section_path: History/Definition
section_name: Definition
paragraph_text: Definition
  
  The original Latin word universitas refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc". As urban town life and medieval guilds developed, specialized associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights (these rights were usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or their towns) became denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.
  
  In modern usage, the word has come to mean "an institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees". The earlier emphasis on its corporate organization is no longer the primary feature by which a modern university is recognised.
  
  The original Latin word referred to degree-awarding institutions of learning in Western and Central Europe, where this form of legal organisation was prevalent and from where the institution spread around the world.