Ye Olden Student Power

The extemist advocates of student power today have never contemplated even the palest reflection of the situation which existed in Bologna for 300 years.

The professors were dominated by their students to an extraordinary degree and subjected to what we would regard as intolerable indignities. Lecture courses were prescribed in detail by students; the times at which the professors lectured were laid down by the students; professors could be fined if they began to lecture late or finished early. If a professor failed to turn up for a lecture, he was fined; if his audience dropped below five, he was treated as if he had been absent and fined accordingly. A professor could not leave the city without permission of the students and without depositing a bond to guarantee his return. There was a time when professors could not get married without permission from the students! University regulations prescribed that a junior professor who left Bologna and tried to set up a rival establishment in another city would be fined 200 ducats, a more senior man could be put to death.

Sooner or later the masters and professors took control of all student universities but constitutions which nominally gave power to the students were preserved in some places until the 19th Century.