Higher Education

Roma B. Angel

Claiming foundational roots in the traditions of intellectual, advanced, and higher education of Ancient Greece, Rome, Middle East and Western Europe, higher education in the United States has a history focused upon issues of purpose and access. During each major developmental era in the history of American higher education, institutions have faced questions about purpose and also about access. Issues involving purpose generally focus on whether higher education serves society or critiques it and on whether it prepares students for graduate professional education and careers, for applied vocations, or for personal edification. Questions of access have centered upon admission requirements and upon cultural analyses of those allowed or chosen to enter institutions. In most recent history, issues of access have become as important as those of purpose, contributing in major ways to the modification of purpose. Primary factors in historical analyses of purpose and access have been the roles of ...

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