PAST HISTORY
Higher Education
Timeline Tutorial
Edited by Khesia Taylor
The Beginning
1636 Harvard University is founded
by the Massachusetts Bay Colony and
is named after John Harvard. During
the colonial period, higher education is
primarily limited to a small number of private institutions. After the Revolutionary
War, some states established publicly
controlled universities.
Harvard University
1862 Enactment of the Morrill Act
establishes federal and state funding for
colleges through the sale of public lands.
Each state would use the funds for the
“endowment, support, and maintenance
of at least one college where the leading
object shall be, without excluding other
scientific and classical studies and
including military tactics, to teach such
branches of learning as are related to
agriculture and the mechanic arts, in
order to promote the liberal and practical
education of the industrial classes in the
several pursuits and professions in life.”
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1887 The Hatch Act passes, establishing
agricultural experiment stations for
scientific research.
1890 Passage of the Second Morrill
Act advances education in the former
Confederate states and new territories.
Those states are required to admit
students regardless of race, or establish
separate land-grant schools for persons
of color.
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PASTPRESENTFUTURE
Over the past two centuries American
higher education has evolved, grown, and
diversified. The past serves as a prologue; the
present documents the complex needs of the
economy and the populace; and the future
of higher education will require revisions to
accommodate ever-changing demographics,
the economy, and other public pressures.
Roosevelt
Turn of the Century
The 1940s
1900 By the 20th century, approximately
two-thirds of college students are
enrolled in liberal arts colleges. By 1950,
that number is only 25 percent.
1940 In 1940, the United States has
approximately 1,000 institutions of higher
education.
1935 Congress creates the National
Youth Administration, which, in part,
provides grants to college students in
exchange for work.
For the first time, access to American higher
education is not limited to the wealthy, and
funding for such education is awarded on an
individual, rather than institutional, level.
1944 President Roosevelt signs into law
the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of
1944, also known as the GI Bill of Rights,
offering returning World War II veterans
tuition and living expense benefits to
further their education.
1945 Vannevar Bush, director of the
Office of Scientific Research and
Development, publishes Science: The
Endless Revolution, which calls for
the federal government to increase
its investment in basic research, and
advocates that it be done at universities,
by university faculty.
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1950s
1960s
1970s
With the GI Bill offering veterans previously unheard of access to college, the
1950s introduces the concept of higher
education for all.
In the 1960s, community colleges become
the largest sector of higher education.
1970 There are 721 colleges, according
to the Carnegie Commission on Higher
Education, designated as a Bachelor’s
Degree–Liberal Arts college. By 1976,
that number drops to 583, and by
2000 there are only 228 colleges with
that classification. While some colleges
close or merge with other institutions,
many revise their missions to include
professional programs, such as
business and health care.
During the 1950s and 1960s, education
for a few begins to be education for the
masses, with the proliferation of two-year
colleges, increased coeducation, and
more racial diversity.
1965 At his alma mater, Southwest
Texas State College (now Texas State
University), President Lyndon Johnson
signs the Higher Education Act of 1965
into law. In 1965, fewer than six million
students are enrolled in public, private, or
for-profit colleges.
1969 Approximately 78 percent of the
instructional workforce at colleges and
universities is comprised of tenured and
tenure-track faculty. By 2008, only
33.5 percent of faculty is tenure-track,
and of the remaining 66.5 percent, more
than 70 percent (or 47.7 percent of the
total) are part time.
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1978 The Middle Income Student
Assistance Act is signed into law by
President Jimmy Carter. The act provides
a more generous Basic Educational
Opportunity Grant—grants provided to
low-income students—and increases
income limits eligibility, allowing an
additional 1.5 million students from
middle-income families to become
eligible for the basic grants program.
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During the past half century, however,
competitors have introduced options—
online learning, competency-based
credentials, nondegrees, and badging—
that appear to produce similar, if not the
same, outcomes cheaper, faster, and easier.
1980s
1990s
1980 Educational Opportunity Grants
are renamed, after Sen. Claiborne Pell of
Rhode Island, to “Pell Grants.”
From the mid-1990s to 2010, the number
of for-profit institutions nearly doubles,
and thus, expands the use of loans by
college students.
1980 State appropriations account for
83 percent of student educational costs.
1980 Parents become eligible borrowers
for student educational expenses.
1989 John Sperling starts the University
of Phoenix online program to address the
needs of the working adults who have
been attending University of Phoenix
on-site classes.
For the past 40 years, as public funding
for higher education has decreased and
private costs have increased, market forces
have played increasing roles in institutional
missions. Broader participation as well
as the change in payee has brought with
it a corresponding change in the value
proposition for higher education.
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“Over a third of America’s college
students and over half of our
minority students don’t earn a
degree, even after six years. So we
don’t just need to open the doors of
college to more Americans; we need
to make sure [students] stick with it
through graduation. That is critical.”
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The introduction of
competency-based
credentials and badging,
which afford individuals
access to disaggregated
knowledge components
with outcomes assessed
by specified metrics,
challenges this traditional
accreditation model.
2000s
2012 State support for state colleges
declines to 23 percent.
2012 Nearly 70 percent of chief
academic officers state that online
education is critical to their institutions’
long-term strategy, and nearly 32 percent
of students are taking at least one
online course.
2013 President Obama announces plans
for a college ratings system. Two years
later, the Department of Education moves
away from a ratings system and publishes
a consumer-friendly “Scorecard” tool.
2014 At the end of 2014, there are
more than 4,700 degree-granting
institutions in the United States.
2015 The White House unveils the
America’s College Promise proposal,
which would make community college
free for students.
KHESIA TAYLOR is associate editor of
Business Officer.
[email protected]
2012 During a State of the Union address
in 2012, President Obama says, “If you
can’t stop tuition from going up, the
funding you get from taxpayers will go
down … . Higher education can’t be a
luxury—it’s an economic imperative that
every family in America should be able to
afford.”
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