The world’s oldest university

The world’s oldest university is the University of al-Karaouine in Fes, Morocco. It was established by a Muslim woman in 859 CE. — in Fez, Figuig, Morocco.

From Wikipedia:

The University of al-Karaouine or al-Qarawiyyin (Arabic: جامعة القرويين‎) is a university located in Fes, Morocco. The al-Karaouine mosque was founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859 with an associated school, or madrasa, which subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the historic Muslim world. It was incorporated into Morocco’s modern state university system in 1963. It is the oldest existing and continually operating educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records[5]…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_al-Karaouine

Additional info:

University of Al-KaraouineUniversity of Al-Karaouine: Located in Fes, Morocco, this university originally was a mosque founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri, a woman. It developed into one of the leading universities for natural sciences. It wasn’t until 1957 that the university added mathematics, physics, chemistry and foreign languages. This university is considered the oldest continuously-operating degree-granting university in the world by the Guiness Book of World Records.
Al-Azhar UniversityAl-Azhar University: This university, located in Egypt, is the world’s second oldest surviving degree-granting institute. Founded in 970-972, this university serves as a center for Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning. Al-Azhar university concentrates upon a religious syllabus, which pays special attention to the Quranic sciences and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad on the one hand, while also teaching all modern fields of science.
Nizam al-MulkNizamiyya: This series of universities was established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk in the eleventh century in what is now present-day Iran. The most celebrated of all the Nizamiyya schools is Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad, established in 1065 in Dhu’l Qa’da and that remains operational in Isfahan. But, this was just one of many Nizamiyyah schools — others were located in Nishapur, Amul, Mosul, Herat, Damascus, and Basra. The Nizamiyya schools served as a model for future universities in the region, and al-Mulk often is seen as responsible for a new era of brilliance which caused his schools to eclipse all other contemporary learning institutions.

Reference: http://collegestats.org/articles/2009/12/top-10-oldest-universities-in-the-world-ancient-colleges/