In the Middle Ages, education was ruled by the Church, whose orders were in the educational context focused on the production of clerical, ruling and clerical staff. However, geopolitical circumstances and religious conflicts, as well as various cultural movements such as the Renaissance, brought education closer to all layers of society, which is visible in the work of numerous educational institutions. On Croatian soil, an exceptional example is represented by the General College of the Dominican Order in Zadar, Universitas Iadertina. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Saint Dominic founded the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominican Order, which founded the first monasteries on the territory of continental Croatia and along the Adriatic coast, and parallel with them, educational institutions. The rules of the Dominican Order dictated that each province must have one monastery in which the general college operated. By training three doctors of science, obtaining the approval of the head of the order, and Pope Boniface IX, the Dalmatian province fulfilled all the conditions for opening a general college. In 1396, the head of the Dominican Order brought a provision to allocate the General University in Zadar. The college was organized as a community of students and professors, and the curriculum was organized at three levels: grammatical, material and formal. The very process of obtaining these degrees was complex and time-consuming due to the limited number of bachelor and doctoral degrees. The paper describes the historical circumstances that led to the foundation of the oldest university on Croatian soil in 1396. Universitas Iadetina, as well as the continuity of its work through the historical epochs of the Middle and Modern Ages, until its abolition at the time of the French administration in 1807.