This might be a bit UK focussed, I am not sure if they are a thing outside of my borders. In the UK when you join university, there will be societies you can join. There is usually one for your course, and then societies for particular interests, such as sport, culture or ethnicity. I have a few questions about the origins of these groups.
So, as my question states, what is the history of university 'society culture' and how did it come to exist in universities? Why a university society instead of just a regular club? Was it the exclusivity? How long have societies such as these (not dining clubs, just standards societies, dining clubs I will touch on later) been a part of university life? Do we know what the earliest known university society was?
Dining clubs time. For those who are not aware, a dining club is similar to a society, however, they have selective membership usually based upon a common trait among its members, such as wealth or cultural capital. For example, current UK PM David Cameron was once a member, as are many of his cohorts, and the members of the club go quite deep, including high level businessmen, politicians and royals. Sometimes they are about drinking and rampages (such is the history of the Bullingdon club), other times they could be academic in nature. What is the history of university dining clubs? Historically, were they always elite in nature? Why did dining clubs seem to turn into fraternities and sororities in the US, but remain in the UK? Were these clubs originally started as a sort of leisure activity for the elite while at university, or were they instead started as a means by which the elite can make other high level contacts?
I don't think dining clubs "turned into" franternaties in the United States.
Fraternities in the United States are generally reckoned to start with Phi Beta Kappa in 1781 at the College of William and Mary. That said, FBK functioned almost more like a combination between a academic honors club and secret society in it's early years.
It's Phi Beta Kappa that, during the early 19th century creates most of the element now recognized as common to most American fraternities and sororitites -- the Greek-letter name, a Greek motto, an oath of secrecy, a badge, an initiation ritual, a seal, and a secret handshake.
The transformation of American "Greek" organizations into their modern focus as a residences and social centers mostly happend Most of other American fraternities in existence today can be traced to the big land-grant colleges created after the civil war.
British-style dining clubs don't exist at most American universities. The main exception is Princeton, which does have an extensive collection of private "eating clubs" of similar to the British instituion of a similar name. Until the early 1980s, Princeton explicitly banned "Greek life" style fraternaties. Although a few eating clubs (or similar entities) exist at other old prestigious schools like Harvard and Yale, only at Princeton does more than half the student body belong to an eating club.