ABSTRACT
Various classical and religious higher learning institutions profoundly influenced the university up until modern times. The university arose in European medieval cities with a more utilitarian goal, stressing having rather than being. To understand some aspects of modern-day universities, one must consider the concept of the guild-like organization, its merits, and its drawbacks. In various cities, nuclei were formed in teaching of the arts, medicine, law, and theology, endeavoring to become a universitas magistrorum, universitas scholarium, or a universitas magistrorum et scholarium. In 1200, Philip Augustus II, King of France, bestowed upon the teachers and their students the privilege of being judged by the ecclesiastical authorities, giving even more momentum to the process of submission of universities to the church. The very nature of the university as a guild-like association turned it into an institution of social climbing. Without entering in the details of the curricula, university teaching was all over based on texts.
