Luke's HP Site

Education in the Magical World

Oxford was founded between 1096 and 1167, the University of Paris between 1160 and 1250, the University of Cambridge in 1209.1 The magical culture would no doubt remember the Museion in Alexandria that was founded between 367 BC and 246 BC,2 and ran until the third century AD,3 even assuming they did not use magic to hide part of it from the non-magical world and survive the destruction of the rest. The culture would similarly be aware of the Imperial University of Constantinople, running from 425 to sometime in the 15th century.4 Wikipedia also shows centres of learning in the right time frame to influence the cultures that would have met in the ICW to debate the Statute of Secrecy in India and China.5

This is compared to the magical world, that seems to have no institutes of higher learning, education ends between age 17 and 18 depending on country. Despite a world-wide population and a culture that values the long-established and traditional, there are only eleven prestigious schools worldwide.6 She attributes this to a combination of wizarding wars and non-magical persecution,7 but I think more is necessary to explain this. I personally like the explanation given in RoseLilian’s work [The difference a good solicitor makes][tdgsm-1].

Another issue is less reasonable but still relevant - wealth. The magical world is smaller than the muggle one, and our wealth is not in gems or metal, but in enchanted objects and hoarded knowledge. Muggleborns, who do not have such wealth passed down to them from their ancestors, have long used the money they brought in from the muggle world to buy knowledge and objects and then either shared it, making it nearly worthless in an economic sense or had it destroyed due to it being dangerous.8

She describes this view as being a Slytherin one, not necessarily one held by all, or even most, of the wizarding world. Elsewhere I speculate that the wizarding culture radically changed with the ISWS, and that isolationism and the ideas of blood status started to gain a prominence that they had not previously held. Even assuming that is true, wizards were already showing a marked difference from their non-magical neighbours in the realm of education and research. As I highlight above, the non-magical world was centralising knowledge and pushing scholarship. The lack of university course work, the idea that your education is complete at age 17, shows a radically different view in the magical world. Thus I believe that while this view may not be universal, and that Ravenclaws in particular may dislike the view, that it is a common one.

This view would have the happy accident of explaining why in the cannon books it would not occur to the Weasleys to step in and ensure that [Harry] and [Hermione] know and understand more about the world and culture they are stepping into, leaving so many holes in our view and understanding of that culture. A culture of knowledge hoarding and secrecy would mean that even well-meaning people like the Weasleys would have an unconscious taboo surrounding actually teaching those outside the family anything not taught at school.

[Harry]: </Harrypedia/people/Potter/Harry James/>/ [Hermione]: </Harrypedia/people/Granger/Hermione Jean/>/ [tdgsm-1]: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13049901

  1. Ms. Laura T. “10 Of The Oldest Universities In The World” Updated 2021-04-19. Last Viewed 2021-04-20.↩︎

  2. Wikipedia “Musaeum” Last Updated: 2021-04-12. Last Viewed: 2021-04-20.↩︎

  3. Wikipedia “Library of Alexandria” Last Updated: 2021-04-07. Last Viewed: 2021-04-20.↩︎

  4. Wikipedia “University of Constantinople” Last Updated: 2021-03-15. Last Viewed: 2021-04-20.↩︎

  5. Wikipedia “Ancient higher-learning institutions” Last Updated: 2021-04-07. Last Viewed: 2021-04-20.↩︎

  6. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Wizarding Schools” Originally published on Pottermore 2016-01-29. Last Viewed 2021-04-20.↩︎

  7. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Wizarding Schools” Originally published on Pottermore 2016-01-29. Last Viewed 2021-04-20.↩︎

  8. RoseLilian. The difference a good solicitor makes Chapter 11 Last Updated: 2021-04-20. Published: 2018-08-29. Last Viewed: 2021-04-20.↩︎