HE3

LEAS 833 Higher Education in America

Weeks 2 & 3

Types of Higher Education Institutions

Types of Higher Education Institutions

•Public

•Private

• Land Grant Colleges and Universities

• For-Profit Colleges

• Hispanic-Serving Institutions

• Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• Public institutions tend to fall into one of three major categories: universities, state colleges, and community colleges. ▪ Public universities typically grant a full range of graduate degrees (master's and

doctoral), tend to have a strong research emphasis, and typically have large student enrollments.

▪ State colleges are typically smaller, may serve a particular region of a state, and usually offer both bachelor's and master's degrees.

▪ Community colleges are two-year colleges that provide associate degrees, preparation for transfer to four-year institutions, vocational and technical education and training, and large numbers of continuing education offerings.

• Some public institutions have been identified as land-grant institutions. Land-grant institutions were first established by the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided federal funds for establishing universities that ▪ Were open to all types of students (including women, minorities, and low-income

students), ▪ Offered degrees in practical and applied fields such as engineering and agriculture,

scientific, classical studies, mechanic arts, and military tactics to promote the liberal and practical education

Public Institutions

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• Private institutions receive no public funding for operations to cover the full range of missions and structures found in American higher education.

• The most prestigious and highly selective institutions are private; but so too are the least well-known institutions.

• There are literally hundreds of small colleges scattered across the United States that can be thought of as "the invisible colleges."

➢ These are small, private institutions with limited resources.

➢ One of the key distinctions among private colleges is whether they are religiously affiliated or not.

➢ Religious affiliation occurs in many forms. A religious denomination or order directly controls some institutions, whereas others have only nominal relationships with religious bodies or sponsors.

• There are also increasing numbers of proprietary institutions that tend to award specialized degrees or that engage in alternative modes of educational delivery, such as distance learning.

Private Institutions

Public and Private: What's the Difference

Discussion in breakout groups:

Based on your research and experience…

• What are the most notable differences you have found when comparing public and private institutions?

• What are the differences in perception in your region? • Given the current climate, what are the biggest advantages and disadvantages of being a

public institution vs. a private institution, and vice versa?

Report back to the group in 20 minutes.

Public and Private: What's the Difference

Source: insidehighered.com

• The main difference is the type and amount of state & local subsidies. ▪ Public’s tends to receive state and local subsides for student tuition costs and operational

costs where Private’s do not.

• When we say public universities, we immediately think of a substantial state flagship university like Univ. of Kentucky or Tennessee.

• Most of public higher education takes place in state and community colleges that remain often 50 to 60 percent funded by public sources.

• When we say private university we think of Stanford, Vanderbilt or Duke.

• Private universities being somehow separate and independent from the obligations of public institutions by virtue of their funding is also not accurate. • Private universities, even those with exceptional endowments, exist to large extent on the

public’s account. • The gifts that build the endowment enjoy a public tax exemption. • The property and campuses of these private universities enjoy a public tax exemption. • The federal government provides extensive tax supported need based financial aid to

private institutions, revenue that subsidizes those institutions’ tuition and fess.

Public and Private: What's the Difference

Source: insidehighered.com

• Private research universities, like their public counterparts, receive federal grants and contracts whose overhead pays some portion of the research costs, a direct taxpayer subsidy.

• And on occasion, private universities succeed in persuading their states to invest in economic development activities.

• The tax supported percentage of public university budgets has been in decline for over a decade, even though the public investment in public higher education in total dollars continues to rise.

• The consequence of a decline in the taxpayer subsidy of public higher education is an increase in the net cost of higher education to students. ▪ For students whose families are at the margin of the American economic dream,

any increase in the net cost may well put some forms of higher education, but usually not all forms, out of reach.

▪ The difference between public and private institutions is narrowing due to shrinking state and local support. Some suggest that public’s need to be more entrepreneurial like private institutions.

Land Grant Colleges and Universities

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• America's land-grant colleges and universities were brought into being through the Morrill Act of 1862.

• The Morrill Act of 1862 granted vast holdings of federal lands to states to be sold to provide funds to create the Land Grant institutions. ▪ Required the teaching of scientific, classical studies, agriculture, mechanic arts, and military

tactics to promote the liberal and practical education.

• The Morrill Act of 1890, gave states the right to designate "separate-but-equal" land-grant colleges for African-Americans. ▪ Soon after this, seventeen such schools were operating in Southern and border states.

• By 1873, 26 land-grant colleges and universities were in operation; by 1900, 65; by 1975, 72; and by 2000, 106

• Since 1900, land-grant institutions have been strengthened by more than a dozen federal acts. ▪ The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 established the Cooperative Extension Service in agriculture

and home economics in connection with U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. ▪ In 1994, the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act conferred land-grant

status on twenty-nine Native American colleges.

