this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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Al-Qarawiyyin is recognized by UNESCO and Guinness as the world's oldest continually running institution of higher learning.
We can apply a purity test here (ie. what qualifies as a university) but.. why except for pedantry? No matter how you frame it, it doesn't take away from the scale or impact of the institution itself.
Well, because it's only true for a veeeeeery narrow definition of "university". If you include other schools, there are British ones that predate it by three centuries. If you don't require current operation in the same building, or allow name changes, there are ancient Greek ones that predate it by more than a millenium.
I appreciate your examples but there must be more to the story since, as another example, it is a Buddhist monastery in India that is often regarded are the world's oldest residential university. Perhaps dormitory style living was not part of the ancient European model. I also wonder why Western founded institutions like UNESCO and Guinness would give this designation to al-Qarawiyyin when they would likely be more familiar with the examples (albeit nonspecific) you've listed.
If you want to go that way, a lot of places could qualify as oldest university, some christian monasteries way older than al-qarawiyyin are still inactivities and the main focus of monasteries is to learn and apply "god" teachings...
I wonder why UNESCO and Guinness do not recognize those Christian monasteries then. Perhaps they did not confer degrees or certificates of scholarly competence (ijazahs) the way that al-Qarawiyyin did.
the main reason might just be whether the institution themselves claim they are educational
My nephews gets stars stickers when he successfully learn something, does it qualify as degrees and its school qualify for university?
UNESCO can say whatever they want, it never have been a university in the sense that 90% of the population would not identify it as a university... An ersatz of university? Yeah sure if it make you feel better...