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University College (OXFORD the oldest)

OXFORD, the oldest in the university, founded about 1249, though the exact date of its foundation is doubtful. Its first statutes date from 1280.

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. The term "university extension" was originally applied to a movement designed to extend university instruction beyond campus limits, or as was sometimes said to "carry the university to the people."

It made the college campus co-extensive with the State and enlarged the student body by the admission of thousands seeking the benefits of special training or general culture. The movement has been fostered from both sides. It is a part of the impulse toward universal education.

It suggests also a new interpretation of university service, rendered not to the privileged few but to a larger group.

The work of the university extension has with passing years been greatly expanded. The university is not only a seat of learning, but a great laboratory or research bureau. With this comes the call to apply this new knowledge to life, to make the hidden treasures of learning immediately available as the current coin of world exchange.

There has also been a growth in the various agencies that do this work. So true is this that the term university extension is giving place to educational extension or some similar phrase denoting its wider content.

The system of extension lectures was developed by English universities from 1867 on through the influence of Prof.

James Stuart of Cambridge. In 1872-1873 Cambridge University instituted extension work in many towns of England. In 1876 was founded the London Society for Extension of University Teaching. In 1885 the University of Oxford put into operation its Delegacy for Extension of Teaching Beyond the Limits of the University. An address before the American UNIVERSITY EXTENSION Library Association in 1887 resulted in beginning similar work in Buffalo, Chicago and St. Louis under the auspices of the city library. Previous to this the Chautauqua movement was spreading and instruction was offered through summer schools, reading circles, or correspondence study. In 1890 the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching was organized in Philadelphia.

In 1891 New York made the first State appropriation ($10,000) for extension work. In 1892 the University of Chicago took up extension work as a serious task. Columbia University had already made some beginnings, and that same year (1892) extension work was begun by the University of Wisconsin. These three institutions have continued to lead in developing all phases of extension work. In 1915 the National University Extension Association was organized. In 1918 a Federal Division of Extension Service was established as an emergency measure by order of the President and was maintained for six months. Following this, in 1919, the extension divisions of the State universities effected the incorporation of the National University Extension Association, which has offices in Washington and mediates between the Bureau of Education and the State divisions of extension work. This association maintains an executive secretary and is active in preparing bulletins on all phases of extension work.

Methods of Work. 1. Classes.-Extension classes are only slight deviations from regular curriculum work. In subject matter and method they sometimes duplicate college courses. Sometimes they are arranged for special needs. Short courses are provided for busy men and women. These classes may be held at or near the university, or in distant centers. 2. Lectures. These may be technical or popular, formal or informal. They sometimes supplement private study or group study. It was from this point that extension work had its early beginnings.

3. Club Study. In this way groups of workers get together at intervals for conference and discussion. Their work is ordered by printed leaflets, instruction guides and bibliographies. 4. Correspondence Study. This is extension work brought to the individual. Questions are prepared on assigned topics, answers are written and papers sent in are corrected and graded. This method of work is especially suitable for credit courses. 5. Public Service. - This is rendered through public discussion. It differs from lectures. It establishes forums, community institutions and the like. Its UNIVERSITY EXTENSION work is to arouse and inform public opinion.

6. Package Libraries. These are made up of selected books and pamphlets, changed as needful, and sent on request to libraries, clubs, schools, and individuals. Some institutions treat as many as 1,000 subjects in this manner .

7. Visual Instruction. This is carried out through pictures, lantern slides, or films furnished for motion picture machines. Sometimes exhibits of actual material or machines are lent to schools or clubs for inspection and study.

Besides the above there are still other methods of work which have independent features or combine those already mentioned. Such are bureaus or divisions for Municipal Information, Business Service, General Information, Lyceum Service, Community Entertainment , etc.

Extension work of one kind or another is now offered by 127 educational institutions. This takes no account of private commercial schools operated for profit, of various clubs, societies, and other organizations that are doing extension work of many kinds. Some of the educational institutions above referred to offer only one form of work, as extension classes, or correspondence study; others offer every possible form .

The great State universities have taken the lead, but the work done by a few private foundations, as Columbia University and the University of Chicago , is equally notable.

Accurate figures are of course not available but, according to figures of Dr.

Schlicher, published by the National University Extension Association in 1919, in 1919 , it is estimated that university extension is reaching about 120,000 students through classes or correspondence study; 2,026,000 through semi-popular lectures; 5,553,000 through pictures; 308,000 through institutes and conferences; 936,000 through outlines and pamphlets used in debates and discussions; 1,265 , - 000 through bulletins and circulars .

Dr. W. S. Bittner in a bulletin published by the U. S. Bureau of Education, (1919 No. 84) calls attention to the fact that during the World War much of the machinery and devices used to mold public opinion, to teach soldiers and sailors or industrial workers, was taken from the university extension movement.

Extension lecture bureaus were called into immediate service to spread war propaganda. Similar service was rendered in support of Liberty Loans, Red Cross Drives, and other war interests.

Universities used without stint available resources for what might be called extension courses in practical subjects, as automobile mechanics. food conservation, UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENTS nursing, war aims, etc. The same plan of work was put into operation in training camps, and for this men were taken freely from colleges and universities.

The rapid spread of extension work within the recent past shows that this is too wide a field to be adequately cultivated by private initiative. It belongs to the State and special machinery should be set up by legislative action. Unified management and a common program should be agreed on. Only in this way can extension work be provided sufficient to meet the demands of a new age and a rapidly increasing population.

UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENTS, houses in the poor districts of cities where educated men and women live and come in contact with the working classes for social, educational, and civic purposes. These settlements provide clubs, and offer a home and recreation for wage-earners.

The idea of the university settlement grew out of the London establishment of the Working Men's College in 1860. An Oxford graduate, Edward Denison, in 1867, was the first to make a real home among the poor. He lived but a short time, leaving his work when it was still an experiment; but out of his idea of the social elevation of the poor grew a great work-resulting in the establishment of TOYNBEE HALL (q. v.), so called after Arnold Toynbee, who in 1875 worked among the poor of Whitechapel . memorial was built to him, due to the influence of Samuel A. Barnett.

Various settlements were started in London and in several cities in Scotland.

A The first settlement in the United States was founded in New York City, Sept. 1, 1889, by the graduates of several women's colleges. It was located in one of the most crowded tenement districts of the East Side. In the same month a settlement called Hull House was opened in Chicago. On May 14, 1891, another settlement was organized in New York by the graduates of Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and other universities. In October of the same year the graduates of Andover Theological Seminary and other ex-collegians began a similar work in the tenement district of Boston . There are settlements, besides those mentioned, in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Jersey City , Hartford, Philadelphia, Cleveland , Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Francisco , and many other cities; numbering altogether nearly 100. In 1891 the College Settlements Association was formed, with the purpose of uniting all college women and their friends, who were interested in settlement work. Hull House, in Chicago, under the leadership of Jane Addams, UNTERMEYER UPAS TREE is one of the most widely known of Uni- ternational High Commission, a member versity Settlements.