Land Grant Colleges and Universities

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• The major land-grant universities are powerhouses of research and graduate education. ▪ Of the top twenty institutions in total research-and-development spending, eleven

(55%) were land-grant universities, according to the National Science Foundation.

▪ Of the top twenty institutions awarding the most earned doctorates, twelve (60%) were land-grant institutions.

▪ The fruits of these research and graduate programs have profoundly benefited the world. ➢ Production of pure uranium, pioneering developments in television and the

transistor, advances in meteorology, the field ion microscope and the cyclotron, the isolation of helium, and new plant strains resistant to disease.

• Forged an enduring legacy. Practical or useful education, applied science and research, public service and outreach, ▪ Perhaps most importantly, the idea that the federal government has a key role to play

in educational policy – these tenets have become generalized throughout the whole of American higher education.

For-Profit Colleges

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• For-Profit Universities/Colleges will make a profit for it’s shareholders and does not receive state or local financial support.

• American public higher education is cutting budgets, laying off people, and turning away students, the rise of for-profit universities has been meteoric.

• The country's enrollment in for-profit colleges rose by an average of 9 percent per year over the past 30 years, compared with only 1.5 percent per year for all Higher Ed institutions (2010). This has shifted drastically in the opposite direction since 2010.

• They enrolled people that traditional higher education tended to ignore: working-class adults with children of their own who needed more skills to get better-paying jobs but couldn't take time out to attend a traditional campus.

• Of for-profit institutions, 40 percent are now owned by one of 13 large publicly traded companies. ▪ Only 50 percent of the institutions offered associate, bachelor's, or professional degrees

today. More than 90 percent of students at for-profit institutions are now enrolled in degree programs. Only about 30 percent attend part time.

• The for-profit sector is more nimble as their institutions are reaching out to adult students, starting online programs, and saving money by rejecting tenure in favor of hiring professors by the class.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• Federal legislation defines Hispanic-Serving Intuitions (HSI) as accredited, degree-granting, public or private, nonprofit colleges/universities with 25 percent or more total undergraduate, full-time equivalent, Hispanic student enrollment.

• Hispanics constitute the fastest-growing minority population in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics represented 17 percent of the national population of 320 million in 2010.

• Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) have become important colleges and universities for increasing Hispanics' access to college and improving their economic opportunities.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• HSIs represent almost 6 percent of all postsecondary institutions, they enroll approximately half of all Hispanic students in college, granting more associate and baccalaureate degrees to Hispanic students than all other American colleges or universities combined.

• HSIs with this enrollment must also meet an additional criterion to qualify for Title V funds, which stipulates that no less than 50 percent of its Hispanic students must be low-income individuals.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• HSIs attract and retain Hispanics in larger numbers than all other postsecondary institutions. ▪ HSIs educate over 1.4 million students in the United States, of

which 50 percent are Hispanic and another 20 percent are students from other ethnic backgrounds.

• The vast majority of HSIs were not created to serve a specific population, as historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges were, but rather evolved, starting around 1970, due to their geographic proximity to Hispanic populations and to demographic shifts.

Historically Black Colleges & Universities

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions that were established with the mission to educate Black Americans, which they did almost exclusively from 1865 to the 1950s.

• The desire of the Black population to be educated influenced the development of HBCUs, and has likewise contributed much to the advancement of the Black population.

• The first HBCUs were established in the North and were products of independent religious institutions or philanthropic Christian missionaries. ▪ The first two were Cheyney University (Pennsylvania), founded in

1837, and Wilberforce University (Ohio), founded in 1856.

Historically Black Colleges & Universities

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• The Freedman's Bureau was established in 1872 to provide support to a small number of HBCUs.

• The Second Morrill Act of 1890 led to the establishment of nineteen HBCUs.

• The 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, established the right to set up separate but equal schools for African-Americans and led to the expansion and growth of historically Black colleges and universities.

Historically Black Colleges & Universities

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• Black students who attend HBCUs have better academic performance, greater social involvement, and higher occupational aspirations than Black students who attend PWIs. On Black campuses students emphasize feelings of engagement, extensive support, acceptance, encouragement, and connection.

• HBCUs communicate to Black students that it is safe to take the risks associated with intellectual growth and development.

• Academically, HBCUs offer programs designed to meet the unique needs of Black students and the Black community, and they educate many students with learning deficiencies.

Historically Black Colleges & Universities

Source: Stateuniversity.com

• By 1950, HBCUs were responsible for serving 90 percent of Black students in higher education.

• HBCUs had produced 75 percent of all Black Ph.D.'s, 75 percent of all Black army officers, 80 percent of all Black federal judges, and 85 percent of all Black physicians.

• In 2010, HBCUs served 15 percent of all Black students enrolled in college, but were annually responsible for 26 percent of Black baccalaureate degrees.