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What's College? |
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Colleges
and Universities,
degree-granting institutions
of higher education. In the original sense of the word, a college was a group of
students who gathered to share academic and residential facilities. Each college
was a component part of a corporate body called a university, the word being an
abbreviation of the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium (“guild
[or union] of masters and students”), organized for mutual advantage and legal
protection. Today, especially in the United States, a college may be affiliated
with a university (for example, Barnard College of Columbia University) or
independent (for example, Smith College). See Education, Higher.
Development
of Colleges and Universities Although modern colleges and
universities evolved from Western European institutions of the Middle Ages,
significant types of higher learning existed in ancient times, in the Middle and
Far East as well as in Europe. Some of these Eastern institutions still
flourish. Historical
Antecedents In Greece, the Academy of
Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle were advanced schools of philosophy (see
Academy). During the Hellenistic period, which began in the 4th century BC,
Athens attracted many Roman students, later including the statesmen and writers
Julius Caesar, Cicero, Augustus, and Horace. Also important during this period
was the Egyptian city of Alexandria, with its great library (see
Alexandria, Library of) and museum, which attracted scholars from the Middle
East. The Jewish academies in Palestine and Babylonia, which produced the
Talmud, promoted religious and secular intellectual pursuits from about AD 70
through the 13th century. The University of Nalanda, in northern India, where
native and Chinese students studied Buddhism, functioned until the 13th century.
Institutions of higher education flourished in China itself from the 7th century
and in Korea from the 14th century. The Al Azhar University in Cairo, now more
than 1000 years old, is the central authority for Islam. Another Islamic
institution of equal antiquity is Al Qarawiyin University in Fez, Morocco. Medieval
Universities Western European universities
developed as students migrated to various places where noted teachers lectured
on subjects of particular interest to them. Language was no barrier because
lectures and disputation were conducted in the universal tongue, Latin. By the
12th century Paris was established as the center for theology and philosophy,
and the University of Paris became the model for later universities in northern
Europe. Bologna, Italy, was the center for the study of law, and the University
of Bologna set the pattern for Italian and Spanish universities. Beginning in
the 13th century, universities were established in France, England, Germany,
Bohemia, and Poland. Students migrating from the same country banded together
into so-called nations for mutual aid and protection. From these communities
developed the concept of the college (Latin collegium, “society”).
Medieval universities had the right to suspend studies when conditions in their
towns and cities were unfavorable and to confer degrees that included the
privilege of teaching in any Christian country. From the
Renaissance to the 18th Century Italian universities such as
Ferrara helped to transmit Renaissance humanistic ideas to northern European
institutions. Bologna was the great 17th-century center for medicine and
biology. The University of Leiden in Holland, established in 1575, attracted
students from all over the Continent to investigate the new sciences; later, as
an important 18th-century center for legal studies, Leiden attracted many
students from Scotland, among them, for example, the biographer and lawyer James
Boswell. The University of Salamanca, in Spain, founded about 1230, set the
pattern for the establishment of institutions in Central and South America in
the 16th and 17th centuries. The University of Wittenberg
was the scene of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation (1517), started by
Martin Luther, a professor there. His disciples went on to teach in all parts of
Germany, Scandinavia, and eastern Europe. The Calvinist Reformation in
Switzerland involved the University of Geneva, whose faculty and students helped
to spread the doctrines of the theologian John Calvin throughout Europe and
North America. New England Calvinists
founded Harvard College (later Harvard University), the oldest of American
universities. The Calvinist tradition also led to the establishment of Yale
College (later Yale University) and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton
University). Other colonial establishments included King's College (Columbia
University), Queen's College (now Rutgers, the State University), and Dartmouth
College. During the colonial period, however, many well-to-do American students
chose to study abroad, primarily at universities in Scotland, Holland, France,
and Italy. The first institution of
higher secular education in Russia was the Moscow State University, founded in
1755 by the scientist Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov; it developed, along with
other Russian secular universities, under German and other foreign influences.
