In the XIXth century, the University Institution was renewed
Theology was replaced by philosophy as the fundamental and superior knowledge. New faculties were established in economy and political science. Mechanical arts were incorporated into the new studies in the faculty of engineering and architecture.
Even so, the new studies did not displace the most prestigious knowledge within society, such as philosophy, law and medicine, not even in the XXth century. Alfonso Borrero Cabal produced an interpretation of the works of Francisco J. Vocos, who distinguished 6 epochs in the development of the university:
1. The University, School of Wisdom. This was a medieval philosophical-theological institution, aimed at setting against each other, the new ideas to the theocentric conception of the world.
2. The University, Philosophical. This was during a period in which the university tried to break away from theological conceptions and seek new schemes of interpretation, searching for explanations using the phenomena it selves, to seek for their explanations.
3. The University, Scientific, or episteme centric. This was at a time in which the university was centered on the debate of knowledge, its sources and methods. Until now, it was preserved as the main purpose to acquire the truth.
4. The University, Professional. It began a major change in the profile of the institution; philosophy grounds were abandoned as well as the search for spiritual enrichment, to become oriented towards a “techno centric” direction, seeking to incorporate into labor rather than debate or generate it.
5. The University, Bureaucratic Political. The institution was politicized and made bureaucratic. It tended to generate a new administration and academic structure, tending to the new demands of education and aiming to apply the knowledge.
6. The University, Revolutionary and Reformist. The new orientation in the university formation made it inevitable that increasingly students and teachers would propose goals not just to acquire wisdom and its possible applications, but to transform society.