Extollagy!

In Cambridge, leading a tour of the medieval town and university, I’m reminded of one of my favourite quotes, written in Paris a couple of decades after the university first became a corporate body rather than a collection of independent teachers, that is, in the mid C13:

 ‘At one time, when each master taught independently and when the name of the university was unknown, there were more lectures and disputations and more interest in scholarly things. Now, however, when you have joined yourselves together into a university, lectures and disputations have become less frequent; everything is done hastily, little is learnt, and the time needed for study is wasted in meetings and discussions. While the elders debate in their meetings and enact statutes, the young ones organise villainous plots and plan their nocturnal attacks’.

Plus ca change?