T-Man

One could ask what the university system is. If it is the system of free education by a pedagogue for his  - dare I say it - Disciples - then the ancient Greeks could surely make a claim.

 

There are many phony claims for discovery of modern scientific principles by Islamic universities; the metal - acid battery springs to mind. Ten and  Funk gave  brilliant overviews of this some months ago.

 

 Navigation; the cross-staff, the astrolabe sextant octant were respectively claimed by the Arabs and then of course we run into the murky cross-currents of who invented it, and who improved it to make it viable. The latter of course is claimed by seamen and the Protestant Drakes were not shy. Then of course we have tools, like the chronometer, developed after the Catholic Protestant schisms.

 

My fascination with engineering is only rivalled by my total incompetence at it.

 

But returning to your point I feel the universities were not repositories of scientific knowledge, but more arenas for academic debate. I think we have to look at the teaching hospitals (I know they were eventually linked to the Universities)  the military academies, the Ships' Warrant Officers (Capt Bligh, for example) teaching young midshipmen who became Commissioned Officers, the Legal Practices.

 

In summary, I think those were the days wherte it mattered more under who you studied rather than where you studied.

 

Cheers

Peter