The University of Cestlep, commonly referred to as UC, is the premier institution of higher learning in The Oceanykan Federation. Established in 1910 within the City of Cestlep, though its predecessors span two thousand years, UC stands as a pillar of order, reason, and mild bouts of madness amidst a nation otherwise defined by chaos and superstition. The university receives its budget directly from the Department of Knowledge, though it is fiercely independent in its governance. It is run as a technocratic democracy of professors, who elect the Rector of the University of Cestlep by open debate and obscure mathematical voting algorithms that typically work, but have occasionally resulted in victory for a first-year student, a wooden cabinet and the President of the Oceanykan Federation.
Despite its budgetary shortfalls, the University of Cestlep remains a global leader in several academic disciplines. Psychology thrives thanks to unrestricted access to the Federation’s 400 million documented madmen. Medicine advances daily, drawing on an inexhaustible stream of patients suffering from exotic parasites, gunshot wounds and radiation exposure. In anthropology, no other university can boast such proximity to the raw collision of ancient societies and industrial modernity. And in engineering, the Ferozen continue to redefine the limits of sanity.
UC is also the nerve centre of the Federation’s decentralised education system. While the Sovereignties decide whether or not to educate their youth, and in what way, UC is responsible for designing, printing, administering and grading the Standard K-12 Education Test (SKET) which, if successfully passed, grants an individual the right to their General Certificate of Education. Additionally, students that do not attend classes at the University of Cestlep in person, can earn a number of degrees though correspondence education (by mail). Every university in the Oceanykan Federation is legally required to adhere to the University of Cestlep's educational standards, and it is UC which administers professional exams, and who grades thesis works.
In accordance with tradition, and the realities of Oceanykan public life, the University maintains a small, heavily armed private security force, the Students' Guard. Additionally, it possesses an elite force made up of adventurous youths: the University of Cestlep Exploratory Corps. Originally created to protect field researchers, the Corps is now known for conducting archaeological expeditions, studying uncontacted societies, and raiding rival institutions across the globe to secure valuable research papers. More than one celebrated professor is tenured thanks to the successful theft of a doctoral thesis from the world's bleeding-edge universities.
Beyond academia, UC also boasts the Killer Koalas, currently the number one team in Oceanykan Rules Football.