SUPLEMENTARY DATA ON HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USA

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 401.

Universities and colleges are schools that continue a person's education beyond high school. A university or college education helps men and women enjoy richer, more meaningful lives. It prepares many people for professional careers as doctors, engineers, lawyers, or teachers. It also gives a person a better appreciation of such fields as art, literature, history, human relations, and science. In doing so, a university or college education enables individuals to participate with greater understanding in community affairs.

Modern universities developed from the European universities of the Middle Ages. These institutions took their name from the Latin word universitas. This word referred to a group of people organized for a common purpose. Properly speaking, a school that is called a university should deal with nearly all fields of learning. But universities today may differ in the variety of their educational programs, and in their specialized fields of study. Most universities provide a wide range of graduate programs and have a number of undergraduate schools. They may also have graduate professional schools or colleges. But few universities teach as many branches of learning as the word university implies.

The first European colleges were merely groups of students who banded together through common interests. In English universities, colleges were formed to provide living quarters and a dining room for various groups of students. Usually these students took similar studies, and so the word college came to refer to a specific field of learning.

Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, was established chiefly to prepare men for the ministry. Today, we would call such a school a seminary or theological school (see SEMINARY). Later, schools broadened their courses to teach the liberal arts (see LIBERAL ARTS). These became known as colleges of liberal arts. The first U.S. universities divided their courses into various fields of learning, and called the departments that taught each branch colleges or schools. Thus, the word college has come to have two meanings in the United States. It may refer to a part of a university that teaches a special branch of knowledge, or it may designate a separate institution that specializes in a single branch of knowledge.

The type of learning available at individual colleges can often be determined from their names. Liberal-arts colleges usually call themselves simply colleges. Other schools may be identified by such names as teachers colleges, agricultural colleges, or dentalcolleges. Modern universities have many kinds of colleges or schools, from liberal arts to law, medicine, theology, dentistry, and fine arts. Junior colleges--also called community colleges--mainly offer two-year programs. Some of these programs prepare a person for a semiprofessional career or occupation. After completing a junior college program, some students transfer to a "senior" college or to a university for additional study. See COMMUNITY COLLEGE.