[1] Plans were made for its foundation in the reign of Alexander I of Scotland, who set aside some land (in the area known as the Cursus Apri, or "Boar's Raik") for that purpose.
It was finally established by King David I and his son in 1140 with Augustinian canons from Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire.
[3] The canons managed the shrine of St Andrew, and the adjacent cathedral functioned as their monastery church.
A group of Augustinians, driven from the University of Paris by the Avignon schism and from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge by the Anglo-Scottish Wars, formed a society of higher learning in St Andrews, which offered courses of lectures in divinity, logic, philosophy, and law.
A charter of privilege was bestowed upon the society of masters and scholars by the Bishop of St Andrews, Henry Wardlaw.