On October 24th, Prof. Mauro Moretti, Vice President of Università per Stranieri di Siena, Italy and an expert on the history of Italian political culture, education, and historiography, delivered a lecture on The Establishment and Development of New World Universities in the Early 20th Century in the CFL.
Prof. Moretti first introduced that many universities were established and rebuilt in countries across the world in the early 20th century to meet the social needs. In 1920, 49 universities were built in Europe, almost the same time with the founding of the NKU in 1919. Then, he mentioned that the speed for the establishment of universities is changing with the economic boom. Besides, he also talked about the expansion of universities. Unlike the Oxford University and Cambridge University, the new type of universities in the 20th century identified themselves as school where students were equipped with skills and knowledge for the depth of the scientific researches.
In addition, Prof. Moretti said that the establishment and development of universities was also affected by politics. For example, in 1910, the United States established some universities for its own use; in 1924, the United Kingdom established universities in its monopiles such as Egypt, Sudan, South Africa, India, etc. In the early 20th century, many new universities were established in the European continent affected by the war. For instance, the divided nations by the war began to build universities as the new demands for the scientific researches emerged. The Jewish University established in Jerusalem, the Moscow Women's University in Russia established, and universities in Poland after independence were good examples. Public universities in Europe are mainly financed by local governments, and by churches in some cases, while private ones are mainly funded by individual and public funders.
In medieval time, Italy hosted many renowned universities, such as University of Bologna, University of Padua where Galileo taught, and University of Pavia near Milan. Most of them were located in suburban for the reason of politic influence since the young intellectuals were considered as the threat for the ruling. But the reunification of Italy in 1861 did not bring in the boom of universities, instead, the government even shut down some for lack of funds. In the 20th century, some private universities as Bocconi University in Milan and Sacred Heart Catholic University also grew. However, the reputation of public universities still outreached private ones.
In the Q & A session, Prof. Moretti pointed out that European universities were a focus of many researchers who did little efforts to study the modern universities, let alone the Eastern universities. It is a new topic worthy of attention.
