Universities are astonishingly successful institutions in a world of constant flux. The world's largest companies today were undreamed of 30 years ago: those that bestrode the economy in 1900 have largely vanished. But the University of Bologna is 930 years old, Paris and Oxford over 800.

All over the world today, universities are celebrating tercentenaries and bicentenaries – and a hundred years of astounding growth. In this lecture, Professor Wolf will explore and explain this success, and whether it can endure.