History of Universities Timeline

By the 18th century, universities published their own research journals, building on the earlier emergence of scholarly publications and institutionalizing the dissemination of new research.

Moving into the 18th century, professors became less focused on simply training university teachers and more focused on 'forming the minds of the elite' of a larger society.

During the 18th century, most universities were strongly connected to either a Catholic or a Protestant church, meaning professors' and students' religion determined employment and matriculation.

In the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment encouraged education's transition from the 'preservation and transmission of accepted knowledge' to the 'discovery and advancement of new knowledge'; newer universities adopted these ideas more quickly than older ones.

Image source: Age of Enlightenment

Starting in the mid-18th century, the German Bildungsbürgertum emerged with an educational ideal based on idealistic values and classical antiquity, though it failed in gaining political power and in its aims for a nationalist movement.

Image source: Bildungsbürgertum

The École Polytechnique was established in 1794 by the mathematician Gaspard Monge during the French Revolution, becoming one of the model post-Revolutionary French Grandes écoles.

Image source: École polytechnique

Under Napoleon I, the École Polytechnique became a military academy in 1804, reflecting the close ties between the revolutionary French educational institutions and the state's military ambitions.

Japan, the Near East, and Africa all had universities based on European models in the 19th century, extending European academic traditions far beyond the continent.

Ultimately, European universities established the intellectual and academic traditions of university education worldwide; by the end of the 19th century, the Humboldtian university model was established in Europe, the US, and Japan.

Image source: Humboldtian model of higher education

For most of the 19th century, the UK afforded a university education only to aristocrats; not until the early 20th century, featuring new universities such as the University of London, was higher education available to the mass populace.

Image source: University of London

In the 20th century, urbanization and industrialization made a university education available to the mass populace, transforming universities from elite institutions into broad engines of social mobility.

Popular access to higher education slowly began after 1914, yet the principal remaining obstacle was its expense, keeping university education out of reach for much of the populace.

Only when Prussia and its absolutist government had been utterly defeated by the Napoleonic armies in 1806 did the weakness of the defeated government allow for the Prussian reforms of the country's institutions, including education.

Image source: Prussian Reform Movement

In the 19th century, religion was deleted from the compulsory curriculum; in France, Napoleon's secular Université de France troubled Roman Catholics because it threatened their educational monopoly.

Wilhelm von Humboldt was appointed Geheimer Staatsrat (not minister as intended) of education in 1809 and held office for just one year, yet his reforms created the influential German university model.

Image source: Wilhelm von Humboldt

Early 19th-century American educators were fascinated by German educational trends, importing the German university model's emphasis on science and research into American institutions.

Image source: History of higher education in the United States

The Michigan Constitution of 1835 fully embraced the overall Prussian system by introducing a range of primary schools, secondary schools, and the University of Michigan itself, all administered by the state and supported with tax-based funding.

Image source: Constitution of Michigan

The Loi Falloux of 1850 attempted to reinstate some educational power to the Roman Catholic Church in France, but by then the Université de France had de facto substantive control of French higher education.

Image source: Falloux Laws

The French university model lacked the freedom of the German model, consisting of severe discipline and control over curriculum, degrees, conformity of views, and personal habits — including a ban on beards in 1852.

Image source: Grande école

The Oxford University Act 1854 removed religious requirements for students at Oxford, contributing to a decline in chapel attendance and of religion as integral to a university education.

Image source: Oxford University Act 1854

The Cambridge University Act 1856 removed religious requirements for students at Cambridge, mirroring reforms at Oxford and marking the secularization of Britain's older universities.

By 1866, the freer German university model had begun to influence the strict, disciplined French model, softening its rigid control over curriculum and student life.

Until the end of the 19th century, religion exerted a significant limiting influence upon academic curricula and research, by which time the German university model had become the world standard.