HE5
1. Please identify an institution that falls into one of the categories detailed in this week’s lecture and provide the pertinent background information of the college or university that establishes it within the category.
2. Explain how this descriptive category is evident in the institution’s mission, vision, values, and operations; and how it impacts the student experience (for good or bad)
Types of Higher Education Institutions
Liberal Arts Colleges – History of Liberal Arts Colleges, Characteristics of Liberal Arts Colleges
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2179/Liberal-Arts-Colleges.html
Research Universities – Faculty and Students, Beyond Academics, The History of the Research University, Classifying and Ranking Research Universities
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2366/Research-Universities.html
Tribal Colleges and Universities – Students and Faculty, Institutional Types, Accreditation and Funding
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2513/Tribal-Colleges-Universities.html
Single-Sex institutions – Historical Contribution, Characteristics of Contemporary Women’s Colleges, Contemporary Importance of Women’s Colleges
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2420/Single-Sex-institutions.html
Colleges and Universities with Religious Affiliations – Characteristics, Relationships, Leadership and Control, Issues for the Future
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1860/Colleges-Universities-with-Religious-Affiliations.html
Community Colleges – The History of Community Colleges, The junior college and the research university., The Community College Mission
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1873/Community-Colleges.html
LEAS 833
Higher Education in America
Weeks 5 & 6
Types of Higher Education Institutions Part II
•
Liberal Arts Colleges
•
Research Institutions
• Tribal Institutions
•
Single-Sex Institutions
• Religious-Affiliated Institutions
• Community Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Liberal arts colleges endeavor to educate the whole student and emphasize
education for its own sake rather than for job preparation.
• Liberal arts colleges tend to be small and private.
▪ Many have total enrollments of less than 2,000 students with low student-to-
teacher ratios.
▪ They are also usually residential and value the idea of community.
▪ The liberal arts college is invested in teaching, and students and professors often
collaborate with one another in the learning process.
• Liberal arts colleges aim to expose students to a wide breadth of courses in the
humanities and both physical and social sciences.
▪ History, philosophy, religion, literature, physical sciences, social sciences, the arts,
languages, and mathematics.
• Most liberal arts colleges in the United States were founded by various religious
dominations.
• Over time the American liberal arts college has become a small part of the American
higher education system.
Liberal Arts Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Liberal arts colleges flourished at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
• Liberal arts colleges are often innovative in their programs.
• Some liberal arts colleges focus on serving particular populations.
▪ All-women’s colleges – Smith College and Mills.
▪ Historically Black colleges and universities – Morehouse College,
Spelman College.
▪ Few all-men’s colleges – Walbash College.
Liberal Arts Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• The liberal arts college strives to produce thoughtful, well-rounded
citizens of the world.
• An education in which students learn how to learn, an education that
emphasizes the forming rather than filling of minds, an education that
renders our graduates adaptive to any marketplace, curious about
whatever world is around them, and resourceful enough to change with
the times.
Liberal Arts Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans began traveling to Germany
to obtain their Ph.D.s. The influx of German-educated scholars back to
the United States bought a new model for the American college, and
created what is now the research university.
• Research universities are postsecondary institutions that devote a
large portion of their mission, resources, and focus to graduate
education and research.
▪ Currently, there are more than 250 of these institutions in the United
States.
Research Institutions
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Range in size from very large universities with 60,000 students to
small universities with fewer than 4,500 students.
• Students attending research universities generally pursue a specialized
curriculum with a very large number of requirements for the major
and a smaller number of electives and general education
requirements.
Research Institutions
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Students who have large lower-division classes taught by graduate
students who serve as teaching assistants.
• Faculty members at research universities are expected to devote a
larger amount of their time to research.
• Faculty members are researchers first and teachers second.
▪ Expected to publish articles and books and secure research
grants from external sources.
• Research universities enrolled more than one out of every five
students attending a college or university in the United States.
Research Institutions
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• A research university is a far-flung and complex organization with
multiple campuses, extension centers, research centers and institutes,
multiple campuses, student services and programming for diverse
student groups, and often high-profile athletics teams.
• Not unusual for research universities to establish their own research
parks where private companies and the university engage in
technology transfer and spin off new businesses.
Research Institutions
Tribal Colleges & Universities
Source: insidehighered.com
• Tribal colleges and universities offer opportunities for Native
Americans to pursue higher education within their own cultural and
regional contexts.
▪ Generally located on or near Indian reservations.
• Aim to preserve and communicate traditional native culture, provide
higher education and career or technical opportunities to tribal
members, enhance economic opportunities within the reservation
community, and promote tribal self-determination.
Tribal Colleges & Universities
Source: insidehighered.com
• 1968 the first Tribal College was created by Navajo Tribe on their
Indian Reservation
▪ As of 2001, thirty-two tribal colleges have been created by
American Indians tribes for American Indians.
▪ These colleges are located in areas with large concentrations of
Native Americans, principally in the upper Midwest, the Pacific
Northwest, and the Southwest.
