MODULE 3:
History of Higher Education In Brief
Excerpts from Documents, Statements, Essays, Speeches, Histories of Various
Institutions, Faculty Web Pages for the History of Higher Education, Other Resources
Early Private Institutions - The First Colleges/Universities in America
There are three claimants to being the first university in America, but the general
consensus is that Harvard, founded in 1636, was the first, though some would say that it
was actually the first college. A few notable comments about Harvard: Seven U.S.
Presidents were educated at Harvard and more than 40 Nobel laureates have come from
its faculty.
From the Early History of Harvard
Harvard College was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony and was named for its first benefactor, John Harvard of
Charlestown, a young minister who, upon his death in 1638, left his library and half his
estate to the new institution. Harvard's first scholarship fund was created in 1643 with a
gift from Ann Radcliffe…
During its early years, the College offered a classic academic course based on the English
university model but consistent with the prevailing Puritan philosophy of the first
colonists. Although many of its early graduates became ministers in Puritan
congregations throughout New England, the College was never formally affiliated with a
specific religious denomination. An early brochure, published in 1643, justified the
College's existence: "To advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to
leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches."
Excerpts from The American College and University: A History by Frederick Rudolph
…the really important fact about Harvard was that it was absolutely necessary. Puritan
Massachusetts could not have done without it. Unable to set the world straight as
Englishmen in England, the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts intended to set it straight as
Englishmen in the New World…
Intending to lead lives no less than the purest, aspiring to serve God and their fellowmen
in the fullest, they acknowledged a responsibility to the future. They could not afford to
leave its shaping to whim, fate, accident, indecision, incompetence, or carelessness. In
the future, the state would need competent rulers, the church would require a learned
clergy, and society itself would need the adornment of cultured men…
Harvard College…would train the schoolmasters, the divines, the rulers, the cultured
ornaments of society – the men who would spell the difference between civilization and
barbarism…
College of William and Mary
Established in 1693 under a charter granted by King William III and Queen Mary II of
England, the College of William and Mary is regarded as the second oldest institution of
higher education in the United States.
Established as a school to train Anglican clergy, the College of William and Mary was
supported by the British crown until 1776. The college was closed for a short time in
1781, during the American Revolution. It was closed again from 1861 to 1865, during the
American Civil War, when the entire faculty and about 90 percent of the student body
enlisted in the army of the Confederacy,…and from 1881 to 1888 because of lack of
funds. It became state-supported in 1906 and coeducational in 1918. Although it retains
the historic name under which it was founded, the College of William and Mary became
a university in 1967.
Many of America’s early leaders were educated at the College of William and Mary,
including United States presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler, and
the renowned chief justice John Marshall. George Washington served as college
chancellor from 1788 until his death in 1799. The Greek letter society Phi Beta Kappa
was founded at the College of William and Mary in 1776, and the college was the first to
offer elective courses and to institute the honor-code system of conduct. The first chair of
law in the United States was established at the college in 1779.
Comments about Other Early Institutions
Yale was founded in 1701 to train ministers. It is generally regarded as the third
institution of higher education in America. In 1861, the Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences became the first U.S. school to award the Ph.D.
Yale was initially known as the Collegiate School in Connecticut. It is named for Elihu
Yale of Boston, a principal in the British East India Company, who donated goods that
were sold to generate a significant sum of money to construct a new building in New
Haven, Connecticut. The building was named in his honor, and eventually the institution
became Yale College.
Among other institutions that were created at this time were the University of
Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Dartmouth College.
The Yale Report - 1828 (Excerpts):
REPORT OF THE FACULTY, PART I
We are aware that ... [our present plan of education] is imperfect; and we cherish the
hope, that some of its defects may ere long be remedied. We believe the changes may,
from time to time be made with advantage, to meet the varying demands of the
community, to accommodate the course of instruction to the rapid advance of the
country, in population, refinement, and opulence. We have no doubt that important
improvements may be suggested, by attentive observation of the literary institutions in
Europe; and by the earnest spirit of inquiry which is now so prevalent, on the subject of
education. ....
