Higher education in the United States
USINFO | 2013-10-23 13:46

 

Higher education in the United States refers to the process of students continuing their education beyond high school, and includes a variety of institutions of higher education. Strong research and funding have helped make United States colleges and universities among the world's most prestigious, making them particularly attractive to international students,professors and researchers in the pursuit of academic excellence.According to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, more than 30 of the highest-ranked 45 institutions are in the United States (as measured by awards and research output). Public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges all have a significant role in higher education in the United States.

Recent high visibility issues include greater use of the Internet (such as Massive open online courses), competency based education, cutbacks in state spending, and rapidly rising tuition and burdensome student loan.

Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum (like polytechnic universities) while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above, being a comprehensive university.

In the United States, the term "college" refers to either one of the three types of education institutions. One reference is stand-alone higher level education institutions that are not components of a university, including community colleges and liberal arts colleges. Another one is components within a university, mostly the undergraduate institution of a university. Unlike colleges versus universities in other portions of the world, a stand-alone college is truly stand-alone and is not part of a university, and is also not affiliated with an affiliating university.

Community colleges are often (though not always) two-year colleges. They have open admissions, with generally lower tuition than other state or private schools. Graduates receive the associate's degree such as an Associate of Arts (A.A.). Many students earn an associate's degree at a two-year institution before transferring to a four-year institution for another two years to earn a bachelor's degree.

Four-year colleges, which usually have a larger number of students and offer a greater range of studies, provide the bachelor's degree, mostly the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.). They are either primarily undergraduate institutions (i.e. Liberal Arts Colleges) or the undergraduate institution of a university (such as Harvard College and Yale College).

The Technology Classroom Building at Portland Community College, a typical liberal arts college.

Four-year institutions in the U.S. which emphasize the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. These colleges are entirely undergraduate institutions that are stand-alone. They traditionally emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions). They are known for being residential and for having smaller enrollment, class size, and higher teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges also encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate studentteaching assistants (TAs), who do teach classes at some Research I and other universities. Most are private, although there are public liberal arts colleges. In addition, some offer experimental curricula, such as Hampshire College, Beloit College, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Pitzer College, Sarah Lawrence College, Grinnell College, Bennington College, New College of Florida, and Reed College.

Universities are research-oriented educational institutions which provide both undergraduate and graduate programs. However, for historical reasons, some universities (such as Boston College, Dartmouth College, and The College of William & Mary) have retained the term "college" as their name.Graduate programs grant a variety of master's degrees (like the Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Business Administration(M.B.A.) or Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)) in addition to doctorates such as the Ph.D. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Educationdistinguishes among institutions on the basis of the prevalence of degrees they grant and considers the granting of master's degrees necessary, though not sufficient, for an institution to be classified as a university.

Some universities have professional schools. Examples include journalism school, business school, medical schools (which award either the M.D. or D.O.),law schools (J.D.), veterinary schools (D.V.M.), pharmacy schools (Pharm.D.), and dental schools. A common practice is to refer to different units within universities as colleges or schools (what is referred to in other countries as faculties). Some colleges may be divided into departments, including an anthropology department within a college of liberal arts and sciences within a larger university. Yet, few universities adopt the term "college" as names of academic organizations. For example, Purdue University is composed of multiple colleges—among others, the College of Agriculture and the College of Engineering. Of these Purdue breaks the College of Agriculture down into departments, such as the Department of Agronomy or the Department of Entomology, whereas Purdue breaks down the College of Engineering into schools, such as the School of Electrical Engineering, which enrolls more students than some of its colleges do. As is common in this scheme, Purdue categorizes both its undergraduate students (and faculty and programs) and its post-graduate students (and faculty and programs) via this scheme of decomposition, being a topical decomposition that focuses on an academic sector of directly related academic disciplines.

The American university system is largely decentralized. Public universities are administered solely by the individual states. Except for the United States service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate universities, although it can give federal grants to them and any institution that receives federal funds as a condition must certify that it has adopted and implemented a drug prevention program that meets regulations.[11][12]

The majority of public universities are operated by the states and territories, usually as part of a state university system. Each state supports at least one state university and several support many more. California, for example, has three public higher education systems: the 11-campus University of California, the 23-campus California State University, and the 109-campus California Community Colleges System. Public universities often have a large student body, with introductory classes numbering in the hundreds and some undergraduate classes taught by graduate students. Tribal collegesoperated on Indian reservations by some federally recognized tribes are also public institutions.

Many private universities also exist. Among these, some are secular while others are involved in religious education. Some are non-denominational and some are affiliated with a certain sect or church, such as Roman Catholicism (with different institutions often sponsored by particular religious institutes such as the Jesuits) or religions such as Lutheranism or Mormonism. Seminaries are private institutions for those preparing to become members of the clergy. Most private schools (like all public schools) are non-profit, although some are for-profit.

Tuition is charged at most American universities, and public universities generally offer lower tuition rates for in state students than out of state students. In 2002, the average in-state tuition was $4,081 and $18,273 for those who paid out of state rates. There are two exceptions that tuition is not needed: 1) the five federally sponsored service academies, in which students attend free and with a stipend in exchange for a service commitment in the U.S. armed forces after graduation; 2) a few institutions where offering tuition-free education is part of their mission, such as Cooper Union,Berea College, Olin College and Webb Institute. Public universities often have much lower tuition than private universities because funds are provided by state governments and residents of the state that supports the university typically pay lower tuition than non-residents.

Students often usescholarships, student loans, or grants, rather than paying all tuition out-of-pocket. Several states offer scholarships that allow students to attend free of tuition or at lesser cost; examples include HOPE in Georgia and Bright Futures in Florida.

Most universities, public and private, have endowments. A January 2007 report by the National Association of College and University Business Officersrevealed that the top 765 U.S. colleges and universities had a combined $340 billion in endowment assets as of 2006. And, as of 2011, seventy-three additional colleges and universities had endowments worth over $1 billion. The largest endowment is that of Harvard University, at $29 billion.
The majority of both liberal arts colleges and public universities are coeducational; the number of women's colleges and men's colleges has dwindled in past years and nearly all remaining single-sex institutions are private liberal arts colleges. There are historically black colleges and universities(HBCUs), both private (such as Morehouse College) and public (such as Florida A&M).

American universities developed independent accreditation organizations to vouch for the quality of the degrees they offer. The accreditation agencies rate universities and colleges on criteria such as academic quality—the quality of their libraries, the publishing records of their faculty, and the degrees which their faculty hold. Nonaccredited institutions are perceived as lacking in quality and rigor, and may be termed diploma mills.

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