-
Pope Gregory VII’s 1079 papal degree ordered the regulated establishment of the cathedral schools which later became Europe’s first universities. They dealt with the moral integrity and independence of the clergy (such as enforcing celibacy and forbidding simony). There was an emphasis on canon law to fight corruption within the church and study of the sacraments. -
The University of Bologna began as an informal private guild of teachers and students (universitas scholarium). It was set up with the aim of studying the Digest, a central text in Roman law, which had been rediscovered in Italy in 1070. University of Bologna is often considered to be the oldest university in continuous operation in the world and the first degree-awarding institution of higher learning. -
The medieval University of Paris grew out of the cathedral schools of Notre-Dame and began as private corporations of teachers and their pupils. With papal support, Paris soon became the great center of Christian orthodox theological teaching. At the end of the 13th and during the 14th centuries, it was the most celebrated teaching center of all Christendom. Its famous professors included St. Bonaventure, Albertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas. -
Foreign scholars traveling to Bologna found themselves without legal protection. A particular difficulty was he Right of Reprisal, where their property could be seized on foot of debts incurred by their countrymen. Rights spelled out were freedom of movement and travel for the purposes of study, immunity from the right of reprisal and right to be tried by their masters. -
A University of Paris Strike in 1229 occurred as a disagreement over an unpaid tab at a local tavern. The ensuing disagreement caused the deaths of several students at the hands of city guardsmen. After two years of negotiations, Pope Gregory IX, issued, on 13 April 1231, the bull honoring the university as the "Mother of Sciences." It guaranteed the school independence from local authority, both ecclesiastical and secular, by placing it directly under papal patronage. -
On October 28, 1636, the Great and General Court of The Massachusetts Bay Colony established the college, recognizing the Puritans' need to train their own clergy and government officials in New England. The college was established in Newetowne (later renamed Cambridge in 1638). Rev. John Harvard died and left his extensive personal library of over 400 books and half of his estate to the college. In 1639, in honor of this significant donation, the college was officially renamed Harvard College. -
Chartered in Virginia, this college was created to prepare clergy for the Anglican Church. U.S. presidents like Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe went to this Virginia school, in addition to 16 signers of the Declaration of Independence. -
Founded by Congregational ministers, this college was established by those who believed Harvard had become too liberal and had lost its orthodox Puritan religious roots. These ministers sought to establish a new institution to uphold stricter religious principles and maintain the purity of Congregationalism in the colonies. In 1718, it was renamed Yale in honor of benefactor Elihu Yale, who served as governor of the British East India Company. -
This institution was the first colonial college not primarily established for religious training. It offered a curriculum focused on practical subjects like mathematics and science. In 1740, a plan emerged to build a Philadelphia charity school that would double as a house of worship. It was costlier than expected and the plan went unfinished for a decade. A building was purchased in 1751 and Benjamin Franklin served as president and then trustee from 1755-1790. -
Kin’s College was chartered in New York by the Anglican Church. The oldest institution of higher education in the State of New York was founded with the name “King’s College” before being renamed “Columbia” in 1784. -
This college was founded by Baptists and stood out for its liberal policies of welcoming students from all denominations. The school was originally called the “College of Rhode Island,” but was renamed in 1770 following a gift from Nicholas Brown Jr. -
Founded by the Dutch Reformed Church in New Jersey. You may know it today as simply “Rutgers,” but at one time the New Jersey public research university was called “Queen’s College.” As one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution, the college was incorporated as “Trustees of Dartmouth College.” -
Dartmouth was founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock in Hanover, NH. The college received its charter from King George III of Great Britain, making it the ninth-oldest institution of higher education in the colonies. Their stated purpose was to provide a Christian and liberal arts education, with a specific focus on educating Native American youth. -
The New York State legislature created USNY on May 1, 1784 as an umbrella for all public and private educational institutions, with a Board of Regents as its governing body. Its purpose was as a supervisory body responsible for licensing, accrediting, and setting standards for educational activities within the state. The Board of Regents could visit and inspect schools, award degrees and manage funds. -
The University of Georgia first university in America to be created by a state government, and the principles undergirding its charter helped lay the foundation for the American system of public higher education. For the first 16 years of the school's history, it only existed on paper. Land was eventually purchased on the west bank of the Oconee River. Josiah Meigs, became the school's president, as well as the first and only professor. He opened the school with no building in the fall of 1801. -
Georgetown is the oldest Jesuit and Catholic University in the United States. At Benjamin Franklin's recommendation, the pope appointed former Jesuit John Carroll the first head of the Catholic Church in the US, even though the papal suppression of the Jesuit order was still in effect. On January 23, 1789, Carroll finalized the purchase of the property in Georgetown on the banks of the Potomac River on which Dahlgren Quadrangle was later built. Instruction began on January 2, 1792. -
Slate Blackboards were first invented by James Pillans (Scotland) and George Baron (USA) in 1801. Slate was affordable and practical. Chalkboards in schools had widespread use by the mid 1800s. -
