“He studied at the university”: what does this phrase imply?

This article discusses the problem of definitions of «being a student» and «education at university» in the Russian Empire of the 18th - first quarter of the 19th centuries. The phrase of the sources «studied at the university» (XVIII – the first quarter of XIX) in dictionaries of the late XIXth – the beginning of the 21st century had been mistakenly equated to the phrases «graduated from the university», «was a student», and had been accepted as part of scholarly vocabulary. The phrase «transferred to the university» was ignored, as well as the fact that concept of «student» essentially differs from the concept of «volunteer». Not all who «studied at the university» had a rank «the student» and listened to professorial lectures. Not everyone bearing a name of «student» listened lectures at university. Not everyone who listened to lectures (took a class) was a student. Students had been studying in different educational institutions, and not only in them (for example, at the College of Foreign Affairs). Before the introduction of the title of «real student» in 1819 officially equated to the 14th grade, students had only the right to apply for service to the senior chief officer rank, but formally did not yet have this rank. In bureaucratic logic, their position practically corresponded to the status of titular junkers, who, by their very name («titular»), did not yet have the rank, but were only approximately equal to it.