Essays: English and American. The Harvard Classics. 190914. The
Idea of a University. I. What Is a University? John Henry Newman
IF I were asked to describe as briefly and popularly as I could,
what a University was, I should draw my answer from its ancient
designation of a Studium Generale, or School of Universal
Learning. This description implies the assemblage of strangers
from all parts in one spot;from all parts; else, how will you
find professors and students for every department of knowledge?
and in one spot; else, how can there be any school at all?
Accordingly, in its simple and rudimental form, it is a school
of knowledge of every kind, consisting of teachers and learners
from every quarter. Many things are requisite to complete and
satisfy the idea embodied in this description; but such as this
a University seems to be in its essence, a place for the
communication and circulation of thought, by means of personal
intercourse, through a wide extent of country. There is nothing
far-fetched or unreason