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Abstract

The university seems to be the most instructive case of a societal institution that combines a precise localization at a specific place and belongingness and impact in the cities where universities are established with an invariable global relevance. This chapter presents the core arguments for this hypothesis. It looks at historical variants of the local situatedness of universities; explains the longtime persistence of universities); presents the social inclusivity of universities in stratified and modern societies; looks at migrations between universities as a unifying and differentiating force; and introduces the thematic universality of the university and the relevance of this feature for the interrelations of higher education and the other function systems of world society. Internally
universities are incessantly restructured by the evolution of interaction systems on which teaching and research are based. The chapter concludes with remarks on the university as a center of the production of science and at the same time the core institution of the production of “human capital.” These centralities are measured and certified and even brought about by the emergence of university rankings as a visible symbol of the unity of a world system of universities.