University College (OXFORD the oldest)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

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 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 work is to arouse and inform public opinion. 6. Package Libraries. These are made up of selected books and pamphlets, request changed as needful, and sent on to libraries, clubs, schools, and individmany uals. Some institutions treat as . as 1,000 subjects in this manner 7. Visual Instruction. This is carried out through pictures, lantern slides, or mafilms furnished for motion picture chines. Sometimes exhibits of actual schools material or machines are lent to or clubs for inspection and study. Besides the above there are still other have independent methods of work which menfeatures or combine those already divisions tioned. Such are bureaus or for Municipal Information, Business Service, General Information, Lyceum , etc. Service, Community Entertainment or another Extension work of one kind is now offered by 127 educational inaccount of stitutions. This takes no private commercial schools operated for profit, of various clubs, societies, and exother organizations that are doing tension work of many kinds. Some of rethe educational institutions above ferred 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 , as Columbia Uniprivate foundations Chicago versity and the University of , is equally notable. Accurate figures are of course not available but, according to figures of Dr. Uni- Schlicher, published by the National in 1919 versity Extension Association , it is estimated that university extension is reaching about 120,000 students through classes or correspondence study; lectures; 2,026,000 through semi-popular ; 308,000 5,553,000 through pictures conferences; through institutes and 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, to the fact (1919 No. 84) calls attention the that during the World War much of mold machinery and devices used to and public opinion, to teach soldiers sailors or industrial workers, was taken from the university extension movement. were called Extension lecture bureaus war into immediate service to spread was renpropaganda. Similar service dered in support of Liberty Loans, Red interests. Cross Drives, and other war stint available Universities used without called exresources for what might be tension courses in practical subjects, as automobile mechanics. food conservation, 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 this within the recent past shows that is too wide a field to be adequately cultivated by private initiative. It belongs machinery should to the State and special be set up by legislative action. Unified management and a common program should be agreed on. Only in this way be provided sufficient can extension work to meet the demands of a new age and a rapidly increasing population.