Finances of Colleges Over the Centuries

Finances of Colleges Over the Centuries
 
Student’s Name
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Finances of Colleges Over the Centuries
Introduction
Higher institutions of learning are considered the most contentious and prestigious learning establishments. Although universities and colleges are some of the most prestigious institutions of learning, Thelin (2019) noted that these institutions had undergone significant crises and triumphs over the years, for instance, the difficulties adapting to the 21st-century system of learning. Having a college education has been considered a vital process for most American youths, thus making questions concerning what college life is or should constitute critical to scholars globally. A controversial and debatable issue regarding college education is the evolution of college finances and billing over the years, the roles of donations, and their ultimate significance in ensuring the sustainability of America’s education processes. Thus, this article’s goals will be to examine the key patterns and trends in college finances over the past centuries.
A History of College and University Education in the United States
            The expansion and growth of college and university education dated back to over three centuries, just as long as the United States existed. Right from the start of the 17th century, the United States government has managed to attain educational goals, including increasing absorption into public service, enhancing literacy among communities, and reducing the socio-economic gaps between the rich and the poor neighborhoods. As stressed by Berger and Thelin (2021), colonial governments made little to no contribution to college education sustainability. Instead, the communities made significant financial efforts to support educational projects in the long run through sponsorships, donations, and lotteries. For instance, in 1636, John Harvard, a renowned higher education philanthropist, made a seminal donation that was used to establish the prestigious Harvard University (Rossodivitab & Pantoja, n.d.). Donations were also in the form of parcels of land, learning resources, free professorship, and money.
While colonial colleges were considered stable and more efficient institutions, they were largely exclusionary and allowed only white Christian males as eligible for civilized and formal forms of education. Women, particularly those from the colored communities, were not allowed to partake in acquiring higher education knowledge regardless of their social and economic stands. These forms of discrimination informed the formulation of current policies and reforms that advocated for fair and equitable education in modern-day American colleges and universities.
            The 18th-century college students sought higher learning education for different reasons, including the qualifications of the professors who instructed at different institutions, the conditions of accommodation and living spaces in colleges and universities, their location in suburban areas equipped with prestigious social amenities, and the non-sectarian administration. Like modern-day higher learning institutions, the 18th-century colleges and universities hosted students from diverse ethnic backgrounds who also had divergent social, economic, and political perspectives.
According to the Penn Archives (2018), this diverse environment created an atmosphere that offered learners a platform for expression, talent development, and effective social interactions. At first, most students who signed up for higher education were sons and daughters of faculty members and prominent stakeholders. Nevertheless, a significant number of learners were from low-income families who sought hands-on experience in mechanics, navigation, and accounting, which would allow them to secure employment and financially support their families. Unlike contemporary schools, students in 18th century higher education institutions did not participate in comprehensive extra-curricular programs during their free time. Rather, the schools left it upon learners to engage in unscheduled activities after learning hours.
Regarding the amount of tuition fees, the Penn Archives (2018) uncovered that most colleges and universities were run as charity organizations funded by donations from the community, state, and federal establishments. These institutions also relied on lotteries and tuition charges that learners had to pay. The expenses often amounted to four pounds every year, inclusive of firewood and admission costs. Although the schools’ administrators ensured that the amount of tuition money paid by each student be regulation in consideration of students from low-income families, most learners often left without clearing their fee balances, mostly due to the lack of comprehensive financial accountability measures and authorities.
The increasing demand for education significantly contributed to the rising cost of obtaining a college degree. As Adam (2017b) noted, the increase in tuition fees was not an outcome of financial or economic factors, resulting from social changes in priorities and perceptions on the benefits of education. Colleges and universities diverted from offering education as a social good to making the process an income-generating venture. In the early days, schools were considered avenues that operated as public goods. Thus, students who had completed their vocational training and degrees were released back into society to fulfill gaps in socio-economic and political arenas. For instance, the Stanford University was established to educate and empower California residents to increase engagement in community service.
Other institutions, including the College of William and Mary, provided fair and equal scholarship opportunities for learners regardless of their social, economic, and political backgrounds. The college provided free education in exchange for a pledge to serve the public good after completing their degrees. Despite the rising tuition and admission expenses in the 19th century, William and Mary maintained that it was unethical and unacceptable to pass these costs to learners. In a statement dated 1904 to Charles Francis Adams, Harvard administrator emphasized that “I want to have the College open equally to men with much money, little money, or no money, provided they all have brains” (Adam, 2017).
Elliot’s statement confirmed that learning institutions’ original goals and objectives were to reduce the rift between the literate and the illiterate and the low, middle, and high-income families. Colleges and university education were a means of ensuring equal empowerment of communities and neighborhoods. Despite these initial convictions, higher education’s social perceptions significantly changed in the 1910s when colleges and universities began admitting more learners, and the government reduced financial efforts. Eventually, what started as an uplifting project to enhance literacy in the society, became projects of individual pursuit for self-aggrandizement.
As governments continued to withdraw their financial assistance to learners in higher learning institutions, independent stakeholders and administrators saw the opportunity as a business opportunity to make more money. With the rising educational expenses, many state governments introduced students’ debt bills to help learners from low-income households afford their education. A worrying statistic by economist Alvaro Mezza revealed a 180% increase in the costs of higher education learning fees between 1995 and 2015 (Adam, 2017). In
In the 2017 research, Adam also stated that student loans had become the second-largest category of personal debts that interfere with individual capabilities to make financial breakthroughs. Young Americans are unable to acquire personal properties or start families due to the debt burden. By the year 2012, students and their families began associating higher learning education with massive debts that a person had to spend a significant part of their productive life on repaying. Statistics by Adam (2017b) revealed that
More than 44 million Americans (14 percent of the population) were still paying off student loans. And the average graduate in 2016 left college with more than $37,000 in student loan debt (Paragraph 3).
The costs of college education have worsened recently, ever since the emergence of the novel coronavirus disease. The worst-hit schools by the pandemic serve the brown and black student populations, who experience the adverse impacts of learning without access to relevant technological resources. Summers (2020) emphasized that these students’ categories will likely miss on complementary learning programs carried remotely using relevant technologies. For most parents, the situation is particularly depressing considering the high costs they have to pay to keep their children learning.
For the longest time, the government has largely failed to restore college education to its former glory due to fragmented higher learning policies to support subsidized or free education. Longman (2020) offered a few recommendations that education ministries and administrators can implement to ensure affordable education. The first suggestion is to establish policy changes and research investments capable of linking up participating educational institutions in a comprehensive network of student-oriented learning. The recent focus on profit-making has significantly undermined education goals, which was to offer equal empowerment to individuals as long as they had the brains to do it.
Conclusion
In summary, the evolution of college finances reveals a significant shift in higher education sponsorships’ patterns and trends. Research in the concept of financial billing revealed that social perceptions had had the largest influence on increasing education costs. The public, administrators, and investors perceived education as a personal pursuit for financial growth rather than a public good measure. These assertions revealed the need to restructure higher education policies and programs to the center of the attainment of initial goals of public empowerment rather than avenues of generating profits.
 
