If you were to type the title of this piece into a search engine, the results would be a series of triggered bloggers and columnists bloviating about how the cost of a four-year degree has made it undesirable. I’m not here to further disturb them; that topic is an entire history in of itself. I’m also aware there are several higher education paths that are greater or less than four years. This piece will only discuss the widely adopted, four year bachelor’s degree in United States universities. Furthermore, the only question we’re going to answer in that of the title – why is college four years?
Possible Origins of The Four Year Degree
We begin to answer this question in the Middle Ages. As a growing artisan class emerged, apprenticeship programs grew in popularity. The programs were simplistic – accept a role with a local master craftsman, live with him for seven years whilst learning, then leave him once learned to “set up shop”. During this unpaid seven year period, the master craftsman provided you food, housing, and other necessities. If this track sounds familiar, you’re intuition is correct. Most skilled trades today require seven to ten years to obtain the title of “master tradesman”. And, yes, these programs are also the genesis of the term “master’s degree”.
That’s great, but how do we go from a seven year apprenticeship to a four year degree? Enter Harvard. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College, it was modeled after Cambridge and Oxford University. In fact, the founders actually renamed the town in Massachusetts ‘Cambridge’ from ‘New Towne’. At first, Harvard had a three year AB (Artium Baccalaureus, Latin for ‘Bachelor of Arts’) program and a six year program for those pursuing the clergy. It became apparent, however, many students were underprepared after three years. In 1646, Henry Dunster, Harvard’s first president, decided to add another year to the AB program, thus bringing the AB program to four years, matching that of the English incumbents.
The Expansion of Universities
Throughout the Colonial Period, universities continued to be founded in Harvard’s mold. Among them were Yale (1701), Princeton (1747), Rutgers (1766), Columbia (1784), and Penn (1791). Each of these aforementioned colleges and more were founded by separate religious groups seeking footholds in the New World. One of the few exceptions was Brown (1764), who accepted young men from all denominations following its renaming in 1804.
As the 19th Century progressed, the Industrial Revolution and subsequent urbanization necessitated different educational demands. Once again, we looked to our European counterparts for inspiration. In the early 19th Century, Mechanics’ Institutes formed in England as a method of ensuing traditional, liberal arts teachings into those dedicated to increasingly specialized trades. The first example of such a society in the United States was the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, founded in 1824. Subsequent institutes founded in Baltimore (1826), Cincinnati (1828), and San Francisco (1854). Perhaps unsurprisingly, today these cities have some of the oldest and strongest trade unions.
During this same time, the Prussian primary education model gained traction as a way to educate the masses from ages five to fourteen. It is from this model we eventually derived elementary, middle, and high school. Although this development is not central to our four year degree question, it is important to understand the development of modern education began at the university level.
The Morrill Act
In 1853, an Illinois College professor named Jonathan Baldwin Tuner began a decade-long struggle that would foundationally alter the higher education system. Turner believed the United States had two classes – professional and industrial. The professional class was already being served by the established universities, which were still widely inaccessible, especially to those in rural areas. Turner proposed a bill establishing an industrial university in each state funded by the sale of public lands. The bill passed in Illinois and a formal funding request was made to Congress, but was ultimately rejected.
Vermont Representative Justin S. Morrill proposed a modified version of the bill in 1857. It too was rejected. However, Morrill continued to fight, and in 1862 under the Lincoln administration, the bill finally passed. In its final iteration, each state was allotted 30,000 acres per representative and senator to establish colleges specifically for agricultural and technical degrees. Among these first “land-grant schools” were Auburn, California-Berkely, Michigan State, Purdue, and Texas A&M University. Like their professional-focused counterparts, their degrees centered around a four year baccalaureate degree with options for advanced master’s programs.
The Four Year Degree Persists
The late 19th and early 20th centuries brought demands for education in emerging fields such as business administration, engineering, and health sciences. The universities, naturally, grew in size to accommodate these new demands. This cycle of universities meeting societal education demands continues today. The only difference is the volume of attendees, which significantly increased following the GI Bill in 1944. However, through it all, the basic four year structure has changed little.
Chasing down the answer to this simple question proved to be a goose chase mostly because, as I stated earlier, it has become a charged topic given the ancillary issues around higher education. Those ancillary topics are for another time. I will state, however, this brief history of the four year degree demonstrates the importance of seeking the genesis of widely accepted truths. The more widely accepted one is, the deeper the roots in human history, and the more complex it is to change.
That is not to say, we shouldn’t try.
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.” – Abraham Lincoln