Running head: HISTORY TIMELINE

History Timeline
Robert Boyce
Georgia Southern University

History Timeline

2700-1800 BC

Scribes in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt

During this time Egypt and Sumer had developed some schools for instruction in scribal arts.
This is one of the earliest recordings of actual instruction being given to people to increase their
educational value.
5th Century BC

Sophists in Ancient Greece

Sophists were the seen as the first teachers who opened classes to the masses for instruction.
They also charged for their information creating what partially resembles the higher education
system today.
3rd Century BC

Romes Control of Education

This period showcases the Roman transformation in the field of education. They adapted much
of what the Greeks had already accomplished and sent it across their empire thus expanding
education throughout a large part of the world.
313 AD

Christian Teaching & Legalization

The advancement of Christianity throughout the Roman world would bring about the decline of
the Hellenistic teaching and would create large church schools that would later go on to become
Universities. In 313 Christianity was legalized which helped the proliferation of Christian
schools in Europe.
8th Century AD

Church Monopoly on Education

The Latin Church by now had gained massive control over education removing anything that
was against it. This strict enforcement of church based education and the corruption within the
church would cause a major shift to occur later.
11th Century AD

Secular Learning Returns

The church became less rigid and they stopped seeing secular learning as a threat to Christianity
thus releasing some of the restraints placed upon education. Cathedral schools began to open
around Europe.
12th-13th Century AD

Teaching Guilds and Student Nations

Faculty created teaching guilds that would help to lead the school in both higher academia and
lower level academia. Students also created their own groups at other less massive schools where
they helped the other foreign students and drove the direction of the school to a degree.
13th Century AD

Advance Education & Academic Freedom

History Timeline

Students were able to take up education in medicine, law, and physics at a higher level of
education after their trivium and quadrivium education. The advanced studies would resemble
the graduate and doctoral programs of today. Also Lehrfrieheit and Lernfreiheit were important
in this era which would be the building blocks of academic freedom.
1600s

Rise of Scientific and Empirical Evidence

An increase in the usage of empirical and scientific inquiry in both the secular and Christian
school worlds began around this time. This led to a proliferation of scientific studies at schools.
1636

Harvard College Established

The first higher education institute in the colonies Harvard opens. It was based off the model of
Oxford and Cambridge but Harvard brought forth new ideas that were not used in either college
before. It is also the first corporation in the colonies predating the country by over 100 years.
1764

Establishment of Brown College

Brown College the first school in Rhode Island was also the first school to not hold everyone to
strict religious requirements to enter the school. This helped by allowing those of other Christian
denominations and sometimes country of origin to attend.
19th Century

Southern Expansion of Colleges

Numerous colleges were built in the South during the beginning half of the 19th century. The
Southern youths were now able to go to college without having to move further north and
southern women also would not have to go to the North where they may be corrupted as the
Southerners believed.
1840s and 1850s

Opening of Womens Colleges

The first recorded womens colleges opened around this time bringing more educational
opportunities to women who had to deal with a male dominated and oriented field of education.
There were even coeducational schools opening around this period.
1852

Collegiate Sports and Rivalries

The birth of sports in college was during the early 1800s. As they grew to become more popular
they became a source of revenue for colleges to this day, and a good way to bring alumni back
into the fold. Sports expanded to incorporate other schools and rivalries were born from those
changes. Yale and Harvard had a competition between their rowing teams as the first
intercollegiate sports match.
19th Century

Bachelors of Science Degree

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During the mid-19th century science, engineering, military and agriculture fields were growing.
Schools were having trouble integrating the sciences into their current liberal arts curriculum so
in the end the bachelors of Science was created to hold the programs giving students two
different degree tracks.
1862

Morrill Act of 1862

This act initiated by the federal government gave states funding to build land-grant colleges and
to expand some of their already created colleges into land-grant institutes. It also helped to bring
public higher education into the mainstream for many people.
1890

Second Morrill Act of 1890

The revision to the Morrill Act of 1862 now gave a chance to extend the benefits to the African
American colleges within the South and to help with the creation of research based schools.
1890-1910

Mascots, Colors, and College Hymns

Colleges began to obtain a mascot and school colors to identify themselves by and to bring
loyalty to the campus and to those that supported it. The colors and mascots were used to display
the virtues of the school as well as their varsity sports team. College fight songs were also
created during this period usually by alumni for their alma mater. Athletics departments were not
through a shift towards being professionally recognized with a director and a staff for coaching
the athletes.
1917

Student Army Training Corps and WWI

This represents a beginning partnership between the colleges and the government. The Student
Army Training Corps brought some funding to schools but it also turned parts of some campuses
into military training grounds. Enrollment at some colleges also declined due to the war effort
and students enlisting to help fight. Schools had to adjust their curriculum to help the student
infantry learn about the war and what areas they would be battling in.
1920-1930s

Development of Student- Affairs

Student Affairs was created in this period to deal with students that were taking the easy classes
to get a degree or cheating the system in anyway. Student affairs personnel would assist the
students in making the correct choices that would help better themselves in the long run.
1941-1945

Universities and World War II

During this time period the universities once again aided with the war effort for the country.
Professors showcased their expertise by instructing the soldiers in the language and using their
knowledge of geography to help them plan for their arrival on foreign soil. Applied research
projects became important as professors helped to form the atom bomb and other war strategies.

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1944

GI Bill

Created an opportunity for veterans returning from the war to go to college and have some or all
of their tuition and costs paid. This opened the door for many veterans to get a higher education
degree and it pushed the standards of education at that time creating a demand for those with
stronger degrees rather than the terminal high school diploma. Schools had to expand and thus
hire more instructors as well as train more instructors to deal with the influx of students.
1950

Creation of National Science Foundation

The first of other foundations that would provide institutes with research grant money for
completing research in that specific field. The research completed was at times skewed towards
what was useful for the government and the military rather than for pure science.
1954

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka

The case that desegregated schools and that would eventually allow for the breaking down of
racial barriers at schools allowing any student of any race to go to any school. African American
students that did start going to school during this time were shunned and mostly exiled from the
true college experience but they were still able to go to the schools.
1960

Federal Research Universities

By this point in history schools could be divided up by those that were able to get federal grants
and those that were not. Even within those schools there were divisions for the programs that
were able to obtain federal money and they were given more prestige over other departments.
1964

Title VI Higher Education Act of 1964

This act prevented discrimination in anything with federal assistance which in turn prevented
discrimination in schools based on race, color, or national origin.
1970

Kent State Shooting and Student Activism

The Kent State shooting was significant not only because of the death of the students involved
but also the power of the students across all campuses. They were able to cause multiple schools
to close and speak their minds about what happened. Due to the student activism the legal voting
age was changed to 18.
1972

Basic Educational Opportunities Grants (Pell Grant)

The Pell grant was initiated to help finance higher education for students. The grant money could
be used at most any school and it was awarded to the student and placed into their college
account.
1996

Higher Education Inc.

History Timeline

The University of Phoenix and other proprietary schools were able to enter the battle to obtain
Pell grant students as well as students on other federal aid and build their own for-profit schools.
2008

Post 9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008

The expansion and renewal of the GI bill to help current veterans go back to school and to give
the money to their family members was an excellent move by the government. This not only
gave the veterans a chance at school but it also was useful for their spouses or children while
they remained at work allowing families that may not have funds for school the chance to go.