One of the world's oldest centres of higher learning stood at Takshashila.

Takshashila, near modern Islamabad, was a major seat of learning from around the middle of the first millennium BC. Teachers took on students individually rather than through a formal institution, but the concentration of scholars covering law, medicine, military science, astronomy and other fields led many to describe it as an early university. Popular accounts cite figures such as 10,500 students and more than 60 subjects taught.

A later Indian centre, Nalanda, founded in the 5th century AD, is often called the world’s first residential university, with organised faculties, dormitories and a vast library.