UNIVERSITIES, AMERICAN. There is no accepted definition of the term "uni versity" in America. Our earliest colo nial institutions were founded as schools or colleges. The Constitution of Massa chusetts of 1780 uses this language: "Harvard College, in which University many persons" have been educated. This identification of the terms college and university is not yet obsolete. The name of Yale College was changed to Yale University in 1886. The College of New Jersey became Princeton University in 1896. The state institutions in earliest days beginning with North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina generally used the title university without any real discrimination in work.
Within the past fifty years the Ameri can University has assumed a more defi nite form and type. This type differs essentially from that of the historic Eng lish Universities and equally so from those of Germany. The American Uni versity has in general been developed out of the American College, and it still in cludes the college as a part of its organi zation. So Harvard College is a branch or department of Harvard University. Adelbert College is a part of Western Reserve University. A university is therefore a college plus something more. This something more includes: (1) pro vision for graduate work leading to the Ph. D. degree; (2) extended facilities for research; (3) additional schools co-ordi nate with the college or built upon the same for professional work of high char acter. Medicine, Law, and Engineering in its most varied forms are the profes sions most frequently provided for, though others are qametimes added. It is the development of these three charac teristics that has made the American University.
Graduate first announce ment of courses leading to the degree of Ph. D. was made by Yale College in 1860. Harvard followed in 1872. The opening of Johns Hopkins University in 1876 marks an epoch in this field. In that year there were only 269 graduate students in all American institutions. Ten years later the number had increased to 1,237 and in ten years more to 5,000. The influence of this movement affected richer and older institutions so that gen erous provisions for graduate work were made in many of them. The degree of Ph. D. is now regularly conferred on a considerable number of candidates by twenty or twenty-five institutions which by this token may be called universities. Of course there are others doing a credit able amount of graduate work, especially for the Master's degree, but they do not compete in number and variety of courses offered with the first group.
The requirements for the Doctor's de gree are fairly uniform. To the ordi nary college course at least three years of work is added. This work is highly specialized, and culminates in a disserta tion, which is generally printed and must give evidence of ability to do independent investigation. Preliminary acquaintance with French and German is demanded, also a familiarity with the literature of the subject under investigation. An ex amination, oral or written, covers the whole field of study.
Facilities for must necessarily accompany all graduate work. A university must therefore have well equipped laboratories and extensive libraries. Of course such facilities are demanded even for undergraduate work, but the true university provides them on a scale and to an extent that cannot be demanded even of the best college. Teachers of university students must also be left free for independent investiga tions. Under the influence of the Na tional Research Council an effort is now being made to stimulate research in all American institutions of high grade, but the universities must lead the way. Connected with research work provision must also be made for publication of results.
It was not accidental that Johns Hop kins University became the center from which issued important publications in so many fields.
Prof essional . are not only well equipped institutions for specialized graduate study, but they are generally big institutions, with oppor tunities for study in the broadest fields. They have thousands of students, im mense resources, provided either by taxa tion or endowment, many buildings and extensive grounds. Even the college course in such an institution represents the extreme movement for widening the curriculum. Admission is on liberal terms, and the widest possible choice of subjects is afterward allowed. In the same spirit professional schools are a part of the university and share its care and its fortunes. The tendency in recent years has been to bring schools of medicine and law into close affiliation with great universities. This result has come about in part from increased re quirements in these schools. Universi ties have likewise developed schools of applied science or technology parallel with the college course or supplementary thereto. Year by year vocational work is elevated and elaborated into degree courses. Thus we find not only new courses in engineering, but also in archi tecture, industrial art, forestry, com merce, journalism etc.