Experts cannot agree on just when the first University came into being, perhaps in China or the Middle East. But in Europe the University of Bologna was probably the first, being founded in 1088, about the time William the Conqueror was vanquishing the English. Advanced studies in mathematics and philosophy in the western, of course, trace back to Plato and Artistotle.
The first European learning enterprises (hardly a university) consisted of small grous of teachers and students, the teachers being peripatetic – scholarly nomads – followed about by disciples. Degrees were not awarded in the earliest times, it was all rather informal.
Oxford and Cambridge were founded in the early 13th Century, subsequent to the University of Paris. In the American colonies, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA and Harvard College in Cambridge, MA came into being in the first half of the 17th Century. Yale, Princeton, Kings College (later Columbia), Queens (later Rutgers) and others followed in the 18th, and a plethora of colleges were founded following the Civil War with the passage by Congress of the Morrill Acts. This pivotal legislation made possible the establishment of the so-called Land Grant colleges, which were to teach Agricultural and Military arts and Mechanical studies, but not to the exclusion of the Liberal Arts. The general understanding, and it was commendable, was to provide a “practical” education for young people.
Seventy or so years ago, only about 7% of the nation’s students went to college. Following World War II, the GI Bill made it possible for millions to get a degree. Tuition was paid by the Government and a living-allowance provided. The Bill was passed because politicians and others feared that the demobilization of millions of men would cripple the economy. Keep them out of the labor market; sent them to school. It worked.
But is the comtemporary American university primarily ascholastic institution – or has it become something else? The academic year, to all appearances, is divided into sports seasons, particularly football and basketball. “Scholarships” (and sometimes under-the-counter inducements) are awarded to non-scholars – often semi-literates whose attentions are focussed, not on acquainting themselves with our rich learned heritage, but on what is to transpire next Saturday afternoon.
In a world-ranking of nations, Finland, Japan and South Korea are ranked at the top, with the United States in the middle of the pack of 31 nations. That doesn’t bode well for the future. It is not that Americans are stupid; we just don’t put what goes on in the Lecture Hall ahead of what happens in the Stadium or Gymnasium. As has been pointed out in another context, “We are Amusing Ourselves to Death.”
