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Why did early universities have few permanent buildings?

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Gothic-style stone buildings of Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, surround a large green courtyard in Cambridge, England. — University Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, England.

Early universities often lacked permanent buildings and significant corporate property because they were essentially mobile corporations of students and masters rather than fixed physical institutions.1

Because these early universities were responsible for financing themselves, they relied on charging student fees for their livelihood. To maintain their independence and ensure their financial survival, masters and students needed to remain flexible; if they became dissatisfied with their current location or faced local opposition, they could simply migrate to another city to establish a new place of study. This mobility served as a powerful bargaining tool, as evidenced by the formation of the University of Cambridge in 1209, which began when students migrated from the University of Oxford following a period of disaffection.1