The Evolution of the University - The Development of the University as an Institution of Higher Education from Ancient Greece to the Twentieth Century

Published by the Department of Management Systems, Business Studies Faculty, Massey University, Palmerston North, 1989, 189 pages.

A University is a mechanism for the inheritance of the Western style of civilisation. It preserves, transmits, and enriches learning, and it undergoes evolution as animals and plants do. - Eric Ashby (1967)

Over a 2,500 year period there was a continuous process of adaptation and transplantation of higher education, from one culture to another, within regions, and between institutions. This is a study of change and development; and of how the various ways in which the universities and early schools of higher education interacted with their social and political environments sometimes facilitated and sometimes inhibited that development.