What is the Idea of a University? Is James Cook really a University?

Abstract

What is a University or what is the idea of a University? Is there any unambiguous never-changing answer to these questions?

I suspect not because we serve a constantly changing society, but in the simplest case could we say that idealistically "a University is a collection of scholars involved in pursuits of exchange of ideas and of scholarly research, being devoted to the preservation and transmission of existing knowledge and the establishment of new knowledge for the betterment of mankind". The traditional triad of teaching, research and service.

From this idealistic approach we must now move dramatically and almost diametrically to the practical functions of a University.