The original Latin word universities refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc.
At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialized "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates,
or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members


The modern university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian tradition.
European higher education took place for hundreds of years in cathedral schools or monastic schools (scholar monastic),
in which monks and nuns taught classes; evidence of these immediate forerunners of the later university at many places dates back to the 6th century



some canadian university:
Toronto University
Western University
Brock University