University of Aldesey

The University of Aldesey

Coat of Arms of the University of Aldesey
Latin: Universitas Aldesiensis
Other name	The Chancellour, Masters and Scholars of the University at Aldesey
Motto	Omnia pro Domino
Motto in English	All be unto the Lord
Type	Corporation by prescription
Established	c. 8th century as a monastic school c. 1256 as a university
Religious affiliation	Church of Nortend
Endowment	~ £101,200,000
Chancellor	The Rt Rev'd Dr William Laseby, Bishop of Chepingstow
Rector	The Rt W'shipful Dr Thomas Matthew
Students	~ 3,400
Location	Aldesey , Narland , Great Nortend
Language	English, Latin
Colors	Light blue   and white
Sports	Boating, hunting

The University of Aldesey, formally The Chancellour, Masters and Scholars of the University at Aldesey, is one of the three universities in Great Nortend located in the town of Aldesey, in Narland. It is the oldest university and the second largest after the University of Limmes in Great Nortend. It grew as a monastic school attached to Aldesey Abbey from the 8th century, and developed into a collegiate university during the 12th and 13th centuries.

It is built upon two large natural islands in the River Lither, Upper and Lower Eyote, which have over the centuries has been nearly fully covered by the buildings of the university, with the town of Aldesey developing on the banks of the river.

Governance

The River Lither at Dumcourt Bridge.

The University as a body is distinct from its sixteen constituent colleges. Each of the sixteen colleges are independent and responsible for the lodging, education and nourishment of its students. Students are admitted to a college through the process of Matriculation, when they formally become members of the University. Henceforth, they are bound by the University's statutes and regulations. For example, students, when in public, are required to at all times wear the gowns of their status. The University's statutes, regulations and ordinances are enforced by the University's Proctors, police, and student beadles, who have the power to fine and confine, and in extreme cases, to rusticate or ban (expel).

The formal council body of the University is known as the Great Congregation, comprised of all masters of the University, who are those students with a Master of Arts or were otherwise a Doctor of Letters, Science, Music, Laws, Physic or Divinity. It is considered the sovereign body of the University. It has a role in determining University's statutes and regulations, subject to the assent of the Chancellour, as well as academic matters such as examinations, rustication, matriculation, the curriculum and lectures, as well as granting graces, dispensations and degrees.

The Congregation, with its large size, meets normally every three years, and delegates its powers to the smaller Minor Congregation, or Convocation of Regent Masters, who have power over academic matters, however cannot pass statutes. Statutes are deliberated upon by the Convocation, and if agreed to, referred back to the entire Congregation, which can accept it or reject it at the triennial meetings or by postal ballots.

Faculties

As with the other two Erbonian universities, the University of Aldesey retains the four faculties of the mediaeval university tradition, being the Faculties of Arts, Physic, Laws and Divinity. Since the reforms of the 18th century, each faculty is more relevant to their respective professions—the sciences and humanities, the practice of medicine and law, and of holy orders respectively—than the more wholly academic approach favoured thitherto.

All students enter the university in the Faculty of Arts, excepting monks and friars who are admitted straight into the Faculty of Divinity. The form and curriculum for the Bachelor and Master of Arts is explained hereinafter.

Bachelor and Master of Arts

Form

The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree is the only undergraduate degree awarded by the University of Aldesey. The Bachelor of Arts is awarded after the necessary Responsiones after the examinations ad determinandum and subsequent Determinationes, which are taken in the student's eighth term during Lent in the third year. The examination merely is a ceremony where the undergraduate presents himself to a panel of masters, whom vote whether to permit the student to take determinations. Provided that the necessary course-work is completed, this given pro forma. The determinations themselves involve written examinations, which were introduced in the 19th century, and an oral viva voce disputation. Upon completion, the student may supplicate for his 'Bachelor of Arts'.

The Master of Arts (M.A.) is the degree taken by some students upon attaining the Bachelor of Arts. The bachelor will typically complete his studies for the M.A. within one year. He will be presented to his masters, who cast a vote de scientia et moribus. The Licentiate examinations are then taken under the authority of the Chancellour of the University, the Bishop of Chepingstow (who also happens to be the Lord High Chancellour) along with three Quodlibetica disputations. After these, worthy candidates are conferred the licentia docendi and take an oath inter alia to incept within five years, thereby becoming a 'Licentiate of Arts'.

Historically the Master of Arts took a seven years to attain in residence (“twenty-one terms after Matriculation”). By the 19th century, the Bachelor of Arts only took two years to attain and the Master of Arts another year for all students. Despite this, Inceptio still only occurs a minimum of two years after Quodlibetica, in what would be the student's seventh year. On the day before Inceptio, the licentiate takes part in a disputation known as 'Vesperies'. At Inceptio the licentiate formally becomes a 'Master of Arts', on which day he gives a brief lecture known as his Principium.

