20 / / 21 as the local residents. The education would be almost entirely unrelated to local matters, focusing instead on issues of general or universal significance such as humanities, theology, jurisprudence and medicine, following the Greco-Roman education tradition that preceded it. The awarded degree would be widely recognised and graduates could teach in schools or pursue their qualified profession throughout Europe; the universities with early success were therefore open and universal. The most famous ones were the University of Bologna, the University of Paris and the University of Oxford. The former is believed to be the first university in Europe, claimed to be founded in 1188. Although the founding date is in dispute, certainly, by the early 13th century, the University of Bologna undoubtedly had the characteristics of what constitutes a university in our understanding, with its main focus on legal education and jurisprudence. Established from religious schools of the 11th and 12th centuries, the University of Paris and University of Oxford also evolved to become universities in the early 13th century. The universities comprised the Facultatis Artium (Faculty of Arts) as the foundation level of learning, and three Superior Faculties, namely, the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine, for further education. Among these faculties, the Faculty of Theology was the most prestigious one. In the early 13th century, a group of professors from Oxford University moved to Cambridge and built another university, thus named as the University of Cambridge. With a similar structure, it became a university on a par with Oxford. Among the four early Faculties of Cambridge, the Faculty of Theology and its affiliated philosophy degree were initially among its strengths. As with the University of Paris, when the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge were being established in the early 13th century, the need for a mechanism to arrange accommodation for students and teachers arose. This was because the majority of students and professors were non-locals, and the renting of accommodation from local residents sometimes led to feuds and even violence and casualties. This need led to the creation of a type of educational institution that was a constituent of the university but had its own independent governance and assets. Some such lodgings were named as a Hall, or House, and latterly others were named as a College. Hall is an Old English word for guest house, derived from hospitium in Latin; House, or domum in Latin, meant a house in general. Both terms evolved into a form of statutory educational accommodation for professors and students. As for College, for which collegium in Latin, it originally meant a corporation with legal status. All three evolved into a form of statutory educational accommodation for professors and students alike. At Oxford and Cambridge, the names College, House and Hall were officially translated into Chinese as ‘ 㳴ꯗ’ (xueyuan), a Chinese term in use to mean a disciplinary-based academic faculty of a university in modern Chinese. In Chinese literature on the history of Western education, College, House and Hall are sometimes translated as ‘ 㳴蕩’ (xueshe). When discussing the College system at Oxford and Cambridge, the Chinese academic community often refers to it as the ‘ 剹ꯗ’ (shuyuan), as distinguished from ‘ 㳴ꯗ’ (faculty). To avoid confusion, this book adopts the more widely used term of ‘ 剹ꯗ’ (shuyuan) as the translation of ‘College’ in the Oxbridge context. These university-affiliated colleges were able to attract well-educated and reputable scholars from all over Europe, as they provided accommodations and various statutory privileges for the residential professors. The colleges’ educational role was no less important than that of the University’s faculties and their affiliated departments, and they offered academic subjects on humanities, law, medicine and theology just as those taught in the faculties. However, as professors and students shared communal meals, studied and lived together at the college, professors were able to interact more closely with their students and teach them by example, which has an educational impact that cannot be achieved through lectures at faculties. Of course, college professors were often employed by faculties at the same time, and students, apart from being taught by professors affiliated to their own college, were also taught in faculties by professors affiliated with other colleges. From the perspective of discipline-specific education, colleges and faculties each has its own role to play, but they achieved synergy by complementing and supplementing each other. Nevertheless, the authority to examine outcome of learning and award degrees accordingly, both of which constitute key functions of a university, remained within the purview of the university and faculties. Colleges had the responsibility to educate but not the right to confer degrees. For instance, Merton College, one of the three oldest colleges in Oxford, was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, after his first term as Lord Chancellor of England from 1261 to 1263, on his private property in Malden, to the southwest of London, to provide accommodation for a group of scholars. The founder, who was close to the royal family, prominent in law and diplomacy, and influential as a clergyman, also provisioned land and property and established a charter of self-governance for the new institution. In 1274, after Merton’s second term as Lord Chancellor from 12721274, it was moved to Oxford, acquired another name of Merton College, and became one of the university’s constituent colleges. Merton was appointed Bishop of Rochester in the same year until his death in 1277. In the 3rd Revised Statutes of the College of 1274 drawn up by Merton, which named the institution as ‘The House of the Scholars of Merton’ (domum scolarium de Merton) and referred to the institution alternatingly as a dormitory (domum, domui), and a school (scolis) in the preamble. Although the word ‘college’ is not mentioned in this 1274 charter, there is no doubt that the institution was both academic and residential in nature, and thus a genuine College. The name ‘College of Merton’ came into existence after the move to Oxford, and it coexisted alongside the original name ‘The House of the Scholars of Merton’. During the early years, theology was the main focus of the College, but later it also offered subjects in law, medicine and humanities. The statutes drawn up by Merton, him being a clergyman, resembled an oath in the name of God between him the founder and the College members, stipulating their respective rights and duties. Article 38 particularly emphasized the virtues of unity and mutual charity, peace, concord and love as the most important of the duties. Today, the current statutes of the college, which were adopted in 2015 state at the outset that the college must advance education, learning, research and religion ‘for the public benefit’. It is evident that in the seven centuries since its establishment, Merton College has upheld a tradition of pursuing the betterment of mankind through academic pursuit. Since the 19th century, Oxford University has offered a broad curriculum, yet each student enrolling into a particular course (major subject), with no requirements in compulsory foundational studies in humanities or liberal arts education. Nor was there a university mechanism for systematically moulding the character of the students. The academic education of the colleges mainly focused on the students’ chosen subjects. Under this discipline-oriented curriculum, the communal meals and shared living spaces, the earnest advice, the interaction between professors and students, the contagious atmosphere of intellectual inquiry, the peer earning experience, the elaborate rituals and traditions of the college, the stately and elegant chapel and the solemn formal dinners, all undoubtedly played a very important role in the subtle nurturing of students’ character in addition to acquisition of knowledge. ╚锟⛿㶇䑑剹ꯗ侷芎溸⯽┿♂气 College Education in China and the West in Historical Perspective 睙┞ꌄ | PART I
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