College (ME) (ETW building)
| College | |
|---|---|
| Category: | Education |
| Level: | 1 |
| Turns to build: | 4 |
| Building cost: | 2500 |
| |
| Requires | |
 School | |
| Technology | |
 | |
| Enables | |
 Traditional University | |
A college offers an academic, secular education to the sons of the wealthy and influential.
Education is expensive and exclusive, but provides a good basis for a career in both private business and the state administration. Society does not expect the college to be a hotbed of radical ideas, but to produce able, polished men who can occupy the highest positions with confidence. If nothing else, the personal contacts made will be extremely useful to a graduate, even if his academic attainments are a little lacking.
There is also a distinctly Turkish flavour to the education on offer, as Ottoman culture and achievements are (rightly, in the view of both teaching staff and students) celebrated and studied. There is a socially and nationally cohesive view of the world that is the legacy of an education here. This is not quite the same as a purely Islamic education on offer elsewhere.
Historically, the Ottoman Empire was always in need of able administrators. This was one of the reasons why it came to rely on the disciplined and educated military corps of janissaries to act as imperial functionaries. This, in turn, caused problems as the janissaries became more interested in their own perquisites than in their duties as civilian officials.