It is no doubt true that other civilizations, prior to, or wholly alien to, the medieval West, such as the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Islam, or China, were familiar with forms of higher education which a number of historians, for the sake of convenience, have sometimes described as universities.
2003, Jacques Verger, edited by Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, A History of the University in Europe. Vol. I: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, Patterns, pages 35–76