Founded in 1802, the United States Military Academy (USMA), known as West Point, is a United States service academy in West Point, NY, that educates cadets for service as commissioned officers in the United States Army. It's the oldest of the five American service academies. The Army has occupied the site since establishing a fort there in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, as it sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River 50 miles north of New York City. -
The New Hampshire legislature passed a law in 1816 that sought to amend Dartmouth's charter, effectively transforming it from a private institution into a state-run public university called "Dartmouth University." The college trustees sued, arguing that the legislature's actions violated the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents states from impairing the obligation of contracts. The Supreme Court ruled that corporate charters were protected from state interference. -
The Yale Report of 1828 from the Yale College faculty was written in response to a growing trend towards elective courses and curriculum reform,. It defended the classical liberal arts curriculum as essential for producing well-rounded, critically thinking leaders and advocated for a comprehensive, single curriculum centered on Latin and Greek literature, The report was a highly influential, conservative response that shaped American higher education for much of the 19th century. -
The first research-based PhD was awarded by Yale University in 1861. This type of degree originated in Germany at the University of Berlin (now Humboldt University), which established the PhD as a degree requiring a dissertation based on original research. This model spread to the U.S. as many Americans traveled to Germany for advanced study. This differed from earlier professional doctorates (e.g. the MD) which were more focused on professional practice than on generating new knowledge. -
The Morrill Act granted federal land to states to establish colleges focused on agriculture and the mechanic arts. It provided each state with 30,000 acres of federal land for every member of their Congressional delegation. The act's goal was to provide practical and liberal education to the industrial classes and establish a system of "Land-grant Colleges" funded by the sale of public lands. It creating an enduring legacy of publicly funded and accessible education. -
In 1880, Harvard University introduced its sabbatical leave policy, which provided professors with a year of leave at half pay every seven years to promote career renewal through rest, study, or research. This policy aimed to benefit both the individual faculty member and the institution by allowing for rejuvenation and the acquisition of new ideas and energy that would be brought back to the university. This was the first of its kind in American academia and set a precedent. -
The House agriculture committee chaired by Rep. William H. Hatch of Missouri championed a system of agricultural experiment stations to conduct scientific research at land-grant institutions. It authorized federal funding to support these research stations. The purpose was to acquire and disseminate useful information on agriculture through scientific research and experimentation. A major portion of the federal funds must be matched by the state. -
Founded by Mary Lyon (a chemist and educator) in 1837, Mount Holyoke is the first of the Seven Sisters colleges. It began as a seminary rather than a degree-granting college. In 1888, Mt Holyoke received its charter from the Massachusetts State Legislature and moved from a 3-year seminary format to a 4-year degree-granting college format in 1893. Lyon implemented rigorous entrance examinations to ensure students were well-prepared for the demanding academic work; a practice uncommon at the time. -
The Second Morrill Act of 1890 expanded the land-grant college system to include Black students by requiring states that had discriminated in admissions at their existing land-grant universities to establish separate institutions for persons of color, providing federal funds instead of land to these new, historically Black land-grant institutions. This law led to the establishment and funding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), particularly in former Confederate states. -
The Sherman Antitrust Act was a landmark federal law that prohibits anti-competitive business practices, including monopolies, price-fixing, and other conspiracies in restraint of trade. It was enacted to promote fair competition and was a response to the growth of powerful "trusts" and monopolies during the Gilded Age. The act makes contracts or conspiracies that restrain interstate commerce illegal. Colleges and universities are not exempt and collusion is outlawed. -
The College Entrance Examination Board was founded in 1899 to bring order to the disorganized college admissions process by creating a nationally administered, standardized set of exams to use as a reliable national benchmark. Founding members aimed to establish uniform high school curricula and create an objective, reliable way to evaluate students' college readiness. The founding of the organization established it as a significant gatekeeper to higher education in the United States. -
The AAU was founded by a group of 14 Doctor of Philosophy degree-granting universities in America to strengthen and standardize American doctoral programs. By 1900, research universities had themselves become a special group among American institutions. American universities were adopting the research-intensive German model of higher education. Previously, many American students attended graduate school in Europe instead of staying in the U.S. -
Joliet Junior College in Illinois is the first public community college in the United States and began as an experimental postgraduate high school program with an initial enrollment of 6 students. It was established to provide a way for students who couldn't afford to attend a four-year university to receive post-high school training. The college has grown to serve tens of thousands of students today and now has multiple campuses and education centers. -
