Beyond Degrees: What Kind of Education Do We Need?
When students started studying away from home
Today, if a student goes to another city to study, the first question is, “Where will I stay?”
But this question is not new. As universities developed, there came a time when students began travelling away from their homes and towns to study. In medieval Europe, at educational centres like Oxford, arrangements for such students to stay gradually began to develop.
Where did students live at Oxford? There is evidence of teaching at Oxford as early as 1096. Around 1190, a student named Emo from Friesland arrived there, considered the first known overseas student at Oxford.
At that time there were no hostels as we know them today. Students lived in small groups in inns and lodging houses. In other words, those who came to study had to find their own place to live. Then came the ‘halls’
By the 13th century, academic halls started to develop at Oxford. These were places for students to live; over time, some also developed shared routines and academic features, such as meals, discipline, and teaching. Hart Hall was one such example. In the 1280s, it was set up as a lodging house for students. Many such halls existed in Oxford at that time.
It wasn’t only about convenience; it was also a city problem. With the growing number of students, tensions between local townspeople and students also increased. According to Oxford’s history, conflicts between “town and gown” in the 13th century hastened the establishment of organized halls of residence.
These halls were part of the background from which colleges developed. Between 1249 and 1264, the early colleges like University, Balliol, and Merton were established.
So today’s hostel didn’t just appear out of nowhere First, students started coming from outside. Then they needed a place to stay. Living spaces gradually began to include shared study and routines.
They evolved into more organized halls. And later, residential colleges developed from medieval halls and endowed houses. Today’s hostels and PG accommodations are not direct descendants of Oxford’s halls, but they respond to a similar need: giving students a place to live while they study.
The history of student accommodation shows us something else as well: when a real need arises, humans create new structures to respond to it. There was a need for accommodation for students coming from far away, so halls of residence developed. Over time, study, discipline, and communal living also became part of some of them.
But what new need stands before us today? True education doesn’t happen only in the classroom; it happens in the entire ecosystem. Where a student lives, whom they live with, and the kind of environment they get, the hostel is also a part of that education. So the question is: are our hostels really becoming a part of this ecosystem of right education? If the living space is good but there is no education to understand the ‘self’, is the education truly complete?
Education is not just the accumulation of information, but the capacity to see the right thing at the right time. This also made me think about a question I’ve come across in discussions of self-inquiry: how much of education helps us examine our own minds, desires, and choices?
Today, which kind of education do you see as the greatest need around you?
A. Only syllabus and formal education
B. Education for employment and practical skills
C. Education for living better in society
D. Education to understand one’s own mind, desires, and choices
E. Education in Vedanta, which offers a way of examining oneself
Sources: Historical details are based on the University of Oxford’s history page and Hertford College’s account of Hart Hall.