Discuss the emergence of the first University, its identity as a community of scholars, and its implications for the role of the university today.

When the first prehistoric person to invent fire, sat in their cave with the other members of their own kind, and taught them what they had learned, the first ‘community of scholars’ was formed, but was this the first university or is a university more than a learning community? I see the modern university as moving away from being a ‘community of scholars’, and this is seen in the trend towards the non-reliance on the mental alignment of scholars within the community, allowing modern external and virtual teaching methods. The first prehistoric ‘community of scholars’ mentioned above, lacked structure, and the students could not receive any award or degree in recognition of their academic achievements. It is these factors of structure and the awarding of degrees that I believe is what uniquely identifies a university, and these factors are what should be used to identify that moment in history when the first university was founded, rather than the uninterrupted line of s...