This national group became an official branch of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and aimed to activate college-educated women to join the suffrage movement through educational and promotional campaigns on campuses across the country. The league's purpose was to bring a new generation of educated women into the suffrage cause, believing it was their duty to continue the fight for women's rights. -
The Smith-Lever Act established the national Cooperative Extension System to provide land-grant universities with federal funding to educate the public on subjects like agriculture, home economics, and rural energy. This federal law created a partnership between federal, state, and county governments to diffuse useful and practical information, encourage its application, and foster economic development through outreach and education. -
This is foundational document of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), establishing the principles that universities must uphold academic freedom to serve society by promoting inquiry and knowledge, and that academic freedom is protected by the concept of academic tenure and due process. The declaration defined the purpose of higher education and the professor's role, and asserted that faculty should be free from undue pressure from outside their professional communities. -
The National Defense Act officially created the ROTC. While military training had existed in some civilian colleges since 1819, the Act consolidated these efforts into a single, federally controlled entity designed to provide a large pool of reserve officers for national defense. The core idea was to create a large body of reserve officers who could lead a citizen-soldier army in times of national emergency. The program became a crucial source of officers for World War II. -
The Smith-Hughes Act provided funding for public vocational education in high schools, focusing on agriculture, trades, industry, and home economics. It established federal and state programs to offer practical, job-oriented skills training as an alternative to traditional college-preparatory education. The act helped create a systematic approach to vocational training and influenced the structure of public education for decades. It also helped to legitimize and dignify labor through education. -
Both SATC and ROTC allowed male students to enlist, stay on campus and receive military training. The Student Army Training Corps (SATC) was a World War I program established by the U.S. War Department to train college students for the armed forces. It used university facilities to provide military and technical training to officer candidates and draftees, and students were sworn into the army, receiving pay, tuition, and uniforms. The program was officially disbanded in December 1918. -
This is foundational and outlines the rights and responsibilities of faculty members and institutions of higher education. It defines academic freedom as essential for the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge, protecting faculty in their research, teaching, and extramural activities from institutional censorship and political interference. The statement defines tenure as a means to ensure faculty security and freedom which is vital for maintaining high-quality education. -
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 provided various benefits to World War II veterans to help them transition back to civilian life. Key provisions included financial aid for college and vocational training, government-backed low-cost home and business loans, and a year of unemployment benefits. This legislation had a transformative impact, enabling millions of veterans to pursue higher education and purchase homes, which significantly contributed to the American economy and society. -
The report marks the first time in US history that a President established a commission for the purposes of analyzing the country's system of education, a task typically left to the states. The Truman Commission Report calls for several changes in postsecondary education including a network of public community colleges, which would be free of charge for "all youth who can profit from such education." The commission helped popularize the phrase "community college" in the late 1940s. -
Sweatt v. Painter was a United States Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. The case involved a black man, Heman Marion Sweatt, who was refused admission to the School of Law of the University of Texas on the grounds that the Texas State Constitution prohibited integrated education. The decision was delivered on the same day McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents. -
George W. McLaurin, who already had a master's degree in education, was denied admission to the University of Oklahoma to pursue a Doctorate in Education. He sued to gain admission. At the time, Oklahoma law prohibited schools from instructing blacks and whites together. The court found the university's inaction in providing separate facilities, in order to meet Oklahoma state law was a violation of his rights. The University admitted McLaurin but provided him inadequate separate facilities. -
Brown v Board of Education enjoined 5 separate cases to address segregation as a national issue. It was a landmark decision that declared state-sanctioned segregation of public schools unconstitutional, asserting that segregated schools could never be equal. This unanimous ruling overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case and served as a major catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, ending legal segregation in the United States education system. -
This was a US Supreme Court case that involved the long-running attempt of Virgil Hawkins to gain admission to the University of Florida Law School. The case stemmed from Hawkins' initial 1949 application and his subsequent nine-year legal battle to be admitted. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision was not an outright win for Hawkins. Instead, it sent the case back to the state court, which continued to find ways to delay his admission. -
The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 was a U.S. law enacted in response to the Soviet Union's launch of the satellite Sputnik. It provided federal funding for higher education and aimed to boost American education in science, mathematics, and foreign languages. Key provisions included establishing student loan programs and increasing resources for college libraries and graduate students. -
