Universities were born in medieval Europe.
The Middle Ages is the middle period of the division of European historical traditions (classical age, middle ages and modern times), starting from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (AD 476) and ending from the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire (AD 1453). Although the university was born in the late Middle Ages in Europe, its embryonic form can be traced back to the Pythagorean school in ancient Greece, and there is also a school composed of Confucius and his students in China. In these two schools, mentoring not only explores knowledge together, but also lives together, which is a form of mentoring relationship. Pythagoras and Confucius taught "the way of fashion" and cultivated the elites of the society at that time. Students follow their teachers to improve their self-cultivation. For example, Zi Gong, a disciple of Confucius, made a living by doing business, but obtained spiritual wealth from Confucius. Since then, this non-utilitarian education has continued in Europe, and a real university has been born. On the other hand, China regrets that this kind of education has not continued. Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, reading has been linked with the gentry's dream of being Tian Shelang in the morning and emperor at night. Generally speaking, four characteristics of medieval Europe laid the foundation for the birth of universities:
People have abundant material conditions.
People in the Middle Ages paid more attention to spiritual wealth than material life.
Besides believing in God, Christians and priests also sincerely pursue the truth.
Academic freedom is protected by law.
Zhihu's definition of college students is that "college students" are a special social group, which refers to people who are receiving basic higher education but have not yet graduated and entered the society, as the frontier group of new social technologies and new ideas and senior professionals trained by the state. College students represent young people and energetic people, and are the pillars to promote social progress.
I didn't find the concrete embodiment of the word college students in ancient literature. But in my opinion, the emergence of the term college students is inseparable from the emergence of the term university.