University

A university (Latin: universitas, "a whole") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars."

History

Definition

The original Latin word "universitas" refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc." At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialised "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.

In modern usage the word has come to mean "An institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees," with the earlier emphasis on its corporate organization considered as applying historically to Medieval universities.

Tohoku University

Tohoku University (東北大学 (東北帝國大學 prior to 1945), Tōhoku daigaku), abbreviated to Tohokudai (東北大, Tōhokudai), located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan, is a Japanese national university. It is the third oldest Imperial University in Japan and among the National Seven Universities. It is considered as one of the most prestigious universities in Japan, and one of the top fifty universities in the world.

In 2009, Tohoku University had ten colleges within the university, including fifteen departments with graduate students, with a total enrollment of 17,949 students. The university's three core values are "Research First (研究第一主義)," "Open-Door (門戸開放)," and "Practice-Oriented Research and Education (実学尊重)."

International degree programs taught in English

In 2009, Tohoku University was one of 13 universities selected by the Japanese government to lead the internationalisation of higher education in Japan. This venture, known as the Global 30 Project, takes the form of new international degree courses taught wholly in English, at both undergraduate and graduate level. At Tohoku University, this initiative is known as the Future Global Leadership Program (FGL).

University of Salford

The University of Salford is a public research university located in Salford, England, approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Manchester city centre. Its origins come from the Royal Technical Institute, Salford which was opened in 1896. This later became a College of Advanced Technology in 1956 and gained university status, following the Robbins Report into higher education, becoming the University of Salford in 1967.

It has 18,920 students and is situated in 60 acres (240,000 m²) of parkland on the banks of the River Irwell.

History

Origins of the Royal Technical Institute

The university's origins can be traced to 1896 with the opening of the Royal Technical Institute, Salford, a merger of Salford Working Men's College founded in 1858 and Pendleton Mechanics' Institute founded in 1850. The Royal Technical Institute, Salford, received royal letters, after the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) officiated at its opening ceremony, an event commemorated in the university's Redbrick Peel Building and which allowed 'Royal' to be appended to name of the institute.