ABSTRACT
Academia is etymologically derived from
the Greek Academy, founded in Athens in
the fourth century BCE for the purposes of
educating both men and women in philo-
sophy, science and mathematics. The pre-
sent system of academia is more recognisable
as a descendant of the first European uni-
versities founded during the late twelfth and
early thirteenth centuries in Bologna and
Paris, respectively. Universities throughout
the world owe their form and function to this
European system of academia, often through
direct colonisation by European nations but
also through the conscious adaptation of
European models of the university (Ru¨egg
Although the education of students remains
a chief academic concern, those in academia are
also charged with the production of knowl-
edge in the sciences, humanities and social
sciences. Academics, then, are not just tea-
chers of post-secondary education but also
researchers, scientists, scholars and writers.
