Cambridge -The Historic, Atmospheric University Town

View from a Bridge on River Cam.. Willow trees, and The traditional punts moored  Outside the Trinity College, Cambridge

The very atmospheric university town with a very historic feel to it..

with institutions like Trinity College where the likes of the illustrious 'apple-head', Mr Isaac Newton studied.. ;)

• University of Cambridge was founded circa 1209 by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute caused by the town execution of two scholars in 1209 
• It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world, and the seventh-oldest globally. 

• In the latest 2011 ranking of World'd Top Universities, "By Reputation", Cambridge is #3, behind Harvard and MIT...In overall general ranking, Oxford and Cambridge both are placed at #6

The library of Trinity College, Cambridge, has Newton's own copy of the first edition of his book Principia Mathematica, published in 1687.. with handwritten notes for the second edition. The original Latin title of the book is 'Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica' (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), in which he described his famous laws of motion, laws of gravitation etc.. and it is "justly regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science"!.

But that title sounds a bit intimidating  with a mix of Science, Math and Philosophy.., ;) so let's move on.. to something lighter, a bit of simpler History, ...the origin of modern university concept!. 

One of the gates to the Trinity College

 

The Origin of Modern Concept of  University 

• 1088 : University of Bologna, Italy is the first university in the sense of a higher learning, degree awarding institute, the word university being coined at its foundation. It is also the oldest continually operating university in the world. (Although there were older ancient institutions of Higher Learning in other parts of the world, especially India, China, Arabia..  "these aren't generally regarded as being universities as they largely didn't offer degrees or they were culturally dissimilar from the European universities where the ideas of the modern university came from." No other European institution has spread over the entire world in the way in which the traditional form of the European university has done. The degrees awarded by European universities – the bachelor's degree, the licentiate, the master's degree, and the doctorate – have been adopted in the most diverse societies throughout the world. )
• The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars". The term was coined by the Italian University of Bologna, which, with a traditional founding date of 1088, is considered the first university.The origin of many medieval universities can be traced to the Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools which appear as early as the 6th century AD and were run for hundreds of years as such before their formal establishment as university in the high medieval period.
  Rooted in medieval society, the university as an institution was intrinsically linked to Christian faith

 

'Great Gate' of the Trinity College

The Trinity college, Cambridge was founded by Henry VIII in 1546, from the merger of two existing colleges: Michaelhouse (estd in 1324), and King’s Hall(estd in 1317)..

Like its sister college, Christ Church, Oxford, it was traditionally considered the most aristocratic of the Cambridge colleges — and it has generally been the academic institution of choice of the Royal Family.

Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows .

Trinity has many notable alumni (it has educated six British prime ministers and several heads of other nations) — but its most distinguished include Isaac Newton,Bertrand Russell etc.

A student in the library next to Trinity College

It's not just all study and no play at Cambridge!.. ;)

For instance,  The first formalised version of the rules of football (soccer), known as the Cambridge Rules, was drawn up by Cambridge student representatives of leading boarding schools at Trinity College in 1848.

River Cam behind King's College

 ..And now looking at India, here are some damning remarks or practical assessment if you will, about the mediocrity of india's best-known institutions..when compared to the world's best.. (Even though there may be considerable number of students who come out from those institutions, who go on to the world's best..)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2066308.ece

Well-known scientist and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister C.N.R. Rao

“The saddest thing is that not even a single research institute in India matches the best in the world, or MIT and Cambridge.”

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References:  [The above text is not really a 'write-up',  but mostly just collated info, with much of the text selected verbatim from these links! ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_of_the_University_of_Cambridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College,_Cambridge

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_operation