Standards (1890-1920)
Diversifying the Higher Curriculum
In the late nineteenth century, colleges and universities could no longer prescribe a curriculum. By 1890, institutions curtailed curricular requirements. By 1915, fewer than 15 major colleges and universities required Latin as a course for the bachelor's degree. By 1930, most colleges dropped Latin from their course requirements.
Generally, private institutions held onto the classics as requirements longer than did the state universities and the land-grant institutions. By 1905, all the state universities in the Midwest and West had long dropped Greek as a required course and most were eliminating Latin as a course requirement. Institutions that held onto the classics longest, such as Princeton and Amherst, had a lower percentage of public school graduates enrolled.
Trends helped to diversify the higher education curriculum.
Certain trends helped to diversify the higher education curriculum, especially if institutions wanted to remain competitive.
The Elective System
In 1869, Charles Eliot promoted the elective system at Harvard University. The elective system allowed college students to determine their course of study rather than prescribing the classical course of study as a requirement. Beyond providing the collegian with curricular freedom, the elective system encouraged the development and growth of the sciences and other new disciplines as legitimate departments of study in universities. This diversification beyond the classical curriculum catered to student interests and motivation and increased the size and scope of higher education in American life.Land-grant colleges
The passage of the Morrill Federal Land Grant Act in 1862 provided for the support in every state of at least one college at which the agricultural and mechanical arts would be taught. The sale of public lands provided the funding for these colleges and universities. Implicit in the idea of the land grant colleges was that a collegiate education should be available to everyone and that such an education would be practical and vocational in nature. Land-grant colleges' agricultural and mechanical disciplines became popular after the Civil War as agricultural knowledge improved, as farmers became less skeptical of the institutions, and as government funding increased.The Research University
The idea of the research university began to emerge after the Civil War. The research university devoted itself to scientific inquiry and the advancement of knowledge. The American research university was modeled on the German scientific institutions where many American doctorates studied. Research universities were faculty-centered and emphasized research and graduate level instruction. The first research university was The Johns Hopkins University, established in 1876.Specialization
After the Civil War, America became an increasingly specialized society. Institutions of higher education reflected this emphasis on science, specialization, and professionalism. Institutions developed professional schools for medicine, law, and education. There was a growing trend toward vocational aspirations in the new students and in the modern order of society. Scholarly specialization encouraged the development of disciplines and graduate education in subject areas. The establishment of new programs of study and departments devoted to a specialized field was one way to legitimize new knowledge.
