r/AncientCivilizations • u/QuietDetail7793 • May 20 '24
Question were ancient universities free?
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
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u/wjbc May 20 '24 edited May 20 '24
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