The Expansion of Higher Education
Expansion of Higher Education in America
The expansion of higher education is one of the most significant advancements of the twentieth century. Michael Bastedo, Phillip Altbach, and Patricia Gumport within their book American Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges even argue that it is THE single most important trend worldwide.[1] To decipher this bold claim, one must look at both the interwar and postwar periods and showcase the trends in academia that contributed to this important advancement.
Higher education enrollment grew slowly during the late nineteenth century, but skyrocketed between the World Wars. Enrollment increased from 250,000 to 1.3 million between the wars and even saw 15% of 18-20 year old Americans in attendance.[2] Universities saw incredible expansion to their physical facilities and institutional missions. Athletics began to play an enormous part in the popularity of institutions, leading to the construction of colossal stadiums filled with thousands of community members (many of which had no other tie to the institution). This was truly a unique era of expansion for higher education.
The interwar period played a pivotal part in shaping American higher education, yet the years immediately following World War II were the most prosperous in the history of academia. Universities expanded by providing access to more individuals than ever before and saw an increase toward “advanced, academically selective programs, from the undergraduate level on up through the professional schools and doctoral programs.”[3] The greatest area of expansion, however, came with the GI Bill in 1944. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, or GI Bill, provided access for over two million WWII veterans by 1950 (16% of all eligible veterans).[4] The program showcased a clear desire for more college opportunities and sparked programs that increased access outside of the military realm. The federal government now played a key part toward the expansion of higher education opportunities for millions of individuals, a trend that continues through the present day.
![GI Bill [5]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/805d47_5d692e0c0a63422397c0e03c6606ac73~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_640,h_512,al_c,q_80,enc_auto/805d47_5d692e0c0a63422397c0e03c6606ac73~mv2.jpg)
GI Bill [5]
Just as the GI Bill expanded opportunities for military veterans, the Higher Education Act of 1965 expanded opportunities for low-income students. The act provided funding for the expansion of libraries, quality teaching, undergraduate instruction, and more; yet, its most important provisions included the development of scholarship programs and low-interest loans for students.[6] The investment from the federal government toward the success of higher education during this era helped secure the American University system as the world leader over the coming generation and helped to extend college access to more students than anywhere else in the world.[7]To showcase how significant this era truly was, Richard Vedder points out that, “In 1900, barely 2 percent of the prime college-age population attended college—by 1990, for the first time, a majority did.”[8] Publicly funded education would be seen as one of the cornerstones of the American dream from the postwar period until a societal shift occurred in the late twentieth century.
Next Week's Post: A Societal Shift in the Perception of Higher Education
Sources:
[1] Bastedo, Michael, Phillip Altbach, and Patricia Gumport. American Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), 21.
[2] Thelin. History of American Higher Education, 205.
[3] Ibid., 260.
[4] Bastedo, Altbach, Gumport. Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century, 162.
[5] http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/567029?imagelist=1
[6] Ibid., 162.
[7] Ibid., 161.
[8] Vedder, Richard K. Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much. (Washington, D.C., AEI Press, 2004), 93.
About the Author:
Lukas Wenrick spends his days working to develop innovative solutions to the most complex issues universities face. He does so to ensure that the most marginalized students may pursue an alternative trajectory than the one laid out by their zip code. He believes that universities and other educational enterprises have the duty to expand educational opportunity to as many individuals as possible and that excellence should be judged by the students that an institution includes, rather than those that it excludes.
Lukas holds a Master's of Education in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science Education from Wright State University. His experiences at both an open access public university and an elite private institution inform the work he does every day. Currently, Lukas serves as a University Innovation Fellow at Arizona State University where he works to leverage the ASU enterprise to resolve educational and social inequities in the world.
If you'd like to know more about Lukas you can find him on the following sites:
Comments