Not only the course of studies, and the modes of instruction, have been greatly varied; but
whole sciences have, for the first time, been introduced; chemistry, mineralogy, geology,
political economy, &c. By raising the qualifications for admission, the standard of
attainment has been elevated. Alterations so extensive and frequent, satisfactorily prove,
that if those who are intrusted with the superintendence of the institution, still firmly
adhere to some of its original features, is from a higher principle, than a blind opposition
to salutary reform. Improvements, we trust, will continue to be made, as rapidly as they
can be, without hazarding the loss of what has been already attained.
But perhaps the time has come, when we ought to pause, and inquire, whether it will be
sufficient to make gradual changes, as heretofore; and whether the whole system is not
rather to be broken up, and a better one substituted in its stead. From different quarters,
we have heard the suggestion, that our colleges must be new-modelled; that they are not
adapted to the spirit and wants of the age; that they will soon be deserted, unless they are
better accommodated to the business character of the nation. ....
What ... is the appropriate object of a college? It is not necessary here to determine what
it is which, in every case, entitles an institution to the name of a college. But if we have
not greatly misapprehended the design of the patrons and guardians of this college, its
object is to lay the foundation of a superior education: and this is to be done, at a period
of life when a substitute must be provided for parental superintendence. The ground
work of a thorough education, must be broad, and deep, and solid. For a partial or
superficial education, the support may be of looser materials, and more hastily laid.
The two great points to be gained in intellectual culture, are the discipline and the
furniture of the mind; expanding its powers, and storing it with knowledge. The former of
these is, perhaps, the more important of the two. A commanding object, therefore, in a
collegiate course, should be, to call into daily and vigorous exercise the faculties of the
student. Those branches of study should be prescribed, and those modes of instruction
adopted, which are best calculated to teach the art of fixing the attention, directing the
train of thought, analyzing a subject proposed for investigation; following, with accurate
discrimination, the course of argument; balancing nicely the evidence presented to the
judgment; awakening, elevating, and controlling the imagination; arranging, with skill,
the treasures which memory gathers; rousing and guiding the powers of genius. All this is
not to be effected by a light and hasty course of study; by reading a few books, hearing a
few lectures, and spending some months at a literary institution. The habits of thinking
are to be formed, by long continued and close application. The mines of science must be
penetrated far below the surface, before they will disclose their treasures. If a dexterous
performance of the manual operations, in many of the mechanical arts, requires an
apprenticeship, with diligent attention for years; much more does the training of the
powers of the mind demand vigorous, and steady, and systematic effort.
In laying the foundation of a thorough education, it is necessary that all the important
mental faculties be brought into exercise .... In the course of instruction in this college, it
has been an object to maintain such a proportion between the different branches of
literature and science, as to form in the student a proper balance of character. From the
pure mathematics, he learns the art of demonstrative reasoning. In attending to the
physical sciences, he becomes familiar with facts, with the process of induction, and the
varieties of probable evidence. In ancient literature, he finds some of the most finished
models of taste. By English reading, he learns the powers of the language in which he is
to speak and write. By logic and mental philosophy, he is taught the art of thinking; by
rhetoric and oratory, the art of speaking. By frequent exercise on written composition, he
acquires copiousness and accuracy of expression. By extemporaneous discussion, he
becomes prompt, and fluent, and animated. It is a point of high importance, that
eloquence and solid learning should go together; that he who has accumulated the richest
treasures of thought, should possess the highest powers of oratory. To what purpose has a
man become deeply learned, if he has no faculty of communicating his knowledge? And
of what use is a display of rhetorical elegance, from one who knows little or nothing
which is worth communicating? ....
Cornell University – First American University
The opening of Cornell in 1865 clearly marked a milestone in American higher
education. It was the first university to admit qualified students regardless of nationality,
race, social circumstance, gender, or religion.
Educational historian Frederick Rudolph termed Cornell "the first American university"
because it was in the vanguard of sweeping changes brought about by the Land Grant
movement which created a characteristically American style of institution: coeducational,
nonsectarian, egalitarian, and with a curriculum not focused on the Latin and Greek
classics.
