Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones

They form common opinions of their teachers and courses, and undertake together some undirected extracurricular study. The classmates quickly become fast friends, and two soon fall in love. But she is a griffin, appearing at first glance to be frightening and inscrutable, and her father does not approve of university education. Elda is the youngest daughter of Derk, the final Dark Lord before the revolution and head of a most important family now. Evidently, only one is personally wealthy, the beautiful Olga who does not divulge her name or even her region. Prince Lukin's father has not permitted him to be at the University, and his kingdom is also very poor Ruskin is an escaped artisan dwarf, which is the third lowest and here to receive an education so the unjust ranking system can be overthrown Felim ben Felim is a member of the royal family of Ampersand, whose Emir has vowed to send assassins if he is to attend and Claudia, the half-sister of Emperor Titus, is here partially hiding from the Senate, who despise her for being half Marsh. Not one of the families is likely to donate because they have status rather than money, or their fortunes have recently slumped, or their children are here with grudging permission or none.

All six are talented, some in ways they do not yet understand, some encumbered by jinxes. His class turns out to be unusual in other respects too. Wizard Corkoran has selected children from wealthy families to fill his own first-year tutorial, hoping that a current appeal for donations will be fruitful. The senior wizards have all retired the middle-age and young know of no other way.

The head, wizard Corkoran, is obsessed with becoming the first man to visit the moon and devotes much time to that, but there is little research or innovation generally. It suffers financially because tuition demand is down, which greatly concerns the faculty, and educationally from its long practical focus, which barely concerns the few who have noticed. The University formerly produced large numbers of competent wizards who served as tour guides current staff aims to produce competent wizards who gradually repair the damage caused by tours. The Year is set in a fantasy world several years after the end of its domination by commercial tourism from our world.

Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones