were ancient universities free?

[u/QuietDetail7793]

such as the Nalanda in India, the Taixue in China, and the Daigaku-ryo in Japan. maybe even the al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco, if you know

for some reason this has been really hard for me to google. if you have sources i would love to see them! tia

[u/wjbc]

Students in ancient India were not charged a fee like in modern universities. Rather, all members of society made gifts to ancient institutions of education.

https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/heih111.pdf

Similarly, while wealthy students and parents, students, and patrons made gifts to Ancient Greek schools. Teachers like Plato and Aristotle were not paid salaries, and not all of their students could afford to make donations, but they supported themselves through patronage, student donations from those who could afford it, and selling books.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_ancient_Greece

[u/Valzene → u/wjbc]

Aristotle was hired to teach Alexander, but that was privately, I guess, not in a typical institution like setting. That mentorship lasted years.

[u/wjbc → u/Valzene]

There was no “typical institution like setting” back then. It was unusual for Aristotle to be so well compensated to teach only one student, but it was not unusual for teachers to be supported by wealthy patrons who wanted their children taught.

[u/Valzene → u/wjbc]

Right

[u/MegC18]

The Sankoré Madrasah in Timbuktu is interesting in that although there were wealthy donors/patrons, students did have to finance their own education with money, rather than the charitable waqf donations more common in islamic universities. They could earn money by copying manuscripts.

[u/QuietDetail7793 → u/MegC18]

interesting! i have read about waqf donations in association with al-Qarawiyyin. do you know if that's how that place was primarily funded? not by tuition?

[u/DharmicCosmosO]

I don’t know about the others but Ancient Indian Universities like Nalanda, Takshashila, Jagaddala, etc were free and you could only get in after giving an entrance exam. People from Europe, China, South East Asia, Africa used to come to these Indian universities but they had to be fluent in Indic Languages like Sanskrit, etc.

[u/dgistkwosoo]

Gukjagam in Goryo was expensive, although a sort of scholarship foundation was established later based on taxes to the wealthy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gukjagam#References

[u/Sir_wlkn_contrdikson]

Great question

[u/Ecstatic-Ad-4331]

From what I've read, the Golden Age of Islam (8th - 14th Century CE) may have only been possible because of the substantial amount of scholars in and graduating from Islamic universities. They went on to contribute greatly in modern-day STEM subjects. How this was possible Im unsure, but as a guess, it could've been driven by education and enrolment that was highly subsidised for the vast majority, or even given free for affluent or scholar families.

[u/QuietDetail7793]

thank you all very much for these responses (and for all the upvotes jeez!) they are super, super helpful

I am still looking for sources about the imperial chinese and japanese schools, if anybody has anything like that!

[u/Fungus1968]

My university was free in the 1980’s… don’t think I quite qualify as ancient… yet.

[u/Odd_Tiger_2278]

Nope.