Posts by Timeline of Graduate Education

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 2000s

October 26, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

At the opening of a new century, the Rackham Graduate School demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the core Michigan values of the past century while continuously improving the quality of graduate education in a rapidly changing world of new knowledge and new technology. This decade opened with the decision to renovate the building, saw redoubled effort devoted to ensuring equal access to higher education, and by the decade’s end the Graduate School had developed new services and projects dedicated to the success of graduate students at our university. Graduate students elected to the Bouchet Honor Society in 2009 were (left…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1990s

October 18, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

The poor economy and rapidly dwindling state support for higher education through the prior two decades took a toll on research universities. Nonetheless, the Rackham Graduate School remained one of largest at any research university in the U.S. with a notable number and variety of programs in every field of learning. And the number who graduated each year remained high. For example, during the academic year 1990-91, there were 652 doctoral and 1,560 master’s degrees awarded. Rackham was able to remain in the forefront as a result of innovations that prepared students for the challenges of the next century as…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1980s

October 12, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

The economic troubles of the prior decade extended into this one. Declining state support for higher education, inflation, and federal regulations continued to take a toll on education in the state of Michigan. In fact, in 1982 the state of Michigan ranked 50th in terms of the growth rate for the support of higher education. One outcome was that U-M no longer was a truly public university as private funds were required to support the majority of operations. Another was that for access to graduate education grants and fellowships were increasingly essential. People’s Rights Rally on the Diag, 1981 Rackham…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1970s

October 5, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

These were the years when Michigan truly earned its reputation for dissent in the service of social justice and societal change. While the student protests gained national attention, of more significance in the long term are the responses on the part of U-M and the Graduate School that resulted in immediate, long-term changes in graduate education and culture of graduate school. By the end of the 1970s, national economic decline resulted in a substantial cut in the financial support for graduate education; this required the leadership at Rackham to respond creatively while still maintaining the value of equal access to…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1960s

September 28, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

This is a decade known to Americans as a time of radical social change. Yet the focus in public memory on emerging civil rights, Johnson’s Great Society, and then the war in Viet Nam can distract from the realities of continuing intensive corporate and federal investment in advanced research. This is evident in the funding available for research and new fields of study at U-M. Early in the decade there were 220 research projects for industry on campus in addition to a flood of government contracts and foundation grants. And Rackham was the center of activity for it all. More…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1950s

September 21, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

International conflict continued to have a significant influence on graduate education at the U-M in this decade, just as it had in the preceding ten years. As the Second World War gave way to the Korean War and then the Cold War, our campus saw both a familiar fluctuation in enrollment and an even more intensified engagement in research and amount of funding available for research. The rapid expansion of interdisciplinary fields, a hallmark of the University by mid-century, allowed us to compete on a global as well as a national scale. Because Rackham provided oversight for graduate programs and…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1940s

September 14, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

In many ways the effects of the war that dominated this decade shaped the lineaments of the Graduate School. In 1940 the School had, thanks to the Rackham endowment, the exquisite building and impressive funds to support the pursuit of graduate education. By 1949 it exhibited the core features that distinguish the School at U-M: the Graduate School served national interests in the development of new knowledge; it was a primary incubator for new programs and fields of study; it provided a significant locus of financial support for student and faculty research. A demonstration in the mechanical engineering laboratory is…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1930s

September 7, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

During the Depression years, when higher education increasingly was beyond the reach of most Americans, there was remarkable development in graduate education at the University of Michigan. In part this was due to an astounding gift from one family. It also was the result of innovative scholars and academic leadership who seized the opportunity to pursue research and scholarship unhindered by narrow disciplinary boundaries. Mary and Horace Rackham The University’s Graduate School bears the name of the lawyer who assisted Henry Ford with the incorporation of his business in 1903. Horace H. Rackham had the foresight to invest in Ford’s…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1920s

August 31, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

The wealth that was generated and circulated in the U.S. during this decade brought tremendous growth at U-M. This took the form of investment in human capital and the physical plant, both made possible through individuals’ gifts, funding from foundations and business, and ever-increasing state support. There was an accompanying postwar growth in graduate enrollment which doubled during in the first half of the decade—far exceeding any expansion in undergraduate enrollment—and totaled 1,091 in 1929. These factors, along with the existence of a Graduate School intended to nurture research across the university, contributed to the emergence of one of U-M’s…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1910s

August 24, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

Thirty-two departments at U-M were offering graduate instruction by 1910 and there was an increasing demand for a new institution dedicated to graduate studies that would appropriately serve the interests of the university as a whole. This resulted in 1911 in the formation of a committee to study the issues which was chaired by the University President and consisted of three Regents, two deans, and two distinguished faculty members. Once again, the outcome was a recommendation to the Board of Regents that they authorize the establishment of a separate institution to administer graduate education at U-M. The Regents finally approved…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1900s

August 17, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

There were 90 students enrolled in the Graduate Department of Literature, Science and Arts at the opening of the twentieth century. On the face of it this seems to indicate little interest in research on campus. Yet this is misleading. Remember that research and post-graduate studies were carried out in all the schools on campus though only one school had a formal department for graduate education. Administrative struggles on campus for control of graduate studies, and an increasing gap between the number of students who wanted to continue on with their studies and the availability of faculty and funds to…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1890s

August 10, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

In 1890 the University of Michigan once again edged out Harvard to hold the distinction of being the university in the United States with largest enrollment. There were 2,420 students on our campus at that time and the reasons for attracting such numbers are many. The costs of tuition and housing were relatively inexpensive, especially compared to private schools on the east coast, and this was due in part to improved state funding. We could boast an impressive faculty that included many authors of textbooks that were widely used in high schools and college; this in turn promoted our reputation.…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1880s

August 3, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

Graduate education begins to emerge during this decade on a model that is more familiar, and more rigorous; its appeal is evident in the accelerating popularity of master’s and doctoral degrees. The leadership at U-M experimented throughout the late nineteenth century with adaptations of systems used elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe. At the same time, expanding resources on our campus made possible the pursuit of advanced learning in an increasing number of fields. For example, in 1881 the new museums building was completed. This housed what were in fact six separate museums, one each for fine arts and history,…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1870s

July 27, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

The decade opened with the Regents taking the first serious turn onto the path that would become one of the distinctive hallmarks of our University: access to higher education for all. In 1870 the Regents formally stated that study at the University of Michigan was open to anyone who “possesses the requisite literary and moral qualifications.” This meant opening the door to women, to students from other states, from other countries and to races other than white. That year 34 women were admitted to the University. While it is true that there were at least a handful of African Americans…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

Timeline of Graduate Education

A Timeline of Graduate Education at the University of Michigan: 1860s

July 20, 2012 | By Timeline of Graduate Education

Few Americans think of this decade without the dominating presence of the Civil War. The rapidly growing town of Ann Arbor and its University life certainly was not removed from its effects. It was also a decade that saw important developments in postsecondary education across the nation. At the start of the decade the population of Ann Arbor numbered around 5,000. Political opinions on campus and in the community ran the spectrum. But in 1861 at news about Fort Sumter, President Tappan urged students to stand by Lincoln and support the Union cause. Ann Arbor had a militia company that…

Published in: Rackham Centennial

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