The author would have benefitted from a bit of historical knowledge of the university as an institution. The English were making the same sort of complaints ab

The author would have benefitted from a bit of historical knowledge of the university as an institution. The English were making the same sort of complaints about Scottish universities in the 18th Century, and it's pretty clear from our perspective now where more of the insights emerged in that period. While he may find it distasteful, the first university in Bologna appears to have formed around a core faculty who decided to start charging students for their lectures.