The Role of University

The university throughout the world does today what universities have been doing since before Christ. That is, it dispenses learning at the highest level in all branches of philosophy, science, and human knowledge generally. The antiquity of the origins of the university as a functioning entity; the nature of its task and the execution thereof; the composition of its members; the repute gained from the high level studies and teaching; the authority it enjoys, the charter from civil authorities, to teach, to examine and to certify; above all the body of tradition, custom and usage accumulated over the centuries that informs and imbues the university: all these - ever since Plato taught his followers in the garden of Akadeimos near Athens over a two millenia ago - have invested the idea of the university with particular character of dignityand excellence, as an exclusive comraderie of the learned. And even the youngest university, once founded and constituted, immediately shares in this rich heritage of international association, of the scholarship, tradition and ceremony, for which recognition and respect have always, by common consent, been universally accorded.

A university is therefore not only a functional institution with a discrete and definite task, dependent on material means and methods to pursue its wordly purpose. That is only one external aspect of it.

The true essence of a university though, is the invisible, inner, essential character that resides in its impalpable academic mystique: that immanence (not easily defined but capable of apprehension by the sensitive and perceptive mind) which invests the university with its particular charismatic quality, and inheres in the secluded peace of halls and cloisters, in the scent and feel of books and rare manuscripts, the calm deliberations of great minds, the quiet assurance of integrity and mastery in the search for ultimate truths which is the real essence and soul of the university, which is also the idea of the university.

The external manifestation of this invisible and essential quality is displayed most clearly in the pomp and circumstances of the universiy's ceremonial occassions such as graduation ceremony - the confering of degrees, the splendour and livery of its induna academics as they enter the graduation hall in style with their pompous gowns and hoods that aroses wonder; a concrete demonstration of grandeur that is so impressive moving you to the point of bowing your head in acknowledgement.