▪ Among these tribal colleges and universities, twenty-four are
community colleges and offer the associate’s degree and technical and
vocational certificates, six offer the bachelor’s degree, and two offer
the master’s degree.
Tribal Colleges & Universities
Source: insidehighered.com
• Tribal colleges seek to prepare their students to succeed both inside and
outside the reservation.
• Tribal colleges and universities receive little or no state funds.
▪ They are primarily dependent on federal assistance for their core
operating expenses through oversight by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs.
• Most of them have small enrollments, often less than 1,000 students.
• The average age of tribal college students has become younger in recent
years, from thirty years of age down to twenty-seven.
Tribal Colleges & Universities
Source: insidehighered.com
• The modal profile of the typical tribal college student:
▪ Is a single mother with young children.
▪ Living below the poverty level and often dependent on welfare or
her extended family for support.
▪ Attends part-time, and is academically underprepared and in need
of some remedial courses.
▪ Child care and family services are common needs for these students
that tribal colleges try to meet on their campuses.
▪ Lack of dependable transportation and available telephone services
in isolated reservation areas impact students’ ability to attend
regularly or to communicate with college officials when problems
arise.
Tribal Colleges & Universities
Source: insidehighered.com
• 30 % of the faculty are Native American and Alaska Natives as compared to
less than one percent of all faculty at all other public institutions.
• Students have native role models and mentors, some of whom are tribal
elders, who bring cultural awareness, sensitivity, and specific curricular
expertise to the classroom.
• Tribal colleges and universities are able to achieve higher retention and
graduation rates for Native American students than mainstream institutions
can.
▪ Colleges awarded 69 percent of their associate’s degrees, 81 percent of the
bachelor’s degrees, and 67 percent of the master’s degrees to Native
American students.
▪ By comparison, only 0.9 percent of the associate’s degrees, 0.5 of the
bachelor’s degrees, and 0.4 of the master’s degrees awarded by all other
institutions were earned by Native American students.
Tribal Colleges & Universities
Source: insidehighered.com
• All tribal colleges have full accreditation status from national
accreditation boards.
• Even with massive federal monies, tribal colleges and universities
remain seriously underfunded compared to the varied support
received by mainstream higher education institution.
Single-Sex Institutions
Source: insidehighered.com
• The original colleges in the United States, including Harvard (1636),
William and Mary (1693), Yale College (1716), and the College of New
Jersey at Princeton (1746), were founded to educate men only.
• By 1870 there were 582 colleges in the United States, of which 343
were for men only, 70 were for women only, and 169 were
coeducational.
• By 1890 the number of men’s colleges reached 400 institutions, 465
coeducational colleges, and 217 women’s colleges.
• The bulk of the single-sex institutions for both men and women were
founded in the South and Northeast.
Single-Sex Institutions
Source: insidehighered.com
• Between 1890 and 1910 enrollment at women’s colleges increased by
348 percent, while the gain of female students at coeducational
colleges was 438 percent.
• In the 1950s there were 228 men’s colleges, 267 women’s colleges,
and 1,313 coeducational institutions.
• The curriculum at these women’s colleges focused on liberal education
rather than on pre-professional programs.
Single-Sex Institutions
Source: insidehighered.com
• The 1960s and 1970s saw a more pronounced shift away from single-
sex institutions toward coeducation.
▪ To many, the replacement of single-sex education with
coeducation was seen as part of women’s attainment of parity
with men.
• At the beginning of the twenty-first century there are only two men’s
colleges in the United States–Wabash College in Indiana and Deep
Springs in California, although there are approximately eighty
women’s colleges.
• Women’s colleges educate fewer than 1% of all women attending
postsecondary institutions and award 1 % of all degrees conferred or
28,000 degrees in 2012.
Single-Sex Institutions
Source: insidehighered.com
• Women’s colleges tend to be small, ranging in size from 94 full-time
students to 5,000 full-time students.
• All women’s colleges are private institutions, more than half of the
existing women’s colleges have a religious affiliation, most often with
the Roman Catholic Church (33%).
• Almost half of the women’s colleges are located in the northeastern
United States, while 33 percent are located in the South.
Single-Sex Institutions
Source: insidehighered.com
• There are two historically Black four-year women’s colleges, and six two-year women’s
colleges.
• Seventeen women’s colleges grant master’s degrees, while forty-seven grant bachelor’s
degrees.
• Woman’s colleges serve women of color and nontraditional-aged women in higher
proportions than comparable coeducational institutions.
• Women’s colleges are also more likely to grant undergraduate degrees to women in the
more male-dominated fields as compared to similar coeducational institutions.
• Female students at women’s colleges are more satisfied with their overall college
experience, are more likely to major in nontraditional fields, and express higher levels
of self-esteem and leadership skills.
• Female students who have attended women’s colleges are more likely than their
coeducational counterparts to graduate, to have high expectations of themselves, to
attend graduate school, and to be successful in their adult lives.