 
 
References
Adam, T. (2017, June 30). From public good to personal pursuit: Historical roots of the student debt crisis. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/from-public-good-to-personal-pursuit-historical-roots-of-the-student-debt-crisis-79475
Adam, T. (2017b, July 20). College Was Once Free and For the Public Good—What Happened? YES! Magazine. https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2017/07/20/college-was-once-free-and-for-the-public-good-what-happened/
Berger, J. & Thelin, J. (2021). Higher education in the United States: Historical development. Colleges, Institutions, Universities, and American – StateUniversity.Com. com/pages/2044/Higher-Education-in-United-States.html”>https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2044/Higher-Education-in-United-States.html
Longman, M. (2020, September 4). How to Save Higher Education. Washington Monthly. https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/september-october-2020/how-to-save-higher-education/
Penn Archives. (2018, January 12). Penn in the 18th Century: Student Life. University Archives and Records Center. https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-history/18th-century/student-life
Summers, K. (2020, September 1). COVID-19 and the Future of Education. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. https://www.unlv.edu/news/release/covid-19-and-future-education
Thelin, J. R. (2019). A History of American Higher Education (third edition). Johns Hopkins University Press.Thelin, J. R. (2019). A History of American Higher Education (third edition). Johns Hopkins University Press.
Rossodivita, A., & Pantoja, G. (n.d.). Philanthropy in Public Higher Education | Learning to Give. Learning to Give. org/resources/philanthropy-public-higher-education“>https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/philanthropy-public-higher-education
 

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