The University

The University
Location information
Location	Commonwealth
Position	Educational Institution
Form of government	Board of Masters
Head	Chancellor Arthur Herma Jasom Hemme (acting Chancellor)

The University is a place of higher learning, specializing in many different fields of study.

Description

The University is situated approximately two miles west of Imre, separated from the city by the Omethi River which can be crossed by the Stonebridge. The University is comprised of fifteen different buildings which house the disciplines taught within. It is surrounded by a small town that caters to the needs of the students. The University is a well-respected institution throughout the Four Corners, and the only place where one may earn a guilder and be recognized as a true arcanist. The University stands out due to its instruction in disciplines that closely resemble magic, replacing technological development with Sympathy, Artificing, Alchemy and Naming. When Kvothe attended the University, it contained somewhere under 1500 students, who generally came from wealthy families.

Terms, Admissions, and Tuition

Students attend the University for discrete terms, each term lasting exactly two months. There are four terms in a year, then a seven-day break for High Mourning at the year's end.

The last span of each term is reserved for admissions interviews. These interviews, conducted by the University Masters, serve to subject new and returning students to questions that assess aptitude in various subjects. Tuition is set individually for each student, relative to interview performance, and generally increases with rank in the Arcanum. These are merely guidelines, though, as we repeatedly see in Kvothe's admissions process. Masters are at their discretion to choose questions they deem suitable, no matter how esoteric or tangential, and the tuition seems just as likely to be arbitrary as based on merit or rank.

Kvothe is the first student to have received a negative tuition; the school paid him to attend his first term.

Masters

Each field of study in the University has a Master who is responsible for that discipline. Introductory courses are often taught by gillers, or occasionally a Master from another discipline, but advanced courses are generally the exclusive purview of the associated Master.

There are nine Masters in total.

Title	Responsibilities	Current holder of the position
Master Alchemist	Alchemy, Chemistry	Master Mandrag
Master Archivist	In charge of the Archives History	Master Lorren
Master Arithmetician	Mathematics, Geometry	Master Brandeur
Master Artificer	In charge of the Artificery Artificing, Sygaldry Metallurgy	Master Kilvin
Master Linguist	Languages Poetry	Chancellor Arthur Herma
Master Namer	Naming	Master Elodin
Master Physicker	In charge of the Medica Medicine, Herbology Anatomy, Physiognomy	Master Arwyl
Master Rhetorician	Rhetoric Philosophy	Master Jasom Hemme
Master Sympathist	Sympathy	Master Elxa Dal

In The Chronicle

The University provides a major setting in the chronicle, where Kvothe and hundreds of others study the arcane arts. Kvothe quickly becomes notorious at the school, in part by his remarkable aptitude, and in part from the mythology that he created to revolve around him. Early in his first term, Kvothe is banned from the Archives, a tremendous setback in his effort to learn about the Chandrian and the Amyr—his primary motivation in attending the University. Unable to do so, he takes up study in the Artificery and the Medica, hoping to advance through the ranks of the Arcanum as quickly as possible.

The University quickly becomes a new home for Kvothe, especially once he settles into his role as the house musician at Anker's, a tavern in the surrounding hamlet. He discovers much mystery at the school: strange structures such as the impenetrable four-plate door and the Underthing, a subterranean compound apparently composed of the ruins of an ancient civilization.

It is at the University that Kvothe befriends the elusive Auri, who introduces him to the Underthing.

Kvothe's lifelong interest in Naming takes root under Master Elodin's tutelage. It is here that Kvothe begins to hone the oblique skill of awakening his sleeping mind to call the wind and other names.