them closed for brief periods from the effects of war or local disputes. On the whole, the European universities on this list have expanded their campuses and enjoy high rankings in the world today. The list below is compiled in order of the university’s founding.