AHC/WI: American federal university

Was an American federal university likely? If so would it be just one in DC or a system of national universities spread all around the country? Would the national university be better or worse than the state universities? Would there even be state university systems?
 
Their is nothing forbidding it. But the question is why? States seem to do a good job for the most part. The land grant of 1862 was passed to make sure there was a system in place to teach agricultural and engineering. Most states already had state schools (nj would buy one!). So by the time the federal government cared enough to build a system of higher education, most states had schools in place and it made more sense to expand them.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
Unexpectedly, Jefferson had an idea for public education, which boiled down to having public elementary schools in all townships, public "high schools" in every county, and a public university on the state level. If this had been carried out in Virginia, and other states had copied it, you could have seen earlier public education throughout the USA. Then you could easily see it carried through to the federal level, with an elite school for "post-graduate studies" in Washington DC.

Jefferson's idea was based on the idea that everyone should get a basic education, and then the state pays for the best 10% to go to the "county schools". The best 10% of those students get a full scholarship for the state university. Carrying this on, the best 10% of graduates of the state universities would be admitted to the elite institution in DC.
 
Some people wanted to use the money used to found the Smithsonian otl for that purpose since it was somewhat vague on what it could be used for.
 
Unexpectedly, Jefferson had an idea for public education, which boiled down to having public elementary schools in all townships, public "high schools" in every county, and a public university on the state level. If this had been carried out in Virginia, and other states had copied it, you could have seen earlier public education throughout the USA. Then you could easily see it carried through to the federal level, with an elite school for "post-graduate studies" in Washington DC.

Jefferson's idea was based on the idea that everyone should get a basic education, and then the state pays for the best 10% to go to the "county schools". The best 10% of those students get a full scholarship for the state university. Carrying this on, the best 10% of graduates of the state universities would be admitted to the elite institution in DC.
Its an interesting idea, Its sort of similar to Prussia which founded the Phd program at the University of Berlin in 1810 and all research was funded by the Prussian government. The issue I foresee though is American Universities didn't have modern graduate programs till the 1860s. MA existed but it wasn't an "earned" degree (it would have been given as an honor or for residency etc) till the late 1850s. Yale's first PhD graduates are Eugene Schuyler, Arthur Williams Wright, and James Morris Whiton. Harvard's first PhD I believe was William Elwood Byerly in 1873 and it seem to be only a VERY small handful till the late 1880s early 1890s when places like John Hopkins are founded. I think in 1870 only 1 PHD was awarded any place in the country. Its not till 1890 where you have a more respectable 150 phds 1000 masters per year its doable.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
Its an interesting idea, Its sort of similar to Prussia which founded the Phd program at the University of Berlin in 1810 and all research was funded by the Prussian government. The issue I foresee though is American Universities didn't have modern graduate programs till the 1860s. MA existed but it wasn't an "earned" degree (it would have been given as an honor or for residency etc) till the late 1850s. Yale's first PhD graduates are Eugene Schuyler, Arthur Williams Wright, and James Morris Whiton. Harvard's first PhD I believe was William Elwood Byerly in 1873 and it seem to be only a VERY small handful till the late 1880s early 1890s when places like John Hopkins are founded. I think in 1870 only 1 PHD was awarded any place in the country. Its not till 1890 where you have a more respectable 150 phds 1000 masters per year its doable.

It certainly wouldn't be the same thing as in OTL. I just use the term as short-hand. The idea would basically be an elite institution for further scholarship by by the most qualified graduates of the state universities. (With the idea being that the fruits of their intellectual pursuits would then benefit the nation.)
 
It certainly wouldn't be the same thing as in OTL. I just use the term as short-hand. The idea would basically be an elite institution for further scholarship by by the most qualified graduates of the state universities. (With the idea being that the fruits of their intellectual pursuits would then benefit the nation.)
Yea I think I get you. My only concern is there were not many grad students in the US till the state system is very entrenched. Nor does their seem to be a ton of demand to create such a system. I think the thing of interest in this is to find out what causes the change compared to the organic development we had in our own timeline.
 
Their is nothing forbidding it....

That's exactly backwards, though. For the first 100+ years, the 10th Amendment was much, much stronger. The federal government was only allowed to do the things that the Constitution specifically authorized it to do.

So you'd need to get a strong enough call for such an entity that the rather rigorous amendment process was seen as the solution.
 
Top