Search Results

During the first half of the twentieth century, American medical education underwent drastic changes. Greater costs of operation and the requirements of licensing agencies forced many medical schools to close and most of the others to affiliate with universities. The surviving medical schools were able to raise their admission and graduation requirements, which was also made possible by the rise in the general educational level of the population. The growth of the basic medical sciences led to the development of a new kind of faculty member whose career was confined to the medical school. During the first half of the twentieth century, the educational level of the population rose significantly. The proportion of the 17-year-old population with high school educations increased from 6.3 percent in 1900 to 16.3 percent in 1920, 28.8 percent in 1930, and 49.0 percent in 1940. The number of bachelors’ degrees conferred per 100 persons 23 years old increased from 1.9 in 1900 to 2.6 in 1920, 5.7 in 1930, and 8.1 in 1940. Between 1910 and 1940, the number of college undergraduates more than tripled. Because the number of medical students did not increase, medical schools were able to raise their admission standards. At the same time, many new professions competed with medicine for students. Between 1900 and 1940, dentistry, engineering, chemistry, accounting, and college teaching, among others, grew significantly faster than the traditional professions of medicine, law, and the clergy. Graduate education also became an alternative to professional training. Between 1900 and 1940, the number of masters’ and doctors’ degrees awarded, excluding medicine and other first professional degrees, increased from 1,965 to 30,021, or from 6.7 to 13.9 percent of all degrees awarded. Colleges and universities decentralized their organizational structure to deal with the increasingly technical and specialized content of academic disciplines. They established academic departments that consisted of faculty members who shared a common body of knowledge and taught the same or related courses. Departments were given the responsibility of supervising their faculty members, recruiting new faculty, and operating the department’s academic program. By 1950, departments existed in most of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Between 1950 and 1980, state and federal funding made higher education a major component of American society in terms of the number of institutions, students, and faculty members; the range of academic and professional programs; and the capital investment and expenditures. Medical schools also grew from small, narrowly based institutions that educated undergraduate medical students to large academic medical centers that provided a wide range of educational, research, and patientcare activities. The schools changed their internal structures by replacing part-time faculty members with full-time faculty and restricting clinicians’ private practices to the medical school. Their independent sources of funding and autonomy affected relations with their parent universities, affiliated health schools, and the community. The most distinctive feature of higher education after mid-century has been its greater accessibility to students. The number of degree-credit enrolled college students increased from 2.7 million in 1949 to 5.9 million in 1965, 11.2 million in 1975, and 12.4 million in 1982. Between 1950 and 1982, the proportion of the 25- to 29-year-old population who had completed four or more years of college rose from 7.7 percent to 21.7 percent, even though the number of persons in that age group increased by two-thirds. The most rapid growth in higher education occurred from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, when total degree-credit enrollment tripled. From 1975 to the early 1980s, three-fourths of the growth has been due to part-time students. The greater accessibility of higher education has especially benefited those groups of students who had low rates of college attendance at mid-century. The number of women students increased from 0.8 million in 1949 to 6.4 million in 1981, while the number of men increased from 1.9 million to 6.0 million. Between 1950 and 1982, the proportion of blacks 25 to 29 years of age who had completed four or more years of college increased from 2.8 percent to 15.8 percent. In 1979, blacks accounted for 10.5 percent of high school graduates and 10.0 percent of college enrollees. In the same year, hispanics accounted for 4.3 percent of high school graduates and 4.2 percent of college enrollees. Changes have occurred in the academic status of many students.