The International Association of Universities list of Universities of the World is a list of organizations recognized as universities by national authorities around the world. // History Because of the above definition, the oldest universities in the world were all European, as the awarding of academic degrees was not a custom of older institutions of learning in Asia and Africa. ...

According to the IAU:

The International Association of Universities is a non-governmental international organization for university cooperation and UNESCO is the United Nations Agency for Education, Science and Culture. They do not, as such, recognize or accredit institutions of higher education. However, the IAU/UNESCO Information Center on Higher Education publishes official directories of recognized institutions worldwide, the lists of which have been provided by the competent higher education authorities in each country. [1]

Note that the presence of an institution in this list does not by itself mean that it is an accredited institution in any given juridiction -- information regarded accreditation in any particular jurisdiction should be obtained from the appropriate local authorities in the usual way. Generally, accreditation is the process by which a facility becomes officially certified as providing services of a reasonably good quality, so that the public can trust in the quality of its services. ...

External links

• http://www.unesco.org/iau/world-universities/index.html