Colonial Revival Colleges

Thelin (2011) noted that the English universities Oxford and Cambridge greatly influenced early American higher education.

In addition, Oxford and Cambridge were autonomous, privately endowed and linked to a federation.

The collegiate system of combining learning and living was a seminal plan for higher education that college founders tried to capture for the American colonies.

Discuss the various ways in which early American Colonial colleges did not emulate or resisted replicating the Oxford-Cambridge ideal.

Describe the reasons for these changes and what the change agents were. Consider important factors such as college funding, curriculum, religion, architecture, and the student population .

What is your opinion about the changes? Do you feel that the established political powers should have taken a different direction or kept some of the key elements of the Oxford-Cambridge ideal? Explain why or why not.

Thelin, J. R. (2011). A history of American higher education (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Chapter 1: Colleges in the Colonial Era