Religious Affiliated Colleges & Universities
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Religiously affiliated colleges often combined the mission of education with the desire
to train individuals in religious practice and to evangelize others.
• Often church-related colleges began as academies or seminaries and then grew to
college or university status.
• Some colleges severed their relationship with the religious communities and continue
in the twenty-first century as quality independent institutions.
▪ Among these are Vanderbilt University, Auburn University, University of Southern
California, Oberlin College, and Princeton University.
• In 1881, 80 percent of the colleges in the United States were church related and private.
• In 2001, 20 % of the colleges (980 institutions had connection to a religious tradition).
▪ Sixty-six religious groups in the United States currently sponsor colleges or
universities.
▪ These institutions enroll more than 1.75 million students.
Religious Affiliated Colleges & Universities
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Religiously affiliated colleges and universities are legally independent institutions.
Sponsoring bodies usually have representatives on the institution’s board of trustees.
• The nature and expression of the educational institution’s relationship with religious
bodies vary greatly.
▪ A few institutions are controlled by the denomination.
▪ Others share only a nominal relationship.
▪ Some colleges are to acknowledge an “historical” relationship.
• The colleges invest significant financial and personnel resources to foster personal worth
and dignity within a diverse and just community, leading to an emphasis on lifelong
learning, social responsibility, and service.
• Community service is an integral part of the colleges’ philosophies.
• The curricular focus on the liberal arts and a solid commitment to general education
challenges students to integrate learning from a variety of disciplines.
• Co-curricular religious activities are present on all campuses. These include worship,
fellowship, study of the sacred texts of the religious tradition, service, and religious
support.
Religious Affiliated Colleges & Universities
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• The typical religiously affiliated college is residential, although some
colleges have developed satellite learning and evening programs to
meet the needs of nontraditional students.
• While related to and supported by specific religious traditions, most
colleges welcome students from a variety of faith traditions–or no faith
tradition.
• The student bodies include representation from ethnic and
international communities.
• The institutions’ student-centered focus generally assures most
students will graduate in four years.
Religious Affiliated Colleges & Universities
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Religiously affiliated colleges and universities are as diverse as their
religious traditions and the higher education scene in the United
States.
▪ Although most are liberal arts colleges with enrollments between
800 and 2,000 students,
▪ Church-related higher education also includes large research
universities (Boston University, Notre Dame), medical colleges,
professional schools, two-year colleges, theological seminaries,
and Bible colleges.
▪ Many religiously affiliated colleges regularly are highly ranked in
various “best colleges” ratings in the United States.
Community Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• The community college is largely a phenomenon of twentieth-century
American higher education.
• Community Colleges offer six-month vocational diplomas; one- and
two-year vocational, technical, and pre-professional certificates; and
two-year programs of general and liberal education leading to an
associate degree.
• Two-year college refers to all institutions where the highest degree
awarded is a two-year degree (i.e., associate of arts, associate of
science, associate of general studies, associate of applied arts,
associate of applied science).
• As a distinctively American invention, the comprehensive community
college stands between secondary and higher education, between
adult and higher education, and between industrial training and
formal technical education.
Community Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Community colleges have provided educational programs and services
to people who otherwise would not have enrolled in a college or
university.
• For the most part community colleges offer admission to all who
possess a high school education; in addition, many provide assistance to
adults in completing their secondary education.
• They attract students who live in geographic proximity and who seek
low-cost postsecondary education.
Community Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Community colleges hold the collegiate function central to their
mission.
▪ Transfer allows the traditional-age student seeking the first years of
a baccalaureate degree, collegiate courses enroll.
▪ Career preparation students, such as nursing students seeking
knowledge in the basic life sciences;.
▪ Reverse transfer students (who begin at a university and later
choose to continue at a community college).
▪ Part-time casual students (who enroll for personal rather than
degree-completion reasons).
▪ Continuing Education ( Working professionals needing additional
training)
Community Colleges
Source: Stateuniversity.com
• Community colleges play a significant role in meeting immediate and
short-cycle needs of the immigrant, the disabled, and the unemployed
with a wide range of courses and programs.
• The federal government has encouraged this expansion through
incentives to colleges that serve such groups as displaced homemakers,
students with disabilities, those needing adult basic education, and the
unemployed seeking job retraining.
Community Colleges
Community colleges serve more students than any other single sector
of higher education.
• In 2016, community colleges served 46 percent) of all undergraduates
enrolled in higher education. That’s over 8.5 million students.
• Public four-year colleges and universities enrolled 31 percent, followed
by private nonprofit four-year institutions at 15 percent, and for-profit
institutions at 8 percent.
Community colleges provide excellent educational opportunities at a
lower price.
• Community colleges provide opportunities for students to learn and
acquire the skills necessary to be competitive in today’s workforce.
• According to the College Board, the average tuition and fees charged
by community colleges in 2017–18 was $3,560.
• Public four-year institutions charged $9,980, private nonprofit
four-year institutions charged $34,700.
By Jonathan Turk