ABSTRACT
Universities have special potential to be hubs of interaction and communication, historically central to the development of national citizenship. Many countries have long been in effect multilingual but the universality of universities has depended on their denizens sharing the ability to study, teach and communicate in a common language. Early universities were overwhelmingly ecclesiastical institutions, for training clerics, and it was not until the nineteenth century that universities really became synonymous with research and higher level learning. Universities have almost always been seen as having a role in the public domain, and in contributing to the development of citizens and therefore citizenship. The aim of university education is presented as something very different from citizenship as a broad synergistic relationship with society and public life. The search for a European public sphere is often centred on the media and the relative paucity of European print or visual media asserted to demonstrate its lack or fragility.
