colleges and universities

colleges and universities, institutions of higher education. Universities differ from colleges in that they are larger, have wider curricula, are involved in research activities, and grant graduate and professional as well as undergraduate degrees.

Universities

Early History

Universities generally consist of groups of schools, faculties, or colleges. They arose in the 12th and 13th cent. as a means of providing further training in the professions of law, theology, and medicine, and as centers of study for the rediscovered works of Aristotle and the Arab scholars. Of the earliest universities, Salerno (9th cent.) and Montpellier (13th cent.) specialized in medicine; Bologna (1088) in law; and Paris (12th cent.) in theology. Students and faculty were originally organized in guildlike groups. The student groups, known as "nations" and comprising students from particular localities, gradually diminished in power, however, as the faculty, which controlled both teaching and graduation requirements, became more powerful.

In the Middle Ages, universities were usually begun through royal or ecclesiastical initiative or through migrations of students from other universities. The migrations were sometimes influenced by political events. Oxford Univ., for example, was founded (12th cent.) by English students from the Univ. of Paris who were forced to leave that institution as a result of conflicts between England and France; similarly, the university at Leipzig was founded (15th cent.) by German scholars who were driven out of Prague by John Huss's Czech national movement. Medieval universities often had many thousands of students and played an important role in public affairs. Among the famous institutions founded were Salamanca (c.1230), Prague (1348), Vienna (1365), Uppsala (1477), Leiden (1575), and Moscow (1755). The oldest universities in the New World, both founded in 1551, are Mexico Univ. and San Marcos of Lima.

Nineteenth Century

In the 19th cent. many governments reorganized and nationalized universities, as in Italy after unification (1870), in Spain (1876), and in France, where 17 autonomous regional universities were established after 1876. By 1900 many universities were secularized in administration and curriculum, and religious tests had been largely eliminated (in England by act of Parliament in 1871). Through the centuries, the majority of women were educated in separate institutions; however, since 1870 the benefits of coeducation have impelled nearly all universities to admit both sexes.

In the United States, modern universities developed during the late 19th cent. from the expansion of private colleges and the establishment of state tax-supported universities. Largely as a result of the Morrill Act (1862), public lands were granted to the states for the formation and support of state agricultural and mechanical schools (see land-grant colleges and universities). Another important influence at that time was the founding of institutions (e.g., Johns Hopkins Univ.) devoted to graduate study and research. They were modeled on the German universities, with their separate graduate and professional schools each devoted to a particular area of study.

Twentieth Century

In the 20th cent. universities have played an increasingly important role in scientific and technical research, largely as a result of social and governmental demands for these services. The nationalization and bureaucratization of research functions has been especially marked in the United States, where various government agencies dispense large amounts of money to both public and private universities for research purposes. The federal government also provides direct aid to various categories of students, such as veterans and disadvantaged students.

Since World War II there has been worldwide proliferation of new universities, expansion of old ones, and merging of small institutions into larger university systems. As former colonies gained independence during the 1960s and 1970s, each struggled to define its specific educational needs and establish a university system. In Africa, for example, universities were established in Ghana and Nigeria in 1948, in the Côte d'Ivoire in 1959, and in Congo (Kinshasa) in 1971.

Further proliferation has occurred as a result of the desire for political equality. Educational reforms in Japan, for example, have decreed that there must be at least one national university in each of 47 sections of the country, so that there are now more than 96 such institutions. Similar pressures operated in Great Britain, where seven new universities were established in the 1960s alone, and in the United States, where the State Univ. of New York grew from a small group of teacher training colleges in 1948 to a multicampus system with nearly 370,000 students in 1999.

Colleges

Early Years to 1900

Like universities, colleges first appeared in the Middle Ages; the earliest were founded in 12th-century Paris. Originally the college served as an endowed residence hall for university scholars, but later it absorbed much of the university's activity. It was in England, at Oxford and Cambridge, that the college became the principal center of learning, with the university serving mainly to examine candidates and confer degrees.

The Industrial Revolution brought a demand for scientific and technical education, and separate technical colleges (e.g., Yorkshire Science College in Leeds) were founded. Moreover, extension lectures, sponsored by the universities, created a demand for educational centers in remote areas. Degrees, however, continued to be conferred by the universities with which the colleges were affiliated.

It was in America that the liberal arts college first appeared extensively as a separate institution. In the 17th and early 18th cent., numerous colleges were established in the colonies, primarily to train young men for the ministry. Notable were Harvard (1636; Puritan), William and Mary (1693; Anglican), Yale (1701; Congregationalist), Princeton (1746; New Lights Presbyterian), Columbia (1754; Anglican), Brown (1765; Baptist), and Rutgers (1766; Dutch Reformed).

During the 19th cent. a number of women's colleges were founded. Notable early women's colleges were Mt. Holyoke (1837), Elmira (1853), Vassar (1861), Wellesley (1871), Smith (1871), and Bryn Mawr (1881). Another development of the 19th cent. was the growth of normal schools, which later became teachers colleges (see teacher training). Though the curricula and ideals of American colleges continued to be influenced by English schools, many American colleges, stimulated by the German university system and by the increasing demand for technical instruction, began to expand their facilities to include graduate and professional schools.

Twentieth Century

By the 20th cent. many American colleges had become universities, and by the middle of the century universities were giving out twice as many bachelor's degrees as were the traditional liberal arts colleges. In an attempt to reassert the importance of the colleges, many of them have been empowered to grant graduate degrees, especially the master's degree. Since the 1960s, the community college movement has been most important in expanding opportunities for higher education. By allowing students to live at home, operating with more flexible schedules, focusing on technical curricula, and adopting policies of open enrollment, the community colleges have made college training available to a larger segment of high-school graduates. Still another development has been the establishment of cluster colleges, such as the Univ. of California at Santa Cruz (est. 1965), which provide the personalized education that is characteristic of the small college without sacrificing the quality and diversity of the university.

Bibliography

See T. Veblen, Higher Learning in America (1918, repr. 1965); D. G. Tewksbury, The Founding of American Colleges and Universities before the Civil War (1932, repr. 1969); H. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (3 vol., 1936; repr. 1987); L. R. Veysey, The Emergence of the American University (1965); C. Schmitt and L. Brockliss, ed., History of Universities (9 vol., 1972–84); M. Beloff, The Plateglass Universities (1975); F. K. Ringer, Education and Society in Modern Europe (1979); A. W. Chickering et al., The Modern American College (1981); B. R. Clark, The Higher Education System (1983); C. Kerr, The Uses of the University (3d ed. 1983); W. Rudy, The Universities of Europe (1984); E. L. Boyer, College: The Undergraduate Experience in America (1988); T. Bender, ed., The University and the City (1989); S. Brint and J. Karabel, The Diverted Dream (1989); H. Rosovsky, The University (1991); J. Pelikan, The Idea of the University—A Reexamination (1992); D. Kennedy, Academic Duty (1998); M. C. Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity (1998). See also A. S. Knowles, ed., The International Encyclopedia of Higher Education (10 vol., 1977).