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10925 established the term "affirmative action" in U.S. policy, requiring federal contractors (and businesses and organizations which held contracts with the federal government) to take "affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin". This order aimed to promote equal opportunity and combat discrimination. -
This legislation governs most federal financial aid for college students and provides resources for institutions of higher education. It aimed to make higher education more accessible for low- and middle-income families by establishing federal funding for low-interest student loans, scholarships, and work-study programs. It also supported other initiatives, such as improving college and university libraries, strengthening teacher training programs, and providing aid to developing institutions. -
In 1970, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education developed the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, a framework for categorizing U.S. colleges and universities to facilitate policy and research analysis. It provided a more useful taxonomy for understanding institutional diversity and has been a leading framework in the study of U.S. higher education ever since. -
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. It protects individuals from discrimination based on sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation in areas like admissions, academics, financial aid, and athletics. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for enforcing Title IX. -
The HEA Reauthorization Act established Sallie Mae (originally the Student Loan Marketing Association). It was set up as a government entity that serviced federal education loans. It later became private and began offering servicing and collecting private student loans. Sallie Mae previously originated federally guaranteed student loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program as a servicer and collector of federal student loans on behalf of the Department of Education. -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in any program or activity that receives federal financial assistance. It requires these programs to provide equal opportunity, which includes making reasonable accommodations and ensuring accessibility for qualified individuals with disabilities. It laid the groundwork for later disability rights laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). -
FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It grants parents and eligible students certain rights regarding their education records, including the right to inspect records, request amendments to inaccurate records, and control the disclosure of personally identifiable information. It applies to all public and private elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schools, as well as any state or local education agency that receives federal funds. -
The beginning of rampant college tuition inflation can be traced to Harvard’s decision in 1978 to increase its undergraduate tuition by 18%. For the next decade, it approved annual 8% increases. Other elite institutions followed suit. The escalation of tuition by non-elite private colleges became known as tuition discounting. As more baby boomers continued to attend college, total enrollments that year exceeded 11 million for the first time. -
The PLUS program was created to allow parents to borrow for their children’s education. -
In 1980, the U.S. Department of Education began operations, consolidating education-related offices from various federal agencies and formalizing a cabinet-level focus on education matters. Today, it operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. Department programs provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 12 million postsecondary students. -
University of Phoenix offered the first fully online bachelor’s degree using a system that predated the modern web. The degree was established to make it easier for working adult students to attend classes online from home or the office. Much of UoPX's revenue came from employers who were subsidizing the higher education of their managers. It used an electronic communication service called Prodigy that techies and business people were starting to use. -
The Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, and state and local government services. Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, the ADA ensures that people with disabilities have the same opportunities and protections as those without disabilities, providing enforceable standards against discrimination. -
The percentage of women in America who earned a bachelor’s degree exceeded the percentage of men for the first time in 2014, although total enrollments decreased from their all time high of 21 million students in 2010. Women earned a disproportionate share of degrees at every level of higher education. For the class of 2014, women earned approximately 140 college degrees for every 100 degrees earned by men across all levels (associate's, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral). -
Credential Engine is a registry and consulting company used to track credentials in the U.S. including diplomas, badges, certificates, apprenticeships, certifications, micro credentials, licenses, and degrees of all types and levels to promote credential transparency. Providers load information in the cloud-based registry, including learning outcomes, cost, and market value. -
This Supreme Court decision found that colleges could not use race as a specific factor in admissions, deeming it a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling ended decades of precedent and has been linked to a decline in Black student enrollment at some selective institutions. Colleges are developing new rubrics to review applicants holistically, focusing on factors other than race such as socioeconomic status and first-generation student status. -
Signed into law on July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act represents the most consequential federal intervention in U.S. higher education in over a decade. It eliminates Graduate PLUS Loans, sets new student loan borrowing caps, consolidates student loan repayment plans, eliminates hardship deferments, and changes subsidized student loans so that loan interest begins to accrue immediately when the loan is granted.