Steven Xue: Where does the Citadel get its funding from?

I find the Citadel and the Order of the Maesters to be a very unique anomaly in a medieval world. I’m sure an academic institution like it can and did exist during the medieval period but it must have cost a fortune to run. Besides the fact that the complex of campuses, liberties and laborites would need to be maintained by a very large staff, there is also the cost for funding the research projects and other ventures of their high ranking faculty (eg Marwyn’s expedition). The Maesters also have to operate certain departments that affect the whole of Westeros. There is the raven postal service, the publishing and updating of records and histories and the calendar plus predicting when winter is coming. But the biggest kicker has to be the training and housing of hundreds of students over a course of several years if not decades in many difficult fields of study which has to cost a pretty penny.

I know that Oldtown and maybe the Crown do give them funding in taxes but even today illustrious colleges that are financed by governments still charge a lot in tuition fees, yet it doesn’t seem like the Citadel actually does that seeing how it’s a meritocracy and even the poorest folk can enroll. I assume like the Night’s Watch the sons of noblemen do come with large donations from their families, but then we have people from less well-off backgrounds whom I doubt would have family or dependables that can continually finance their education. And given how much study is required to graduate, I assume the students must have all their living expenses and amenities taken care of by the Citadel. I really doubt any potential Maester would have the time to take a part time job while intensely hitting the books and having to do a lot of practical lab work on a daily basis. Plus this is set in a time before student loans became a thing.

So yeah do you think the Citadel is and can be sustained solely by the taxpayers of Westeros or would they have to look to other sources of income to keep the lights on?

A couple things to keep in mind: firstly, you’re dealing with a medieval university not a modern university. The expectations for what kind of services and amenities are provided, what kinds of buildings are built, etc. are completely different. (No IT department, no sports program, no pension system, no medical centers, no business spinoffs, no counselling services, etc.) So no, the Citadel probably does not pay for the housing and feeding of students – students would be expected to shift for themselves (as in medieval universities prior to the foundation of the colleges) and poorer students probably have to work on the side to pay their bills. Likewise, there aren’t any printing presses in Westeros, so the Citadel doesn’t publish as an institution – it’s got its library, which it maintains by copying manuscripts, but the writing of books is the private concern of the individual maesters. Finally, the sophistication of “research” is not that advanced – we’re not talking modern laboratories, we’re talking about whatever spare cramped rooms are available with whatever equipment the individual maester has acquired on their own. 

Finally, you also need to take into account that the Citadel charges for its services. If a lord wants a maester so they can be part of the ravenry network, they have to pay for that. If a rich merchant needs medical care, they have to pay for that. And so on. So there’s income coming in from virtually every noble house of Webberesque importance or higher throughout the continent.