Short answers, pulled from the story.
A History of the University in Europe is a four-volume book series tracing the development of the European university from its medieval origins to the late twentieth century. It was directed by the European University Association and published by Cambridge University Press between 1992 and 2011. The series is considered the most comprehensive and authoritative work on the subject.
Hilde de Ridder-Symoens edited the first two volumes, published in 1992 and 1996 respectively. Walter Rüegg edited Volumes III and IV, which appeared in 2004 and 2011.
Volume I covers the Middle Ages to approximately 1500, Volume II spans 1500-1800, Volume III covers 1800-1945, and Volume IV addresses the period since 1945. Together the four volumes trace over eight centuries of university history.
As of 2011, the complete series had been published in English and German. Spanish and Portuguese editions of the first volumes had appeared, and translations into Russian and Chinese were in preparation.
Edward Grant called the first volume "the best single volume on the history of medieval universities", while Susan Rosa said it "sets a standard for competency in historical research". Christopher Ocker described it as the first thorough survey spanning every country from the university's birth to humanism since Rashdall. Matthew Kempshall raised a conceptual concern that the series may have gone too far in idealizing the university as a supranational institution.
In English-language scholarship the series updated Hastings Rashdall's The Universities in Europe in the Middle Ages, which had been revised in 1936 by F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden. In multi-volume scope, the only prior comparable work was Christoph Meiners's Geschichte der Entstehung und Entwickelung der hohen Schulen unsres Erdtheils, published between 1802 and 1805.