History of Higher Education Timeline

Please see below for corresponding footnotes and references.

Footnotes

I. Harvard College was founded and structured on the basis of education exhibited from the University of Cambridge in England this also included implementation of the class rankings of Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior. As a result, throughout the course of Higher Education history, subsequent universities that begin to form will strongly replicate the outline of Harvard’s curriculum and charter.

     II. Harvard was the first to confer nine Bachelor of Arts degrees.  This action was viewed as daring as England, Oxford, and Cambridge were the only entities up until then that granted university degrees.

    III. In addition to conferring degrees in 1642, in 1643 Harvard is credited as facilitating the first colonial college commencement in which graduates would make a presentation of information obtained over 4 years to various scholars and upon confirming that they had acquired the necessary information would have their first degrees granted upon them.

    IV. Durham college was founded in England by Oliver Cromwell in 1657 and two years afterwards Parliament granted the college power to grant degrees similar to the original colonial nine.

 

      Colonial Nine:

•  Harvard College (1636);
• College of William & Mary in Virginia (1693);
• Yale College (1701);
• College of New Jersey (1746);
• Philadelphia Academy (1751);
• King’s College (1754);
• Rhode Island College (1764);
• Queen’s College (1766); and
• Dartmouth College (1769)

     V. The College of William and Mary in Virginia was founded (later College of William and Mary); this college was strongly motivated by Scottish University influence and Scotch Theologian John Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey.

    VI.  Yale College was founded with a charter similar to Harvard College in which it was affirmed to be a place “wherein youth may be instructed in the arts and sciences… and may be fitted for public employment both in church and civil state”.

     VII. Inspired by his own writings entitled “A General Idea of the College of Mirania”, William Smith actualized a “scheme of liberal education” that would serve to accommodate students of various backgrounds with a strong emphasis on training for government office.


    VIII. The Quarterly Register of the American Education Society assessed 22 institutions from Maine to Tennessee to compare academic quality being received amongst students.

  

     IX.   Richard Humphreys established the ‘Philadelphia Institute for College Youth” as a High school and after it began granting colleges degrees in 1930’s changed its name to Cheyney University; it was then officially recognized as the nation’s first Historically Black College and University (HBCU).
  
     X. The women that had degrees conferred on them from the school were the first to receive a B.A degree that mandated curriculum requisites similar to male obtainers of the same degree.

      XI. The original Morrill act was introduced by Justin Morrill  in 1857 to set aside federal funding for Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges also known as Land-Grant Colleges it was not officially approved until 1862.       

     XII. Led by William Barton Rogers, M.I.T served to provide substantial courses in scientific and laboratory investigation and instruction for prospective scientists and engineers. This school was quickly regarded as a highly respected technical institute.

     XIII. Wellesley College opens its first scientific laboratories that are accessible to women.
    

     XIV. The National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) was established to aid land-grant colleges and to bolster strong joint ventures among public universities and the federal government , states, and local governments.

     XV. The Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) tried to stabilize student loan funding so that guarantors would continue to contribute to the Federal Family Educational Loan Program (FFELP).

    XVI. The American Recovery and Reinvestment act (ARRA) was developed to generate jobs and re-establish economic development though education and investment. This act was signed into law by President Obama in February of 2009.

   XVII.  The Race to the Top initiative grants competitive scholarships to states that are creating environments for education advancement and improvement, employing plans in the four education improvement areas expressed in ARRA, and attaining considerable development in student results.

References

Brubacher & Rudy (2008). Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities. Beginnings (Chapter 1, pp. 3-12). New Brunswick (U.S.A) and London (U.K). Transaction Publishers.

Brubacher & Rudy (2008). Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities. Beginnings (Chapter 1, pp. 16-22). New Brunswick (U.S.A) and London (U.K). Transaction Publishers.

Brubacher & Rudy (2008). Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities. Early Patterns of Organization and Management (Chapter 2, pp. 31-34). New Brunswick (U.S.A) and London (U.K). Transaction Publishers.

Brubacher & Rudy (2008). Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities. Multiplication and Variation of Colleges (Chapter 4, pp. 60-68). New Brunswick (U.S.A) and London (U.K). Transaction Publishers.

Lynch, James. (2010, September). Week 1: History and Significance of Higher Education in the United States. Lecture presented to the EDHE 500 Class, Foundations in Higher Education.

Lynch, James. (2010, September). Week 2: Higher Education Today and Professional Opportunities. Lecture presented to the EDHE 500 Class, Foundations in Higher Education.

Lynch, James. (2010, October). Week 3: Financial Management and Financial Aid. Lecture presented to the EDHE 500 Class, Foundations in Higher Education.

Oldham, David. (2010, September). Week 2: Role of the Federal Government in Higher Education. Lecture presented to the EDHE 510 Class, Governance, Management, & Administration in Higher Education.