US Education Blog

The number of people involved in higher or postsecondary education increased in the 20th. Te facts say that in early 1920-th only about 2 % of the population aged from 18 to 24 entered a college. At that time there were fewer than 1,000 colleges that took about 157,000 students. Closer to the end of the century already about 60 % of this age group, were enrolled, and a number of higher educational institutions increased up to 3,500. This dramatic change influenced 6,500 postsecondary vocational and technical institutes, but the problem was that they were те accredited to give bachelor’s or associate degrees.

The period form 1636 to 1701c played an important role in the development of the educational system in the US: at that time Harvard, College of William and Mary, and Yale were established. Competition among Protestant organizations caused establishment of hundreds of colleges during the 19th century, though because of many а them being privately supported, a lot of them did not survive. Though even with these problems, in 1870 573 colleges still functioned, providing education and making Americans believe in happy future through education.

Public institutions never took over higher education, because elementary and secondary institutions were always supported and controlled. In contrast to the religious education, state schools never betrayed the main perspectives of the American society. State powers also believed that colleges trained the most wanted specialists as physicians or engineers. In 1862 and 1890 The Morrill Acts gave state monetary support to state colleges. As a consequence, many new land-grant colleges and state colleges were founded, due to the gifts of federal land to the development of higher education.

At the end of the 19th century research was the area on which most of the private and public universities concentrated. Putting the knowledge on practical use raised the amounts of financial aid for public institutions. Moreover, the enrollment of students after World War II raised1945 dramatically. After the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act in 1944 state supported education specially, providing with all the necessary facilities, which automatically meant increase in the number of students.