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The title of third-oldest university in England is a topic of much debate, with prime contenders for the title usually being considered to include University College London, King's College London, Durham University and the University of London. Deciding which is truly the "oldest" depends largely on the definition of university status. The third university to be ''founded'' in England was unquestionably the medieval University of Northampton (est. 1261), but this institution survived only until 1265 and is not connected to the new University of Northampton, established as a university college in 1975 and awarded university status in 2005. The debate over which is the oldest of the universities founded in the early 19th century has going on since at least the late 19th century, including a mention in the House of Commons during a speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the committee stage of the Reform Act 1867.〔"The London University is not covered with the reverent dust of antiquity, and new institutions are more susceptible than ancient ones. Yet the London University would, I think, have shown more generosity if it had welcomed its younger brother. (hon. MEMBER: Durham is the older University. ) Then it is another instance of the hatred of the younger brother towards the elder."()〕 Several English higher education institutions either explicitly claim the distinction of being the third oldest university or assert a foundation that predates the conventional date for another claimant;〔"Being old is good for a university, so when Durham advertised itself this week as 'England's third oldest university', University College, London, immediately sought to put the record straight." 〕〔"...the question still remains who came third?" 〕〔"The University of London... was granted its first charter in 1836 and is the third-oldest university in England." 〕〔"Being part of a university is also part of the attraction of Durham Business School. Anne-Marie Nevin, its development officer, says: "We're part of the third-oldest university in England, after Oxford and Cambridge." 〕 however, conflicting definitions of university status mean it is a debate unlikely ever to be satisfactorily resolved. ==Defining a university== Judging a university's ''foundation'' as occurring at the earliest point to which teaching can be traced, the establishment of predecessor institutions, the institution's foundation by Act of Parliament, Royal Charter or otherwise, its incorporation, or its date of formal recognition as a university all produce different results. Neither Oxford nor Cambridge, the oldest two universities in England (founded pre-1116 and in 1209 respectively) were founded by Act of Parliament or Royal Charter (Charters were bestowed on Oxford and Cambridge in 1248 and 1231, respectively), and both owe their incorporation to an act of parliament in 1571.〔http://www.ox.ac.uk/about/organisation/university-as-a-charity〕 Prior to 1836, no UK university had been founded by the grant of a royal charter to the institution (although this had been done in Ireland and Canada). The closest to being founded in this manner was Edinburgh, founded by the Edinburgh Corporation under the authority granted to them by their royal charter of 1582. From 1836 to 1992, in contrast, only one university (Newcastle, established by Act of parliament) was not founded by royal charter. These charters were often accompanied by acts of parliament to transfer the property and obligations of predecessor institutes to the newly-founded university. The danger of dating by royal charter is demonstrated b listing the ancient universities by accepted date of establishment, date of royal charter, and date of incorporation; it can be seen that dating by royal charter or incorporation gives a significantly different ordering from the historically-accepted dates. Modern dictionary definitions use multiple factors to define "University".〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=OED )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=Collins Dictionary )〕 A similar method is used by the only judgement in English law on what the defining characteristics of a university are comes from the decision of Mr Justice Vaisey in St David's College, Lampeter v Ministry of Education (1951) before the Chancery Division.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=St David's College, Lampeter v Ministry of Education 1951 )(PDF)〕 The judgement gives six "essential qualities" that a university should possess. It: *"must be incorporated by the highest authority, i.e. by the sovereign power" *"must be open to receive students from any part of the world" *"must () a plurality of masters" *"must be an institution in which at least one of the higher faculties is taught" (theology; law or philosophy; medicine) *"cannot be a university without residents either in its own buildings or near at hand" *"must have the power to grant its own degrees" (which he calls "the most obvious and most essential quality of a university") He ruled that St David's College passed most of these, but that based on "its limited powers (awarding degrees ) and the absence of any express intention of making it a university by the sovereign power" it did not qualify as a university. From these principles, the ordering of when the "prime contenders" below (see discussion there for references) achieved university status is: *Durham University: 1837 (incorporation) *University of London: 1900 (plurality of masters; teaching higher faculties) *University College London: 2005 (degree awarding powers) *King's College London: 2006 (degree awarding powers) It should be noted that both Durham (1832) and London (1836) could be considered as having been expressly made universities by the sovereign power (royal assent to an Act of Parliament in Durham's case, royal charter in London's). Besides the question of defining a university, there is the question of what is meant by "third oldest university". The above listing assumes that it means the third institution to achieve university status, but if "third oldest university" means the third oldest institute to have eventually achieved university status (as defined above), then date of foundation is all that is being assessed and the list looks very different: *University College London: 1826 (Deed of Settlement) *King's College London: 1829 (Royal Charter) *Durham University: 1832 (Act of Parliament) *University of London: 1836 (Royal Charter) By selectively choosing the meaning of the question and the factors used to assess university status, many different orderings can be produced. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Third-oldest university in England debate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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