As described by Jeffrey Sean Lehman, Cornell’s eleventh president, “Cornell was
designed to be “an institution where any person can find instruction in any study…open
to all kinds of students and to pursue all questions that challenge the human species, both
humanistic and scientific, with equal fervor and with uncompromising rigor. At the time
of its founding, Cornell spoke to the need for American universities to address the
changes brought about by America's industrial revolution. Higher education was required
for the industrial class as well as for the professional class. Higher education was
required for women as well as for men. Higher education needed to combine its
traditional emphasis on the classic languages and humanistic disciplines with an equal
and correlative emphasis on theoretical and applied science.”
From Wikipedia – Johns Hopkins – First American University based on the German
university model
Johns Hopkins was the first university in the United States to emphasize research,
applying the German university model developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt and
Friedrich Schleiermacher.[5] Johns Hopkins is the first American university to teach
through seminars, instead of solely through lectures,[6] as well as the first university in
America to offer an undergraduate major (as opposed to a purely liberal arts curriculum)
and the first American university to grant doctoral degrees.[7] As such Johns Hopkins was
a model for most large research universities in the United States, particularly the
University of Chicago.
The Morrill Land Grant Act – Public Higher Education – The Creation of State
Universities/University Systems
The Morrill Act of 1862 established the Land Grant university system. On July 2, 1862,
President Abraham Lincoln signed into law what is generally referred to as the Land
Grant Act. The new piece of legislation introduced by U.S. Representative Justin Smith
Morrill of Vermont granted to each state 30,000 acres of public land for each Senator and
Representative under apportionment based on the 1860 census. Proceeds from the sale of
these lands were to be invested in a perpetual endowment fund which would provide
support for colleges of agriculture and mechanical arts in each of the states. (Click here
to see the list of land-grant institutions in the various states)
History of Community Colleges and Junior Colleges – from Education Encyclopedia,
State University.com
The community college is largely a phenomenon of twentieth-century American higher
education. The label applies to an array of institutions that offer six-month vocational
diplomas; one- and two-year vocational, technical, and pre-professional certificates; and
two-year programs of general and liberal education leading to an associate degree. Twoyear colleges may be public, private, proprietary, or special purpose, although public
institutions represent the majority of community colleges in the twentieth-first century.
States, counties, municipalities, school districts, universities, and religious denominations
have all organized community colleges. Some were designed for specific racial and
ethnic groups, for women, or for specific purposes such as business, art, or military
training. At the close of the twentieth century, two-year colleges enrolled 5,743,000
students, 96 percent of whom attended public community colleges. Nearly 40 percent of
all undergraduate students attended community and junior colleges. Between 1900 and
2000 the significance of this sector of higher education grew enormously as its
predominantly public character evolved from a much wider variety of origins.
The multiple forces fueling community college development contributed to confusion
over the name and mission of these institutions. The terms community college, junior
college, technical college, and technical institute encompass a wide array of institutions.
Two-year college refers to all institutions where the highest degree awarded is a two-year
degree (i.e., associate of arts, associate of science, associate of general studies, associate
of applied arts, associate of applied science). Generally, community colleges are
comprehensive institutions that provide: (a) general and liberal education, (b) career and
vocational education, and (c) adult and continuing education. Yet many two-year colleges
do not offer the comprehensive curriculum just outlined, and therefore are not truly
community colleges in this comprehensive use of the term.
Junior college refers to an institution whose primary mission is to provide a general and
liberal education leading to transfer and completion of the baccalaureate degree. Junior
colleges often also provide applied science and adult and continuing education programs
as well.
Technical college and technical institute refer only to those institutions awarding no
higher than a two-year degree or diploma in a vocational, technical, or career field.
Technical colleges often offer degrees in applied sciences and in adult and continuing
education. Also, there are technical institutes with curricula that extend to the
baccalaureate, master's, and doctorate (i.e., Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), but these are not community colleges. There are also
proprietary (for-profit) two-year colleges that refer to themselves as technical colleges,
technical institutes, or community colleges. Adding to the confusion of labeling is the
fact that community college has become used generically in higher-education literature to
refer to all colleges awarding no higher than a two-year degree.
