People's Academy of Elwynn

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People's Academy of Elwynn
Motto
Obey, Study, and Work
Type Collegiate university
Established 1551 (abolished 1699 AN)
Religious affiliation
Church of Elwynn
President Kamilla Winther
Academic staff
34,989 academicians
Students 665,680
Undergraduates 446,450
Postgraduates 219,230
Location , ,
For its successor organisation in Cimmeria and Hyperborea, see the People's Academy of Elwynn (1699).

The People's Academy of Elwynn, also known as the People's Academy or simply as the Academy, was a public collegiate research university and the national institute of higher education in Elwynn. The Academy was, however, not the only university in Elwynn during the period of its existence. It had branches across all of Elwynn.

The People's Academy was a corporation that promulgated its own charter. From its earliest days the Academy was wholly exempt from all kinds of taxation, whether nominal or actual, with regard to any monies or assets, whether nominal or actual, that it accrued.

The Academy played a major role in the intellectual life of the country since its early days. From its foundation in 1551 AN it had been a centre for debate and controversy in science, religion and the arts. This legacy, even as it calcified into an Ayreonist rejection of hierarchy and traditional morality, persisted until the destruction of the major campus sites in the years after 1692 AN during the Second Elwynnese Civil War, a process that culminated with the formal abolition of its last vestiges under the 1699 Edict of Dissolution. It continues to live on in its successor organisation in Free Elwynn under the same name.

The Academy claimed to operate the world's oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Benacia. Of this once immense legacy only the merest scraps have been recovered from the ruins of Eliria by the survey teams of the Honourable Company's Industrial Archaeology Programme.

Its student union was well-known for its radical tendencies and student politics until its suppression in 1686 AN.


History

The Academy was founded in 1551 through a monetary donation by Rai Avon-El as "a place for all Elwynnese to come together, study, teach, be taught and learn about our diverse cultures, our common culture and traditions". Later in the same year it received a charter from Duke Jacobus Loki.

There are, however, various individual colleges of the People's Academy of Elwynn, like Michaelion People's College, which predate the Academy.

During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the Academy added to its humanistic core a major new research capacity in the natural and applied sciences, including medicine.

During the first era of Elwynnese independence, in the year 1589, the People's Academy of Elwynn was restarted by order of the Regent of Elwynn, Senator Aurangzeb Osmani.

During the period of the Vanic State (1623–1651), the People's Academy, though receiving royal patronage from King Noah (including a coat of arms and massive monetary donations), remained a holdfast for academic debate. As such, it was one of the few public institutions in Elwynn where free debate was not only tolerated by encouraged. Consequently, the Academy has been credited with holding Elwynnese patriotism alive during that period of Elwynnese history.

Reforms introduced by the Patroness & Magistra of the Academy, Kamilla Winther, in 1686 AN saw the People's Academy suppress its once turbulent Student Union, enter into a relationship defined as spiritual communion with the Church of Elwynn, mandate the enrolment of all academic staff and students as members and apprentices of the Guild of Academicians respectively, and introduce "days of obligation" where apprentices would undertake fifteen days of labour on designated public projects in their locality.

The period between the 1691 Elluenuueq princely elections, which resulted in the narrow re-election of N&H candidate Kamilla Winther, and the onset of the Second Elwynnese Civil War in the following year was typified by an almost continuous series of campus revolts, suppressed with escalating severity by the authorities, particularly in the autonomous republics of Alalehzamin, Mishalacia, and Normark. The declaration of secession on the part of Amokolia and Upper Elwynn, together forming the Republic of Elwynn and Amokolia on 12.II.1692 AN was greeted on the Eliria campus sites with demonstrations of support on behalf of both the student body and the faculty. As the cudgellers, demoralised and overstretched in the face of an entire metropolis in uproar, were nowhere to be seen, protestors were emboldened to seize control of the faculty buildings and halls of residence with all of their usual theatrics but without the threat of the decorum restoring downward swing of a lead-tipped cudgel to hold their wilder instincts in check. With the writing now clearly on the wall, figuratively as well as literally, the Board of Governance - less its N&H appointed representatives - declared for the Republic on 19.II.1692 AN. The consequence of this rebellion was the destruction of the majority of colleges affiliated with the academy, and its formal abolition in 1699 AN by the vengeful victors assembled at the Congress of Chryse.

Organisation

As a collegiate university, the Academy's structure could be confusing to those unfamiliar with it. The People's Academy was a federation, consisting of a plethora of highly autonomous self-governing colleges - each with its own property and income - and various faculties, schools and departments, under the supremacy of the Board of Governance.

The Board of Governance of the People's Academy of Elwynn was traditionally a self-appointing and self-regulating body which operated in accordance with its own customs, procedure and charter. Following the Auspicious Occasion and the Elwynnese Civil War, and upon the happy occasion of recovering independence in the aftermath of the Kalirion Fracture, the Board of Governance had been discovered to have been exterminated in its entirety twice over and left without an adequate institutional basis from which to reconstitute itself. Whilst the colleges had, by virtue of their longstanding autonomy, been able to continue in operation without the Board of Governance this sat ill with the Court of the Prince and, in 1682 AN, as part of the celebrations attending to his second inauguration, Frederick Truls promulgated a new charter for the Academy and reconstituted the Board:

The Final Board of Governance (1692 AN)
Office Office Holder
Patroness & Magistra of the Academy Vacant as of 1692 AN
De Jure: Kamilla Winther
Corrector of Discipline & Morals Vacant as of 1692 AN
De Jure: Nizam al-Mulk
Dean of Languages Aoosmund Fenririon
Dean of the Library Elias Arker
Dean of Rhetoric Pedyr Mekaarveq

The faculties, schools and departments are located centrally within the structure of the federation; they are not affiliated with any particular college. They provide facilities for teaching and research, determine the syllabi and guidelines for the teaching of students, perform research, and deliver lectures and seminars.

