Alma Mater - General Term

General Term

The expression is almost always used in the singular form, but the Latin plural is almae matres.

Alma Mater Studiorum ("Nourishing Mother of Studies") is the motto of the University of Bologna, the oldest continually operating university in the world, and other European universities, such as the Alma Mater Lipsiensis in Leipzig, Germany, have also used the expression in their names.

At Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the main student government is known as the Alma Mater Society.