Roman Colleges  The Roman Colleges, also referred to as the Pontifical Colleges in Rome, are institutions established and maintained in Rome for the education of future ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic Church. Traditionally many were for students of a particular nationality. The colleges are halls of residence in which the students follow the usual seminary exercises of piety, study in private, and review the subjects treated in class. In some colleges there are special courses of instruction (languages, music, archaeology, etc.) but the regular courses in philosophy and theology are given in a few large central institutions, such as Pontifical Urbaniana University, the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Lateran University, and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum". The Roman colleges, in addition to the obvious advantages for study which Rome offers, allows the students to have a different experience of university life from the one of the irrespective countries. They also serve in a certain measure to maintain contact of the various countries with the Holy See. With this end in view the popes have encouraged the founding of colleges in which young men of the same nationality might reside and at the same time profit by the opportunities which the city affords. The rector of the Kraków seminary, in bidding Karol Wojtyla farewell, said that theology can be learned elsewhere, but a priest in Rome must 'learn Rome itself'. Each national college has as its head a rector designated by the episcopate of the country to which the college belongs and appointed by the pope. He is assisted by a vice-rector and a spiritual director. Most colleges follow similar academic programs during the year, but variations will be found, and these are due chiefly to natural characteristics or to the special purpose for which the college was established. The scholastic year begins in the first week of October and ends in June. In most of the courses the lecture system is followed and at stated times formal disputations are held in accordance with scholastic methods. The course of studies, whether leading to a degree or not, is prescribed and it extends, generally speaking, through six years, two of which are devoted to philosophy and four to theology. To philosophy in the stricter sense are added courses in mathematics, languages, and natural sciences. Theology includes, besides dogmatic and moral theology, courses in liturgy, archaeology, Church history, canon law and Scripture. An oral examination is held in the middle of the year and a written examination (concursus) at the close.