The universities of Vilna and Dorpat, although founded earlier, were primarily
religious in orientation. The 19th
and 20th Centuries Outside the U.S. The post-Industrial
Revolution era, with the growth of the middle class, provided much of the
impetus for expanding European higher education. During the 19th century, German
universities became influential sources of scholarly research and examples of
academic freedom. The University of Berlin was noted for philosophy; Göttingen
for literature and mathematics; Heidelberg for mathematics and the classics;
Leipzig for psychology; and Jena for pedagogy. Many students from foreign
countries, including the U.S., obtained their doctor of philosophy degrees from
German universities. British institutions founded
during this period include the universities of London and Durham (the first new
English universities established after the Middle Ages), as well as the
universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Wales. Unlike the universities
of Oxford and Cambridge (founded in the 12th and 13th centuries, respectively),
which represented the Establishment, social prestige, and relatively
conservative views, these and other institutions familiarly referred to as “red
brick universities” attracted students and faculty with advanced social and
political ideas, as typified later by the post-World War II “angry young men”
writers who studied or taught in these schools. In Canada in the 19th century
McGill University and the universities of Toronto and Montréal were founded. Among new 19th-century
universities on the Continent were those in Berlin; Saint Petersburg; Athens;
Bucharest (Romania); and Sofiya (Bulgaria). In India, the universities of
Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, all established in 1857, were formed as examining
bodies along the lines of the University of London. Today the University of
Melbourne (1853) has the largest enrollment of Australia's institutions of
higher education—which include Sydney, Adelaide, and Queensland. The growth of universities in
China was retarded by civil unrest during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The
University of Beijing was founded in 1896; most of the other colleges and
technical institutes date from the 1920s or after World War II. Japanese
universities include Tokyo (1877) and Kyoto (1897). Throughout the 19th century
and up to the present, college and university students were generally in the
vanguard of radical and revolutionary thought. Russian universities grew in
number and influence in the 19th century, and until the Revolution of 1917 they
offered studies in the classics, science, Russian literature, and history. They
also were centers of radical and revolutionary political doctrines and
activities. The government periodically withdrew academic privileges and
imprisoned faculty members and students, but this control could not stem the
tide of revolutionary thought. Restrictive and repressive measures by
administration and government authorities, as in czarist Russia, and in Germany
during the 1920s and '30s, often led to student protests and riots and to school
closings. Similarly, reactions to political events as well as to underlying
issues of academic freedom caused widespread student demonstrations in the
United States and France during the late 1960s. In the post-World War II era,
particularly during the 1950s and '60s, many universities were established in
England and Germany, as well as in the developing nations of Asia and Africa. Colleges
and Universities in the U.S. Today As American colleges became
universities during the 19th century, law, medicine, and other professional
studies were added to their curricula or taught at special schools. The Morrill
Act, passed by Congress in 1862, supported education in agriculture and
engineering and helped the growth of state universities in the Middle and Far
West (see Land-Grant Colleges). The first college for women, Mount
Holyoke, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, was founded in 1837; others soon
followed, including Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Hunter, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and
Wellesley. Although church-affiliated
institutions continued to be created, many colleges and universities with
religious ties became secularized, such as Harvard and Yale; and state
universities and other nonsecular institutions were increasingly established. Two-Year
Colleges Starting in the early 20th
century, junior colleges, offering two years of academic work—often career
oriented—after secondary school, were founded throughout the country. Two-year
community colleges, a post-World War II development, serve students who may not
wish to pursue or who may not be ready to undertake a 4-year education. The
degree of associate in arts (A.A.) or associate in science (A.S.) is granted to
junior and community college graduates; some may then study further at 4-year
colleges or universities. Like many of these, community colleges often provide
extension courses to help students fulfill previously begun degree requirements
and adult education courses with or without academic credit. Organization
and Administration Colleges and universities in
the U.S. are generally headed by a president and a provost who may serve as
chief academic officer. Each school or college within a university is under the
direction of a dean. A chairperson or head supervises individual departments of
instruction. Faculty members are ranked, in descending order, as professor,
associate professor, assistant professor, and instructor. In many institutions,
some instructors are graduate students who conduct introductory undergraduate
courses or direct small groups that meet to discuss material covered by senior
faculty in larger formal lectures. Progression through the faculty ranks comes
from a combination of years spent teaching and academic performance (often as
evidenced by publication of scholarly books and papers). Faculty members can be
dismissed unless and until they have been granted tenure, a term denoting
academic job security. Like advancement, tenure is earned by time spent teaching
and evidence of scholarship. A board of trustees
administers a college or university. Generally composed of people drawn from
occupations other than education, such a board approves major administrative
appointments and decisions, but it does not ordinarily interfere in purely
academic affairs. (Alleged infractions of this policy may be referred to the
American Association of University Professors, an organization concerned with
protecting its members' academic freedom.)