The United States has been able to adapt and capitalize on its diversity of peoples,
regions, and economics, in part due to the pragmatic and adaptive nature of its
educational system. At the post-secondary level, the comprehensive community college
has made a singular contribution to this adaptiveness and pragmatism. While many
countries possess binary divisions of their higher-education system (universities and
polytechnic colleges or institutes), these are accessible only to individuals with an
acceptable performance on government-sponsored high-school graduation examinations.
In contrast, American postsecondary education has remained steadfastly committed to
inventing courses of study, educational programs, or even whole institutions dedicated to
the needs and expectations of its society, peoples, and cultures.
As a distinctively American invention, the comprehensive community college stands
between secondary and higher education, between adult and higher education, and
between industrial training and formal technical education. Community colleges have
provided educational programs and services to people who otherwise would not have
enrolled in a college or university. For the most part community colleges offer admission
to all who possess a high school education; in addition, many provide assistance to adults
in completing their secondary education. They attract students who live in geographic
proximity and who seek low-cost postsecondary education.
The History of Community Colleges
The community college evolved from at least seven sources of educational innovation.
Two began in the 1880s and 1890s: (1) community boosterism and (2) the rise of the
research university. Three came from the educational reforms of the Progressive Era
(1900–1916): (3) the advent of universal secondary education, (4) the professionalization
of teacher education, and (5) the vocational education movement. The final two, (6) open
access to higher education, and (7) the rise of adult and continuing education and
community services, were primarily post–World War II phenomena. The seeds of all
seven of these innovations can be found even in the earliest junior colleges.
GI Bill - Act of 1944 – Opening the Doors: Changing Who Attended Higher Education
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act [G.I. Bill of Rights]] Unrestricted. (NWCTB-11LAWS-PI159E6-PL78(346)) The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 put higher
education within the reach of millions of veterans of World War II and later military
conflicts.
From The G.I. Bill and the Transformation of America by Reginald Wilson
To understand the impact of the G.I. Bill, one must understand the parameters of
American society in 1940 before the war. From the time of his inauguration in 1934,
President Roosevelt had attempted to pull the country from the throes of its worst
economic depression, and the economy had proved stubbornly intransigent. Many
veterans of World War I stood on street corners and sold apples or slept under the bridges
of our cities. Women stood in long lines to get surplus food, and babies cried out in
starvation.
Not only were economic times hard, but the United States was a severely racially
segregated society as well. The American worker was strictly separated into black and
white, both North and South, and was paid on separate pay scales, with the lower pay
going to the black worker. Educationally, blacks and whites were segregated as well, with
85 percent of blacks who went to college attending the historically black colleges and
universities (HBCUs). Not only were blacks segregated, but for both blacks and whites
college was a rare experience. Only 10 percent of Americans before the war attended
college. It was primarily a luxury of the upper middle classes unless one was fortunate
enough to get a scholarship or could work one's way through college. Moreover, not only
were blacks restricted, but Jews and Catholics were limited by quotas in their admittance
to the most prestigious universities. As a result, the middle class was quite small and for
the most part consisted of white male Protestants; women likewise had few opportunities
and were confined mostly to women's colleges.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home?
This was the status of American society at the time of World War II -- poor, segregated,
and with limited opportunities for women. In the halls of Congress the legislators were
debating what to do with the returning servicemen barely seven months after America's
entry into the war. With the specter of the fate of the servicemen of World War I hanging
over their heads, the members of Congress responded favorably to Republican
Congressman Hamilton Fish's admonition that veterans "would not come home and sell
apples as they did after the last war....I believe we would have chaotic and revolutionary
conditions in America." There was, of course, opposition. The presidents of the nation's
premier educational institutions were concerned about the flooding of America's colleges
by veterans. University of Chicago President, Robert M. Hutchins, for example, entitled
his article in the magazine Collier's, "The Threat to American Education" and labeled the
G.I. Bill "unworkable."
Yet, education benefits for veterans had its champions as well. Ironically, rank
segregationists had a more profound impact on African Americans' access to education
and poor white empowerment to choose the education they wanted. Congressman John
Rankin from Mississippi, for example, pushed hard for the benefits to go to the individual
veteran rather than to the collegiate institution, which would have restricted admittance to
those it felt "worthy" to succeed. Moreover, this allowed the "negro" institutions and
several small institutions to prosper.
