La prochaine

Question

Je vais à l'université la prochaine année is considered wrong, while l’année prochaine is considered right. Explain please.

Answer

Hi Nabeel,
this is a very good question and got me thinking.
prochain before the noun somehow implies the next within a sequence.prochain after the noun implies the temporally next occurrence.
Here is an example. Suppose you're sitting in a meeting which convenes every other Monday (i.e., every two weeks). Then someone says either of the two sentences below:
On en parlera plus prochain lundi. -- This refers to the next Monday on which the meeting will reconvene, i.e., Monday in two weeks.
On en parlera plus lundi prochain. -- In this case the speaker refers to the Monday immediately following the meeting.
I hope that makes sense. Certainly, this topic would benefit from the input of a native speaker.
-- Chris (not a native speaker).