Home > List of oldest universities in continuous operation

• Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, founded 258 (became modern college in 1902 and modern university in the early 1920s)
• Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, founded 988 (developed to be modern university from theology institute in 1960s)
• University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, founded 1088
• University of Oxford, Oxford, England, founded about 1096
• University of Paris, ParisEiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. Paris is the capital and largest city of France. The city is built on an arc of the River Seine, and is thus divided into two parts: the Right Bank to the north and the smaller Left Bank to, FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents., founded 1150 (now split between several autonomous universities)
• University of Modena , ModenaModena is a town and a province on the south side of the Po valley, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. An ancient town, the seat of an archbishop, it is now mostly known as "the capital of engines", given that most famous Italian car factories like De Tomaso, Ferr, Italy, founded 1175
• University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is the second-oldest academic institution in the English-speaking world (after Oxford). According to legend, the University was founded in 1209 by scholars escaping Oxford after a fight with locals. Cambridge and the University, CambridgeThis article is about Cambridge, England; see also other places called Cambridge. The city of Cambridge is an old English University town and the regional centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. It lies approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of London and i, England, founded about 1208
• Salamanca University, Salamanca, Spain, founded 1218
• University of Padua, Padua, Italy, founded in 1222
• University of Naples , Naples, Italy, founded 1224
• University of Siena, Siena, Italy, founded 1240
• University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, founded in 1290 in Lisbon
• Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, founded 1293 in Alcalá de Henares
• University of Rome , Rome, Italy, founded 1303
• University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, founded 1343
• University of Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, founded 1348
• University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, founded 1361
• Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, founded 1364
• University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, founded 1365
• University of Pécs , Pécs, Hungary, founded 1367
• Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, founded 1386
• University of Ferrara , Ferrara, Italy, founded 1391
• University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, founded 1409
• St. Andrews University, St. Andrews, Scotland, founded 1412
• University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany, founded 1419
• Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, founded 1425, now split between the French-speaking Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve and the Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, still at Leuven
• Poitiers University , Poitiers, France, founded 1431
• University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, founded 1450
• Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany, founded 1456
• Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, founded 1457
• Basel University, Basel, Switzerland, founded 1460;
• Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, founded 1477
• Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, founded in 1477
• University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, founded 1479
• University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, founded 1494

By contrast, the earliest university in the Americas is the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic founded in 1538; the oldest in the United States is the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1749 (the oldest college is Harvard College, founded in 1636); the oldest in Canada, Université Laval, founded 1663; the oldest in Australia is University of Sydney, founded 1850.

See also: Medieval university