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Universities (AMERICAN tunities for study)

AMERICAN tunities for study in the broadest fields.

They have thousands of students, mense resources, provided either by taxation or endowment, many buildings and extensive grounds. Even the college course in such an institution represents the extreme movement for widening the curriculum. Admission is on liberal terms, and the widest possible choice of subjects is afterward allowed. In the same spirit professional schools are a part of the university and share its care and its fortunes. The tendency in recent years has been to bring schools of medicine and law into close affiliation with great universities. This result has come about in part from increased requirements in these schools. Universities have likewise developed schools of applied science or technology parallel with the college course or supplementary thereto. Year by year vocational work is elevated and elaborated into degree courses. Thus we find not only new courses in engineering, but also in architecture, industrial art, forestry, commerce, journalism etc.

In connection with this expansion of the curriculum might be mentioned the strong tendency of American universities to extend their facilities to the larger public outside their walls. (See article on University Extension.)

Types of American Universities. The name "university" was originally preferred college institutions founded directly by the States, and today the State universities form the most distinctive type of higher educational institutions. The territory of the Middle West afforded the best field for this development. Some of the strongest of these institutions owe their origin or their rapid growth to the Morrill Act passed by Congress in 1862 for the promotion of agriculture and the mechanical arts. These great State universities of the Middle West and California answer in every way the tests laid down above.

They are liberally supported by the States, a number of them having an annual appropriation of more than one million dollars for expenses. They have a large and rapidly growing student body and are doing an increasing proare doing an increasing ng proportion of the educational work of the country. While they do not at present surpass several of the strongest universities on private foundation in number of higher degrees given, they show unusual eminence in public service, in contributions to the material welfare of the States, in the utilization of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge , for the improvement of social and economic conditions. These words of praise do not apply to all State universities. Many