Major Universities Founded Before 1900

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Nalanda (India)	c. 4th century B.C.
Salerno	9th century
Al-Azhar (Cairo)	c. 988
Bologna	12th century
Paris	c. 1155
Oxford	1167
Vicenza	1204
Cambridge	1209
Palencia	1214
Salamanca	1218
Padua	1222
Naples	1224
Toulouse	1229
Salamanca	1243
Rome	1244
Siena	1247
Piacenza	1248
Sorbonne	1253
Montpellier	1289
Lisbon (later Coimbra)	1290
Complutense	1293
Avignon	1303
Orleans	1305
Perugia	1308
Grenoble	1339
Pisa	1343
Prague	1348
Cracow	1364
Vienna	1364
Erfurt	1379
Heidelberg	1385
Ferra	1391
Wurzburg	1402
Leipzig	1409
St. Andrews	1411
Turin	1412
Louvain	1426
Bordeaux	1441
Barcelona	1450
Trier	1450
Glasgow	1451
Freiburg im Breisgau	1455
Ingolstadt	1459
Basel	1460
Nantes	1463
Bourges	1465
Ofen	1475
Tubingen	1477
Uppsala	1477
Copenhagen	1479
Aberdeen	1494
Valencia	1501
Wittenberg	1502
Seville	1505
Marburg	1527
Granada	1533
Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino (Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo)	1538
Konigsberg	1544
Messina	1548
National University of Mexico	1551
National University of San Marcos de Lima	1551
National University of Bogota (Columbia)	1573
Bern	1574
Oviedo	1574
Leyden	1575
Warsaw	1576
Vilna	1578
Edinburgh	1582
Graz	1586
Trinity College (Dublin)	1591
Giessen	1607
National University of Cordoba (Argentina)	1613
Groningen	1614
National University of Bolivia	1621
Strasbourg	1621
Madrid	1623
Salzburg	1623
Utrecht	1634
Budapest	1635
Harvard College	1636
Bamberg	1648
Durham	1657
Kiel	1665
San Carlos University of Guatemala	1676
Innsbruck	1677
Halle	1693
William and Mary	1693
Saint John's College	1696
Yale College	1701
Breslau	1702
Dijon	1722
Central University of Caracas	1725
Central University of Havana	1728
Gottingen	1734
Central University of Chile	1738
University of Pennsylvania	1740
Erlangen	1742
College of New Jersey (Princeton)	1746
King's College (Columbia, 1784)	1754
Moscow	1755
Brown University	1764
Queen's College (Rutger's University, 1825)	1766
Central University of Ecuador	1769
Dartmouth College	1769
University of Malta	1769
Munster	1771
Dickinson College	1773
Zagreb	1776
Palermo	1779
University of Georgia	1785
Franklin and Marshall College	1787
University of Pittsburgh	1787
Georgetown University	1789
University of Vermont	1791
Hamilton-Oneida Academy (Hamilton College, 1812)	1793
Williams College	1793
Bowdoin College	1794
University of Tennessee	1794
Union College	1795
University of North Carolina	1795
Middlebury College	1800
Oslo	1801
University of South Carolina	1801
United States Military Academy	1802
Kazan	1804
Kharkov	1804
Ohio University	1804
University of Maryland	1807
Lyons	1808
Miami University (Ohio)	1809
Berlin	1810
National University of Nicaragua	1811
Colby College	1813
Ghent	1816
Liege	1817
University of Michigan	1817
Bonn	1818
Saint Louis University	1818
Colgate University	1819
Norwich University	1819
St. Petersburg	1819
University of Cincinnati	1819
University of Virginia	1819
Indiana University	1820
Amherst College	1821
McGill University	1821
University of Buenos Aires	1821
Hobart College	1822
Trinity College (Hartford)	1823
Kenyon College	1824
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	1824
Lafayette College	1826
Western Reserve University	1826
University of Toronto	1827
London	1828
Denison University	1831
New York University	1831
University of Alabama	1831
Wesleyan University	1831
Kiev	1832
Zurich	1832
Haverford College	1833
National University of the Republic (Montevideo)	1833
Oberlin College	1833
Brussels	1834
Tulane University	1834
Wheaton College	1834
Emory University	1836
Athens	1837
Indiana Asbury University (DePauw University, 1883)	1837
Knox College	1837
Mount Holyoke College	1837
Boston University	1839
University of Missouri	1839
Bethany College	1840
Dalhousie University	1841
Fordham University	1841
Ohio Wesleyan University	1842
University of Notre Dame	1842
Holy Cross College	1843
University of Delaware	1843
Baylor College	1845
United States Naval Academy	1845
Beloit College	1846
Bucknell College	1846
Grinnell College	1846
University of Buffalo	1846
Lawrence College	1847
State University of Iowa	1847
University of Mississippi	1848
University of Wisconsin	1849
Manchester	1850
University of Dayton	1850
University of Rochester	1850
University of Utah	1850
Bates College	1855
Michigan State	1855
Pennsylvania State University	1855
Jassy	1860
Belgrade	1864
Bucharest	1864
Cornell	1865
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	1865
Odessa	1865
University of California	1869
Geneva	1876
Texas A&M	1876
Amsterdam	1877
Stockholm	1878
Liverpool	1881
University of Texas	1883
Gothenburg	1887
Sofia	1888
Clemson	1889
Lausanne	1891
Stanford	1891
Wales	1893
Marseilles	1896
Nancy	1896
Birmingham	1900