The operation of medieval European universities and the economic operation of Seowon in the late Joseon Dynasty : The University of Bologna in Italy and the Okdong Seowon in Sangju
Authors:   Institute of Korean Cultural Studies Yeungnam University, Kim Soon-Han 
Published: October 2024

There is a prevailing agreement among academic experts that medieval universities in Europe underwent a transformation from parochial and monastic schools to institutions recognized as universities during the 11th or 12th century. However, the date of the university's founding is less clear, due to a lack of empirical evidence. This is because early European medieval universities were not established by royal or ecclesiastical decree, but rather slowly developed out of the existing parochial or monastic school system. Furthermore, the understanding of higher education at the University of Bologna in Italy, University of Paris, and University of Oxford during this era differed from the contemporary notion of a university, referred to as a studium or studium generale. The studium functioned as a “studium generale,” gathering students from various regions, rather than the modern concept of a “universal study center” in universities today. The universities founded in the late 12th century were perceived as distinctively European institutions, lacking direct connections to Greek, Roman, Byzantine, or Arab educational traditions. This indicates that prior to the Middle Ages, universities as institutions comprising professors and students with specific privileges, including administrative independence, curriculum development and implementation, and degree conferral, had no precedent elsewhere in Europe. Many academic studies have found that medieval universities in Europe emerged and developed in a distinctive manner.
The origins of medieval universities in Korean history can be traced back to the state-sponsored establishment and operation of Taehak and Gukhak in ancient society. These institutions were passed down and evolved into Gukjagam (國子監) during the medieval Goryeo Dynasty. The Gukjagam underwent several name changes, becoming Gukhak in 1275(King Chongryeol's first year), Sungkyunkam(成均監) in 1298, Sungkyunkwan(成均館) in 1308, respectively, and undergoing subsequent renamings until it was succeeded by Sungkyunkwan following the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty. In the early Joseon Dynasty, the state promoted the policy of Sungkyunkwan and Sahak(四 學)in the central capital, and Hyanggyo(鄕校) in the provinces, which greatly encouraged the growth of learning, with Confucianism as a national policy. However, as the hall of higher education in the Joseon Dynasty, Sungkyunkwan, which was responsible for academic education and the recruitment of officials, began to show its limitations in the late Joseon Dynasty due to the decline in the quality of its instructors and the induction of students into the dutiful ranks of the royal army(忠順衛). The decline of the governmental school(官學) became a factor in the emergence and growth of private schools(私學). Many students chose to leave the governmental school to pursue their studies in the private schools, and the purpose of the private schools was to promote education based on the political ideology of learning of way(道學), rather than to promote education as a means of promoting to educate officials. In addition, if the main cause of the decline of governmental education was the lack of academic virtue of professors, private schools were opened with the power of teachers and scholars who had both academic virtue and scholarship, and were able to grow rapidly.