A Very Brief History of Higher Education in the US
The earliest colleges in North America started as religious institutions, for example Harvard and Kings College, which later became Columbia University. Later came universities based on the German model, with a hierarchy of professors and departments. Examples are Johns Hopkins, Rockefeller University, and the University of Chicago. Their focus was research. John D. Rockefeller Sr. was a major patron of this model. The students of those universities were mainly upcoming scientists and scholars. They were also involved in the certification of doctors. One of Rockefeller's ideas was to eliminate contagious diseases. There was no talk of shared governance in those days. There was no thought of anyone other than the professors (and of course the patrons) having positions of authority. The large and numerous higher education institutions we have today emerged after WWII, and there was a new demand for educated individuals to fill middle class jobs. A profe...