Studium generale

Studium generale is a old customary score for the medieval university in medieval Europe.

Contemporary usage

Today studium generale is primarily used within a European university context as a version for lectures, seminars & other activities which purpose at providing academic foundations for students & the general public. They are in quality with the humanistic roots of the traditional universities to reach external of their boundaries and dispense a general education.

In the early post-war years in Germany the concept was re-introduced, for example, with a formal programme begun in 1948 at the Leibniz College of University of Tübingen.

Today the term is often used interchangeably with orientation year and may be regarded as the academic equivalent of a Gap year.