The American state university system

Abstract

The American pattern of higher education with almost 1800 universities, colleges, institutes, and what not, is indeed confusing to the outsider and by no means easy for an American to explain. Within this larger pattern, however, the state university has shown a certain coherence which to my mind justifies calling it a system. Institutions of higher education in the United States may be divided into three main classes, privately supported institutions, publicly supported institutions, and church, sponsored institutions. :In this paper I shall not have much occasion to refer to church, sponsored institutions, but shall frequently make comparisons between state universities and private universities.