When did 'College' change from meaning a "group of professionals" to a school for non-professionals?

Question

The word 'College' is presumably related to Collegial and Colleague, originally referring to a group of professionals (not necessarily having anything to do with teaching). When did it change meaning entirely to mean a school where people get an undergraduate degree? This seems like quite a reversal.

Addition: based on a comment, the word 'college' seemed to shift from referring to the people involved, to the institution. This is reminiscent of the word 'church'. I wonder if there is a general term for this sort of shift? It also strikes the chord of how in the UK, a corporation or other body of people is primarily thought of as a set of individuals and in the USA it means a single entity. Maybe we are on to something here...

Answer 1

The OED's earliest entries for college are of

An organized society of persons performing certain common functions and possessing special rights and privileges; a body of colleagues, a guild, fellowship, association

as in John Wyclif's The Clergy May Not Hold Property, ca. 1380:

criste and his colage myȝt not be dispensid wiþ

in reference to the Apostles. Not long thereafter are found examples of its use to refer to any collective body, for example in John Capgrave's mid-15th century Life of Saint Katherine, at 1821:

O Ihesu most swettest, whiche hast noumbred me Right in þi college a-mongis þi maydenes alle

Prominent among the various colleges in British society at the time were communities or corporations formed for mutual support: houses for clergy, for instance, or almshouses. An example given is Morden College, originally "an asylum for decayed merchants." In Chambers' Cyclopædia, similarly,the entry for Colleges for disabled Soldiers, Seamen &c. is a simple cross-reference: See Hospitals.

And so we find the OED's first entry for college as a community of scholars as follows:

4. A society of scholars incorporated within, or in connection with, a University, or otherwise formed for purposes of study or instruction:
   a. esp. An independent self-governing corporation or society (usually founded for the maintenance of poor students) in a University, as the College of the Sorbonne in the ancient University of Paris, and the ancient colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.
   b. A foundation of the same kind, outside a University. (Often combining, in its original character, the functions of a local charity for the aged and of eleemosynary education for the young.)

(emphasis added). The earliest English-language entry given here is from about 1530: In the Unyversyte Off Oxynfurde scho gert be A collage fowndyt, in Andrew of Wyntoun's Ðe orygynale cronykil of Scotland.

Thence came the other meanings of college related to academia: as a synonym for university education in Scotland and the U.S. (as I note elsewhere), as subdivisions of universities, as institutions of advanced training, as buildings occupied by any of those bodies, and so forth.

Answer 2

During medieval times (500 - 1500), guilds were being formed in and around cities and towns. These guilds were composed of many different areas of work. Teaching during this period began specifically with Cathedral schools in which the teachers were priests/Bishops. Eventually, these places experienced an influx of students which led to the creation of specific buildings and campi for large amounts of students. These were considered to be a guild of their own and were called "Universitas." This is where we get our word "University". In 1088 the first "Universitas" in Bologna, Italy was given a charter by Emperor Fredrick I making it an official guild that was to be accepted in the community.

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but I hope it gives you some insight to a synonym for college that would eventually lead to the words formation.

http://www.unibo.it/en/university