3. Higher Education

During the 20th century participation in higher or postsecondary education in the United States increased as dramatically as it did in American high schools. At the beginning of the century about 2 percent of Americans from the ages of 18 to 24 were enrolled in a college. There were fewer than 1 000 colleges then, with enrollment totaling about 157 000 students. Near the end of the century more than 60 percent of this age group, or over 14 million students,were enrolled in about 3 500 four-year and two-year colleges. This tremendous increase did not even include the 6 500 postsecondary vocational and technical institutes that enrolled millions of additional students but did not give bachelor’s or associate degrees.

Religious convictions motivated the founding of the earliest American colleges, such as Harvard （1636）, College of William and Mary （1693）, and Yale （1701）. In the 19th century rivalry among Protestant denominations, and competition among towns seeking a commercial edge over their rivals, were responsible for the creation of hundreds of colleges. Almost all were privately supported, and many failed to survive. Nevertheless, 573 colleges existed in the United States in 1870, a testament to civic and religious support and to the faith of Americans in the power of schooling.

Unlike in elementary and secondary education, where public support and control of schools soon became the norm, public institutions never dominated college and university education. Unlike the religious controversy surrounding elementary and secondary schools, the religious origins of many private colleges were never seen as a threat to mainstream values. Government officials also believed colleges served broad public purposes, such as the training of physicians or engineers. The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890²provided federal financial support to state universities. The acts also led to the establishment of many new land-grant colleges and state universities through gifts of federal land to the states for the support of higher education.

By the end of the 19th century scientific and scholarly research flourished at both private and public universities. Commercial and practical uses of knowledge, especially in agriculture and engineering, created powerful incentives for states to increase financial support for their public universities. In addition, the numbers of students attending college increased dramatically after World War II ended in 1945, which further pressed states and municipalities to expand opportunities for publicly funded postsecondary education. Federal financial aid for students provided by the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—also known as the GI Bill—stimulated this surge in college enrollment following the war.