ABSTRACT
The medieval university was primarily an indigenous product of Western Europe. The roots of the medieval university phenomenon were formed in utilitarian soil. Europe's earliest universities were institutional responses to the need to harness the expanding intellectual forces of the eleventh and twelfth centuries to the ecclesiastical, governmental and professional requirements of society. Medieval European society had at its disposal only limited finances for the purposes of higher education. In the midst of all the discussions of legal forms and privileges, however, it must never be forgotten that the essence of the medieval university was the academic guild organized for the mutual defence of its members and for the supervision of the teaching regime. The idea of guilds of students directing the business of a university and keeping the lecturing staff in a state of subservience has been alien to European thinking for about six hundred years.
