Institutions of higher education provide opportunities for individuals to pursue training beyond the high school level, particularly for those seeking vocational, technical, or professional careers. In the United States, institutions of higher learning include community colleges, liberal arts colleges, state and private universities, and professional schools such as medical, dental, and law schools, as well as other specialized institutions.
Community colleges and technical schools typically offer a two-year program of course work, after which a student is awarded an associate’s degree or transfers to a four-year college or university. These programs are desirable because the tuition rates are lower than in a four-year institution and because they make classes available to nontraditional students seeking to further their education while remaining in the workforce. Colleges and universities offer four-year courses of study leading to a bachelor’s degree. In addition, universities offer graduate and/or professional studies leading to the master’s and doctoral degrees. Many state-supported schools also include branch campuses located throughout the state.
The U. S. Department of Education statistics show that the number of degree-granting institutions, defined as those granting an associate’s or higher degree, increased steadily between 1968 and 2004, as did college enrollment and the number of degrees conferred. In 2004-05, there were 4,216 institutions offering degrees, up from 2,525 in 1969-70. The total number of students enrolled in degree-granting institutions more than doubled during the same time frame, from just more than 8 million to 17.5 million in 2005. The number of degrees earned at every level showed the same upward trend. From 1969-70 to 2004-05, the number of associate’s degrees rose from just more than 200,000 to almost 700,000. Recipients of bachelor’s degrees almost doubled, from 792,000 to 1.44 million, while the number of master’s degrees more than doubled, from 208,000 to 575,000. Professional degrees awarded in medicine, dentistry, and law rose from about 35,000 to 87, 000, and doctoral degrees, such as Ph. D. and Ed. D. degrees, increased from 30,000 to almost 53,000. In 2005, full - and part-time faculty in degree-granting institutions numbered 1.29 million, with men outnumbering women,
714.000 to 576,000.
The number of women enrolled in post-secondary institutions accounted for much of the overall increase in enrollment. Between 1969-70 and 2004-05, the number of women attending colleges and universities tripled, while male enrollment rose by just 56 percent. In 1979 women enrollees exceeded the number of male students for the first time, and by 2005 females outnumbered males, 10 million to 7.5 million. In 2004 women also accounted for almost 60 percent of the graduate student population. Men earned
613.000 of the 1.44 million bachelor’s degrees in 2004-05, while women accounted for 826,000. Representation among women earning professional and doctoral degrees increased dramatically between 1969 and 2005. Of the approximately
35.000 professional degrees earned in 1969-70, less than
2.000 went to women; by 2004-05 the professional degrees were shared almost evenly between men and women. Similarly, women earned fewer than 4,000 of the almost 30,000 doctoral degrees in 1969-70, but by 2004-05 they had earned almost half of the nearly 53,000.
Statistics on degrees conferred show that business became the most popular field of study at the bachelor’s level, while education outpaced every other field at the master’s and doctoral level. Engineering, biological sciences, and other health sciences remained strong favorites at the doctoral level. The majority of associate’s degrees were awarded in liberal arts and sciences, with health sciences and business also strongly favored.
Two policy decisions in 1972 directly affected higher education in the United States, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which extended Title VII protections against discrimination to include educational institutions, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Although written to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex for any federally funded educational activity, Title IX was applied most commonly to sports programs. As a result, the availability of athletic programs for women increased, while some non-revenue-generating sports for men were trimmed or opened to women’s participation.
To comply with Title VII protections, colleges and universities used AFFIRMATIVE ACTION in their admissions procedures. Affirmative action, designed to increase opportunities for minority students to attend post-secondary institutions, did increase both the enrollment and the number of degrees earned by students of various ethnic minorities. While the proportion of whites enrolled in degree-granting institutions declined from 82 percent in the mid-1970s to 66 percent in 2005, the proportion of minorities rose from 15 to 31 percent. Nonetheless, the use of affirmative action was controversial and led to charges of reverse discrimination. Lawsuits stemming from affirmative action in admissions procedures continue to the present.
A growing number of Americans benefit from higher education. Census bureau statistics show that of the nearly 2.7 million high school graduates in 2005, more than 1.8 million enrolled in colleges or universities. Of the 841,000 who did not enroll in college, 34,000 attended vocational schools. In 2006, 85.5 percent of persons aged 25 years and older had completed high school or a high school equivalency, and 28 percent had earned a bachelor’s or higher degree. Those figures represent a significant increase from 1970, when 55.2 percent had completed four years of high school and 11 percent had earned a bachelor’s or higher degree. The growth in higher education over the past four decades is projected to continue through 2014.
See also EDUCATION, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY; Gratz V. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger.
Further reading: Jeffrey A. Cantor, Higher Education Outside of the Academy (San Francisco: Wiley, 2000); Barry M. Franklin, From “Backwardness” to “At Risk”: Childhood Learning Difficulties and the Contradictions of Reform. (Albany: State University New York Press, 1994); Hugh Graham, The Uncertain Triumph, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984); Diane Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945-1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983); U. S. Department of Education. Available online. URL: Http://www. ed. gov/index. jhtml. Accessed December 30, 2008.
World History