Curriculum

The curriculum for the Bachelor and Master of Arts at the University of Aldesey is:

Bachelor of Arts:

• 1st year: Logic, Rhetoric, Poetry, Ancient History and Grammar (Responsiones examinations)
• 2nd Year: Modern History, Epistemology, Ethics, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, and Theology (Determinationes examinations)

Master of Arts:

• 3rd Year: Philosophy (including Literature, Economics, Politics, Jurisprudence &c.), Natural Sciences (including Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy, Botany &c.), Mathematics (including Music as well as Statistics, Algebra, Calculus &c.) (Licentiate and Quodlibetica examinations)

The curriculum for the Master of Arts is not entirely fixed, and students are permitted to choose which three or more classes they wish to take out of the provided subjects in each of the three fields of Philosophy, Natural Sciences and Mathematics. General subjects are also available, which cover all three fields in a general way.

For the Bachelor and Master of Arts, teaching is in the form of lectures taken by regent masters, supplemented in the philosophical subjects with frequent disputations (debates), and most other subjects, weekly declamations (essays) or problem sheets with bachelor or fellow tutors. Ordinary lectures for undergraduates and bachelors are taken by regent masters and involve exposition and instruction of the compulsory subject matter. Cursory lectures are taken by senior bachelors and regent masters and are elective subjects.

Students

Students at the University of Aldesey are either undergraduates, bachelors or masters. Undergraduates are graded into five ranks: noblemen; gentlemen; commoners; battelers; and servitors. Most colleges have abolished servitors, however some still retain the rank. Different ranks of undergraduates are entitled to different academic gowns and hats which mark their status. Students are required to wear the gown of their status whenever they are in public, unless otherwise dispensed with or engaging in exempted activities (such as physical exercise).

International students

The University accepts international students from all around the world. Not all colleges accept international students, notably the colleges restricted to the alumni of certain schools. There are approximately 230 international undergraduate students at the University, as of 2018.

Academics

The academic dress of a Master of Arts sans cap. Note the hood has slipped.

Teaching in all four universities is undertaken by the regent masters, doctors and professours of the University.

A master is any scholar of a University who has been granted the licentia docendi, or licence to teach which is required before obtaining the Master of Arts. After graduating with the Master of Arts, a person is permitted to lecture at the University. There is traditionally a period of regency where a master becomes a regent master.

Such a regent master usually is simultaneously reading for a further degree. His duties are not particularly onerous and the position is well-paid at most colleges, and include delivering lectures to undergraduate students, attending Convocation, looking after undergraduate students, and otherwise assisting with the peace and good order of the University.

A doctor is a master who possesses a doctorate in a faculty. They have the responsibility of teaching masters (and in the Faculty of Divinity, monastic undergraduates) reading for a bachelor's or doctor's degree.

All regent masters and doctors of the University are also attached to a college and are known as fellows. They form the governing body of a college, under their warden, master &c.

A professour is a fellow who has been given a chair in a specific field by a college or the University or, in the case of Professours Regius, by the Crown. They are required to deliver a certain number of lectures to normally master students of the University studying for their bachelor or doctorate every year.

Graduate Study

The academic gown of a Doctor of Letters.

Study in the higher faculties follows a similar path, with a two years' bachelor's degree and then a doctoral degree by thesis which involves propounding, impugning and propugning. There is a widely prevailing idea that education at University should be for academic and scholastic purposes only, and not necessarily to provide a means of gaining professional skills. Despite this, a minimum of a bachelor's degree in law, physic and divinity are normally needed for the specific professions of a regular lawyer, physician and clergyman respectively. Furthermore, doctors of the civil courts of course must read for the Doctorate of Laws and bishops generally require a Doctorate of Divinity.

Further study in the Faculty of Arts is also possible, with there being a split between the 'letters' school, the music school, and the science school. Each school is split into a number of different fields.

Letters

• Ancient Languages (Latin, Ancient Greek, Ancient Hebrew &c.)
• Archaeology
• Classics
• Economics
• History
• Linguistics
• Modern Languages (French, German, Dutch, Erebian, Arabic &c.)
• Metaphysics
• Rhetoric
• Social Philosophy

Music

• Music

Science

• Astronomy
• Botany
• Chemistry
• Geology
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Physiology
• Zoology

Examinations

Before admission to any degree, a student is required to partake in several examinations, not all of which are academically relevant. For progression to the Master of Arts, the following examinations are required.

The first examination is normally the Matriculation examinations, which is an exam taken before matriculation to prove scholastic competence. It serves as the culmination of the sixth forms of senior school and is generally an examination of competence in Latin in written form as well as general capability in the English and Greek tongues. It is not compulsory, and colleges may admit students at their discretion.

The second examination is taken at the end of the first year, and is known as the Responsions. An undergraduate must satisfy three regent masters of his choice, de questione respondens in a public viva voce question-and-answer format in Latin and/or Greek, on the topics covered. This has generally become a formality, and the questions asked often come from books of Responsion questions and their prescribed answers.

The final examination for the Bachelor of Arts degree is the Determination. The Determination has two parts, one being a public debate or disputation on a matter in Latin, and the latter being a written examination in English. The public debate is between two undergraduate students and is generally a formality.

The first examination for the Master of Arts is taken at the end of the year, and is known as the Licentiate examinations. It is a written examination of knowledge and serves as the main examination in English for the Master of Arts. A bachelor recieves his licentia docendi this way.

The final examination for the Master of Arts is another public debate or disputation in Latin, known as the Quodlibetica, whereof the topic is chosen by the candidate. This is a formality as well, as the actual examinations are conducted in the Licentiate examinations. Humorous questions are often asked by the masters, which often require set answers.