Residential educational institutions in New Diasporia, at least in the Highlands tend to follow the monastic traditions rather than the German based university model of the progressive period. These institutions are infused with the rhythm of the liturgy through participation in the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. While not all students will participate in each activity, some members of the community will participate all functions on behalf of all the members.
Even the largest universities tend to be divided into colleges. Each college is centered around the four part structure of its chapel, library, dining hall, and houses. For many colleges the fifth structure consisting of the monastic community of monks and/or sisters also exists.
There are several key elements which make these schools different from those that existed in the progressive era. First the requirement that students attend formal meals in hall. This has many benefits in both physical health and spiritual wellbeing. Next of course the houses are all gender segregated. More over each house has its own chapel, where is reserved the Blessed Sacrament. Broadly speaking the environment of each house room, often decorated and named, is designed to edify the occupants rather than drag them down to some common level of perceived equality.
Although education continues to in some way an optimal combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, exams and coursework, it is not limited to the relationship between teacher and student or even between student and student, but also between all and God.
Since it is impossible to build the total man or woman without recourse to the
pillars of grammar, mathematics, and rhetoric this is the basis of education in all subjects. History and language, mastery of both Latin and Greek, as well as modern language stands as primary requirements for later mastery of science and engineering.
As in previous times there is no substitute for the rule of thumb which says that one must spend at least 10,000 hours to master a field. The idea that one can putter around for a few hours a day for eight months a year and somehow earn a degree as an expert in the subject has been purged. Students are expected to spend a majority of their time on studies, for most of the year. This makes time off, primarily on Sundays and feast days, as well as the joyous seasons of Christmas and Easter all the more sweet.