Colleges arrange the tutorial teaching for their students, and the members of a faculty, school or department are spread around many colleges. Most colleges have a broad mix of academics and students from a diverse range of subjects. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the central administration, by the faculties, schools and departments, and by colleges (each of which maintains a multi-discipline library for the use of its members).

Colleges

The colleges are self-governing institutions with their own endowments and property, founded or taken in as integral parts of the Academy. All students and most academics are attached to a college. Their importance lies in the housing, welfare, social functions, and teaching they provide. All faculties, departments, research centres, and laboratories belong to the Academy, which arranges lectures and awards degrees, but the Academy's students receive their tutorials - small-group teaching sessions and one-to-ones - within the colleges. Each college appoints its own teaching staff and fellows, who are also members of a department or faculty. The colleges also decide which students to admit to the Academy, in accordance with regulations issued by the Board of Governance. There is also a large open university system for the People's Academy, where distance courses, both full time and part time, are offered over the Elwnet and the Benacian Data Network.

Name Bailiwick County Autonomous Region Academics Undergraduates Postgraduates
Adabistaan Ardashirshahr Alalehzamin AAR
Athenaeum College Civitas Nova Íseirdia-la-Vraulalennir Upper Elwynn
Athiël College Port Illumination Illumination Upper Elwynn
Bailicour College La Terre Vattnaland Amokolia
Björkaborg College Anun Automatica Amokolia
Caligae People's College Caligae Cape Farewell Upper Elwynn
Conservatoire Amokolinoise des Arts et Métiers La Terre Vattnaland Amokolia
Dârulfunûn-e Tanshûyuyyal Tanshûyuyyal Alalehzamin AAR
Dewalque College La Terre Vattnaland Amokolia
Dragon College Luther'enville Automatica Amokolia
Dragonsfold College Dragonskeep Agnesia Upper Elwynn
École des Mines La Terre Vattnaland Amokolia
École Polytechnique La Terre Vattnaland Amokolia
École Supérieure de Techniques Avancées La Terre Vattnaland Amokolia
Eliria University College Eliria Eliria Upper Elwynn
Elk Creek College Elesmari Íseirdia-la-Vraulalennir Upper Elwynn
Hartlepool College Echo Eliria Upper Elwynn
Highland College Peterburg Vattnaland Amokolia
Keyrrey College Fenririe Eliria Upper Elwynn
Lewis College Minas Valhalla Cimmeria Upper Elwynn
Madarasa Allswell Alalehzamin AAR
Michaelion People's College Michaelion Cape Farewell Upper Elwynn
Monto College Azshara Illumination Upper Elwynn
Opplysta Smørvirket College Smjörkýr Íseirdia-la-Vraulalennir Upper Elwynn
People's Institute Kilkadesh Alalehzamin AAR
Quatrain College Malexander Vattnaland Amokolia
Queen Lane College Frieden Íseirdia-la-Vraulalennir Upper Elwynn
Riverside College Islus Alalehzamin AAR
Snealandyx College Minas Aullarion Cimmeria Upper Elwynn
Stronghold College Fort Fardë Automatica Amokolia
Tower College Araxion Tower Araxion Upper Elwynn
Tundra College Glenfiddich. Íseirdia-la-Vraulalennir Upper Elwynn
Unicorn College Visqeoor Araxion Upper Elwynn
Vatnaminne People's College Vatnaminne. Cape Farewell Upper Elwynn
Verion College Port Illumination. Illumination Upper Elwynn
Victory College Vijayanagara Agnesia Upper Elwynn
Vineyard College Niü London. Automatica Amokolia
Vinterhed College Moss Agnesia Upper Elwynn
Vrouwe Anika College Alderbaai Vattnaland Amokolia
White Orchid College Araxion Tower. Araxion Upper Elwynn
Wolfraven College Wolfraven. Cimmeria Upper Elwynn

Schools, Faculties, and Departments

In addition to the colleges, the People's Academy of Elwynn is made up of numerous departments, faculties, schools, syndicates and other institutions. Members of these are usually also members of one of the colleges and responsibility for running the entire academic programme of the university is divided amongst them. The Academy also includes the National Institute of Continuing Education, a center for part-time study.

Within the People's Academy of Elwynn "Schools" are broad administrative groupings of related faculties and other units. Each has an elected supervisory body - the "Council" of the school - composed of representatives of the constituent bodies. Presently there are six schools:

  • Arts and Humanities;
  • Biological Sciences;
  • Medical and Behavioural Sciences;
  • Humanities and Social Sciences;
  • Physical Sciences;
  • Technology.

Teaching and research in the Academy is organised by faculties. The faculties have different organisational sub-structures which partly reflect their history and partly their operational needs, which may include a number of departments and other institutions. In addition, a small number of bodies entitled "Syndicates" have responsibilities for teaching and research, such as People's Academy Assessment, the People's Academy Press, and the People's Academy Library.

Status of the student body

With the suppression of the Student Union in 1686 the traditional status of the scholar as an apprentice of the Guild of Academicians, subjected thereby to the discipline and learning regime set by the master to whom they are assigned. From the fateful year of the reformation, the halls of learning were barred to all professors and doctorate holders who did not elect to enrol and register with the Guild. Similarly the residencies and student halls were closed to all those who refused to accept the necessity of an apprenticeship.