While there is no debate that institutions of higher learning evolved first on other continents, the growth of the Medieval European University was distinct process. Prior to the 5th-6th C, European education focused primarily on copying and translating Christian texts. The Christian monastic and cathedral schools evolved, in part thanks to the reforms of Charlemagne, to educate promising your boys (of any background) in the skills needed to administer the Empire. While the educational strengths of these schools varied widely (in curriculum as well as quality, no doubt), through their growth and development, modern scholarship evolved.
As interest in education continued to expand, the institutions attempted to place some strict delineations to separate the greater form the lesser. A Stadium Generale was to: not restrict admission to natives, have a certain number of masters, teach the seven liberal arts, as well as one of the higher studies (Theology, Law, Medicine). Unfortunately, there was no way to restrict the use of this term, so it came to be applied to educational institutions great and small, narrow and wide of focus.
It's interesting to note that both the terms "college" and "university" were used to describe a group or organization, but not specifically an academic one. This application is still recognizable in long standing organizations such as Britain's College of Arms, which deals with issues regarding heraldry. Medieval Universities formed either as associations of masters (as in Paris) or of students (as in Bologna), as was common with other trade groups. While the concept of students organizing to found a school might seem an odd way to go about it for most of us, it functioned much as a modern union might, allowing collective bargaining for the protection of students who were not residents of the city in which they wished to study. By organizing these "universities" or "colleges," these men invented institutions which would achieve great social, economic, and political power.
Several significant privileges were granted to the members of the Universities. In 1158, Frederick the First (HRE) permitted safe passage to all scholars and their messengers (leading to that mail carrying organization we discussed before) and allowed them their choice of venue (lay or ecclesiastical) for any charges brought against them. Phillip Augustus (Fr) seconded this privelidge in 1200 and further granted freedom from arrest by any royal official, unless it was important. The scholars' possessions could not be confiscated in either case. Even Popes got into this, with Gregory IX giving the University of Paris unimpeded rights to run the school as they saw fit and the right to move the university if the government attempted to tamper with them. With these additional privileges, it's easy to see how students (who were commonly of the elite to begin with) came to be so disruptive socially and politically.
At this time, few Universities owned the buildings in which they taught. Consequently, it was easy to pull up stakes and move to a new city if the masters or students were threatened. It was actually not uncommon for a portion of the staff and student body to move and establish a new university elsewhere, as Oxford University was formed by students who left Paris (due to a quibble between monarchs). This practice continued even in the new world where Amherst College was apparently founded when the (then) President of Williams College took half the student body and all the book in the library across the mountains (as told to me by a Williams College alum).
Instruction in any discipline at the University was conducted in Latin, serving to make students of all nations equal. The seven Liberal Arts were divided into the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic) and the Quadrivium (Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy). Sciences were often bulked under the Geometry or Astronomy headings, but were frowned upon by many of the day's luminaries. Add to these disciplines, the Philosophies: Physical, Moral, and Metaphysical. The studies often commenced with these liberal arts, which needed to be mastered before progressing on to other disciplines. Lectures were either "ordinary" or "cursory." Ordinary lectures were delivered in the morning hours by the masters, while the cursory lectures were delivered in the afternoon by bachelors. The delineation gradually disappeared, but the ordinary lectures tended to be more somber and workmanlike. The method of delivery was also regulated in some cases by the university, requiring the masters to speak as if orating, making it impossible to take complete notes on the lecture.
Goodness, I should have guessed that this would take more than one posting to work through. Please understand that each school was a unique instance with differing traditions and points of emphasis. The above is intended as an overview and general picture of the situation at the time. I'll come back to this soon and broaden the picture with a bit more of the political and social implications that these bodies constituted. Until then, do some reading. There is plenty of material to be found. Below I've listed just a couple that I used to start putting all of this together. Pleasant reading.
-Ben
Quick Intro - http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/ls201/medieval2.html
Excerpt from Carlton Munro, The Middle Ages, 395-1272 - http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/MedUniv.html
Rait, Robert S. Life in the Medieval University - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20958/20958-h/20958-h.htm
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