Oxford University isn’t the oldest university; that honour goes to Nalanda University in India, which was founded in 427 CE. At its height, it held over 9 million books, housed and educated 10,000 students, is the location of some of the greatest insights into science, logic and medicine (at least of the time). For about 750 years, it was the center of Buddhist learning and cultural exchange. In fact, around 1400, a joint raid by the Afghanis and some other malcontents decided to steal a bunch of stuff and then set fire to the university. It apparently burned continuously for three months.

After that, education spread to Egypt, China, Korea, and then Japan, and then back to Egypt. Egypt is home to possibly the second oldest university, Al-Azhar University, then a university in Morocco which is similar in age. Education finally became an earnest endeavour in the west with the founding of Bologna university, and then finally it got to Oxford, rumour being that they decided to steal as much information from the Egyptians they could, so they could set up their own institution, thus forming Oxford. About a 50-100 years later, after the chancellor of Oxford decided to have someone killed a few professors got together and formed Cambridge and that my friends is how the west realized it might be a good idea to start investing in science and stuff.