The Impact of the G.I. Bill
To illustrate the profound impact of the G.I. Bill one needs only recite the stark statistics:
two years before the war approximately 160,000 U.S. citizens were in college. By 1950,
the figure had risen to nearly 500,000. In 1942, veterans accounted for 49 percent of
college enrollments.
Yet these stark statistics tell only half the story. The extent of the profound changes had
only begun. The HBCUs benefited from the enlargement of the colleges through the
parallel Lanham Act (1946) that stabilized the marginal colleges and strengthened the
others. Twenty-five research universities existed before the war and 125 afterwards.
Before the war, 10 percent of students attended college, and the G.I. Bill led to 51 percent
of students being able to attend. Seven million veterans took advantage of education and
training, with 2.2 million of them attending college.
The restrictions against Jews and Catholics were quietly dropped, and thousands of
blacks attended previously white universities and colleges. The provision of subsidized
housing allowed thousands of veterans to buy houses and flock to the suburbs. The "5220" provision of the bill (a $20 a week subsidy for 52 weeks for veterans who were out of
work) enabled blacks for the first time to make the same wages as whites in the South.
Indeed, thousands of blacks and whites were thrust into the middle class, and their
children did not wonder whether they would go to college, but where they would go.
That profound change in American social and economic relations was brought about by
the revolution of the G.I. Bill in its impact on the American people. The men and women
who had fought in the war were transformed by the Act from poor working-class citizens
to middle-class citizens, from citizens who worked with their hands to professionals who
worked with their minds, from renters to homeowners.
History of Higher Education - A Course Outline: Northeastern University
When did Higher Education begin; what are its Medieval roots; the three organizing
themes in Academia: Shared Governance, Academic Freedom and Tenure and
Promotion
Appendix
Land-Grant Institutions established through the Morrill Act of 1862
ALABAMA
Alabama A&M University
Auburn University
Tuskegee University
ALASKA
ARIZONA
ARKANSAS
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
CALIFORNIA
COLORADO
CONNECTICUT
DELAWARE
University of California
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
FLORIDA
University of the District of Columbia
GEORGIA
GUAM
HAWAII
IDAHO
ILLINOIS
INDIANA
IOWA
KANSAS
KENTUCKY
LOUISANA
MAINE
MARYLAND
MASSACHUSETTS
University of Arizona
University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas Pine Bluff
Colorado State University
University of Connecticut
Delaware State College
University of Delaware
Florida A&M University
University of Florida
Fort Valley State College
University of Georgia
University of Guam
University of Hawaii
University of Idaho
University of Illinois
Purdue University
Iowa State University
Kansas State University
Kentucky State University
University of Kentucky
Louisana State University
Southern University
University of Maine
University of Maryland
University of Maryland, College Park
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Massachusetts
MICHIGAN
MINNESOTA
MISSISSIPPI
MISSOURI
Michigan State University
University of Minnesota
Alcorn State University
Mississippi State University
Lincoln University
University of Missouri
Montana State University-Bozeman
MONTANA
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBAL COLLEGES (click here)
University of Nebraska
NEBRASKA
University of Nevada, Reno
NEVADA
University of New Hampshire
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Rutgers - the State University of New Jersey
NEW JERSEY
New Mexico State University
NEW MEXICO
Cornell University
NEW YORK
North Carolina A&T State University
NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina State University
NORTH DAKOTA
OHIO
OKLAHOMA
North Dakota State University
OREGON
PENNSYLVANIA
PUERTO RICO
RHODE ISLAND
SOUTH CAROLINA
Oregon State University
SOUTH DAKOTA
TENNESSEE
South Dakota State University
TEXAS
Ohio State University
Langston University
Oklahoma State University
Pennsylvania State University
University of Puerto Rico
University of Rhode Island
Clemson University
South Carolina State University
Tennessee State University
University of Tennessee
Prairie View A&M University
Texas A&M University
UTAH
VERMONT
VIRGIN ISLANDS
VIRGINIA
Utah State University
WASHINGTON
WEST VIRGINIA
Washington State University
WISCONSIN
WYOMING
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Vermont
University of the Virgin Islands
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Virginia State University
West Virginia University
West Virginia State College
University of Wyoming