University of Southern California
The German model of the university as a complex of graduate schools performing advanced research and experimentation proved to have a worldwide influence. The earliest Western institution that can be called a university was a famous medical school that arose at Salerno, Italy, in the 9th century and drew students from all over Europe. The first true university in the West was founded at Bologna late in the 11th century. These early universities were corporations of students and masters, and they eventually received their charters from popes, emperors, and kings. The University of Naples, founded by Emperor Frederick II (1224), was the first to be established under imperial authority, while the University of Toulouse, founded by Pope Gregory IX (1229), was the first to be established by papal decree. These universities were free to govern themselves, provided they taught neither atheism nor heresy. As the price of independence, however, universities had to finance themselves. So teac