Purpose Of Higher Education
Higher education has become a staple of American society. With over 20 million students attending over 4,500 degree granting institutions, the role that higher education has played on larger society is paramount (Thelin, 2017). However, despite the popularity of higher education institutions, the exact purpose of higher education has changed from century to century and may serve different purposes depending on who is asked. Higher education today is arguably both a public and private good. While state and federal governments have invested in a variety of higher education initiatives, as well as assisted thousands of students with attending college through loans and scholarships in hopes that students use their acquired skills and ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Although it seems as if the founding of Harvard and other colleges during the Colonial Era were beneficial to the larger society, it seems as if these colleges contributed to higher education in the United States manifesting as a private good. Despite the number of opportunities Harvard and other colonial colleges had on American society, these institutions further divided the elite from the rest of society, since all students came from wealthy families. In fact, soon after the founding of Harvard and other colonial colleges, being educated was tantamount to being elite (Marine, 2017). Furthermore, acceptance into these institutions was limited to White men, who were required to have prior knowledge of both Latin and Greek (Bastedo et al, 2016). With early United States higher education serving such a limited clientele, going to college was clearly not on the minds of most Americans. However, through the signing of the Morrill Land–Grant Colleges Act by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, college could become a reality for more Americans (Loss 2012; Widmer, 2015). This act, proposed by Vermont native Justin Morrill, allowed the federal government to take charge in developing public colleges and universities throughout the United States (Loss, 2012) that focus on agriculture, technology
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