Quick Answer: A university is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. University is derived from the Latin phrase universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The first universities in Europe developed from schools that had been maintained by the Church for the purpose of educating priests. The University of Bologna, Italy, which was founded in 1088, is the first university in the sense of: • being a high degree-awarding institute. • using the word universitas. • having independence from the ecclesiastic schools and issuing secular as well as non-secular degrees: grammar, rhetoric, logic, theology, canon law and notarial law.