Instruction is carried on
variously in classrooms or lecture halls, laboratories, libraries, and in the
field. Increasing use is being made of computers and other technology. The
national television networks have organized credit and noncredit courses
conducted by authorities in science, mathematics, and other fields who lecture
to large numbers of matriculated students and the wider public. In recent years a marked
trend has emerged toward interdepartmental or interdisciplinary instruction.
Interdepartmental or interdisciplinary programs combine two or more related
subjects of study into areas or cultural fields; American studies, black
studies, or women's studies are examples of such programs. Degrees Students who pass the regular
4-year program of courses receive a bachelor's degree in arts, science,
commerce, engineering, education, or any of several other fields. Bachelor's
degrees in law and theology are granted to those possessing a bachelor's degree
from a 4-year college. Graduates may continue their course of study for at least
one more year for a master's degree. A master's thesis or project may be
required for a degree. The university offers
doctor's degrees and special certificates. Students may continue working for at
least two years beyond the master's level toward the degree of doctor of
philosophy, doctor of science, or other type of doctorate. In graduate school
seminars give advanced students opportunities to do research work and then to
submit their findings for evaluation and criticism. The doctor's degree is
conferred on the basis of courses, seminars, a dissertation, and written and
oral examinations. The seminar was introduced in 1876 at Johns Hopkins
University on the model of the German university seminars. Student
Life In 1990 more than 13.7
million college and university students in the United States either resided in
on-campus dormitories, fraternity or sorority houses, off-campus apartments, or
commuted from their homes. Colleges and universities now routinely supply many
types of counseling and advisory services, dealing with health and academic
problems, adjustment to campus life, and preparation for or choice of vocation.
Recreational activities, apart from student organizations, special-interest
clubs, and social groups, often include well-organized intramural and varsity
sports; on the varsity level many institutions belong to athletic conferences
such as the eastern Ivy League, the midwestern Big Ten, and the far western
Pacific 10, also known as the Pac 10. With tuition rates increasing
at all institutions throughout the U.S., more and more students today are
dependent on financial aid in the form of tuition loans and grants, bursaries
(contributions toward expenses in exchange for work done for the school),
scholarships, and fellowships. In addition, most students work part time during
the academic year or throughout vacation periods to supplement other financial
sources. Current
Issues and Problems Many critics, both in and out
of higher education, have registered concerns on a variety of issues: the
courses a student should be required to take, both in preparing for a career and
in becoming an educated person; the best ways to teach the ever-expanding body
of new knowledge so as to remain competitive with other nations whose students
are excelling in areas such as science and mathematics; the prevalence of
superficial courses leading to degrees; and what some feel to be an overemphasis
on competitive sports (including the practice of awarding substantial
scholarships and other recruiting inducements to promising athletes). Objections
also have been made to the open enrollment policy at some city and state
universities, which allows any secondary school graduate to be admitted without
regard to academic record. On the other hand, there is much concern as to how to
increase the number of, and to retain, qualified minority students within an
educational system widely perceived to contain many kinds of inequities and
obstacles. To ensure these numbers, many institutions of higher education are
working with primary and secondary schools to improve the quality of preparation
of students at every level, seeking funding for increased scholarship
opportunities for ethnic minorities, and working with minority students to make
the college and university atmosphere more hospitable to them. In addition to
the issues above, major problems facing todays colleges and universities include
coping with rising operational expenses and with rising tuition rates in order
to keep college study possible for those of limited or even average means;
obtaining private financial support at a time when government support is
diminishing; finding new talent to replace an aging professoriat; and
maintaining and improving physical plants, especially scientific laboratories.
In a different area, many women's and men's colleges have become coeducational
or merged their facilities since World War II, a trend that continues but is
questioned by those concerned particularly about the potential loss of academic
identity and autonomy, especially in the case of the women's colleges. By: Steven D. Price "Colleges
and Universities," Microsoft® Encarta® 96 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1995
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. ©Funk & Wagnalls Corporation.
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