University studies
At the beginning of the 20th century, the term university studies was used to describe a research discipline that summarized the history of science , universities and students .
Students have long been a small privileged social group of their own. Since the Middle Ages, this has developed into a student self-image. This was always closely linked to the university , but at the same time and reciprocally adapted to the changing socio-political framework in terms of form and content.
Student history deals with the presentation and explanation of the events and items related to the student using scientific methods. The preoccupation with the history of the students began around 1900. While it initially developed alongside university history, it soon developed into the new science of higher education. The term university studies was coined around 1912 by the student historian and official of the Kösener Seniors Convents Association, Wilhelm Fabricius . Fabricius conceptually summarized the history of science, universities and students.
Friedrich Schulze and Paul Ssymank wrote one of the fundamental works of the emerging science with The German Studentism from the Oldest Times to the Present (Munich 1910) as the first summary of the history of German students. Ssymank took over the term university studies for his own research discipline around 1920 , whose first teaching assignment he performed in Göttingen. Today the history of the students is firmly anchored in the history of universities and science. The general term of university studies, on the other hand, could not gain broad acceptance.
The University of Würzburg has the Institute for Higher Education . It is based on Ssymank's first collections and the university archive of the German student body that he founded in 1920 in Göttingen . It also serves as the association archive of several corporation associations . In Austria, collecting on this topic is one of the tasks and objectives of the Institute for Student History run by the Austrian Association for Student History .