Value Proposition

Since long before we were a nation, Americans had a commitment to higher education. Only 16 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Harvard opened its doors to 9 students. All of our early institutions were characterized by small student enrollments from the elite families of their day.

The concept of a broad based, highly educated population began its journey to reality a 150 years ago, when Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862. The Act called for the establishment of “at least one College in every state upon a sure and perpetual foundation, accessible to all, but especially to the sons of toil”.

Now, a century and a half later, a hundred years after the Industrial Revolution, in a nation of 315 million people where over half of all new jobs require a college education, the promise of the Morrill Act is more important than ever.

The words of Abraham Lincoln when he signed the Act are as relevant today as they were then: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew.” Despite the unprecedented success of America’s public university system that is the envy of the world, reduced state and federal funding, almost a trillion dollars in student loans, tuition soaring out of reach for middle class families, stunning demographic changes and declining preparedness for college-level work, today’s public higher education is at a crossroads. Our old ways of doing business are no longer sustainable and the promise of the Morrill Act is in peril.

However, what the authors of the Act could not have imagined is that there would be an opportunity to fully realize their intentions in a far more diverse nation with a vastly larger population. They could not have foreseen the advent of the Internet, social media, small screen technology and the sheer computing power of today’s laptop. Or that almost all knowledge would be at the fingertips of every citizen virtually free. These developments hold an unrealized potential as we look for innovative and creative ways of ensuring the original promise of America’s higher education system for future generations.

By enabling partner institutions to educate a larger and more diverse population of qualified students with undiminished quality, Academic Partnerships is contributing to the future success of public universities.