CSHE@50: A Reflection and Prospectus on Globalization and Higher Education (Conference: March 27-28, 2007)

CSHE History

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The Center for Studies in Higher Education has a distinguished history. With funding provided in 1957 by the Carnegie Corporation, and formal establishment as a research unit by the Academic Senate and the Board of Regents of the University of California in 1957, CSHE became the first academic research unit devoted to the study of higher education policy issues in the United States, and most likely in the world.

Over its 50 years of existence, its research focus and even its name was revised, although its current title is nearly exactly its title when established under an initiative lead by then University of California President Robert Gordon Sproul, Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr, and Carnegie Corporation president John W. Gardner. As today, in 1957 part of the Center’s mission was to be multi- and trans-disciplinary in focus, supporting comparative research, and acting as a University-wide research unit while being based in Berkeley.

Since 1957, CSHE has had numerous researchers and a wide range of influential publications. The following provides a brief history of CSHE, a list of past affiliated researchers and their publications.

A Brief History of CSHE - The Early Years

The Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley is a multi-disciplinary research and policy center on higher education oriented to California, the nation, and comparative international issues.

CSHE promotes discussion among university leaders, government officials, and academics; assists policy-making by providing a neutral forum for airing contentious issues; and keeps the higher education world informed of new initiatives and proposals. The Center's research aims to inform current debate about higher education policy and practice.

Early 2007 mark the 50th anniversary of the Centers founding. Over the years, the Center’s research focus has evolved reflecting national and international events and the interests of associated scholars. The name of the Center also changed twice – although its current name is nearly exactly that used at its establishment. The Center’s directors have included many important scholars and policymakers in higher education.

Listing of Directors

The following provides a brief history of the early years of the Center. A more lengthy “Brief History” will appear later in 2006.

Establishing the Center

The Center for Studies in Higher Education has a distinguished history. With funding provided in late 1956 by the Carnegie Corporation, and formal establishment as a university research unit by the Academic Senate and the Board of Regents of the University of California in 1957, CSHE became the first academic research unit devoted to the study of higher education policy issues in the United States, and most likely in the world.

The idea of the Center was first discussed when John W. Gardner, President of the Carnegie Corporation, met with T. R. McConnell (former Chancellor at the University of Buffalo) shortly after he joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in March 1955. In the midst of a major expansion of state funded higher education, Gardner asked McConnell what areas of research needed investigation to guide and inform policymakers. McConnell generated a research theme focused on a comparative study of state systems of higher education. Several weeks later Gardner wrote to McConnell informing him that the Carnegie Corporation was interested in supporting such a variety of research projects focused on that theme and a related research institute at Berkeley.

McConnell then drew up a formal proposal with the approval of UC President Robert Gordon Sproul and in collaboration with Berkeley’s first Chancellor Clark Kerr. Shortly after, on September 21, 1955, McConnell, Sproul, and Kerr were notified that the Carnegie Corporation would provide a pilot grant focused on “The Diversity of American Higher Education,” and leading to the establishment of a research center. Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr then visited Gardner and his associates at the Carnegie Corporation in New York to discuss establishing what became known as a “Center for the Study of Higher Education.”

McConnell's plan provided for long-term investigations, with a need for a large staff and appropriate facilities. CSHE would focus on "basic research" on policy issues, and not be an agency for simply studying UC's own problems. As formulated by Kerr and McConnell, the Center had five general purposes, all of which remain relevant to CSHE’s contemporary mission. CSHE would:

1) Constitute a University-wide and multi-disciplinary research unit, and not simply an extension of Berkeley’s School of Education.

2) Develop a research program involving a staff in several disciplines.

3) Provide for progressively widening inclusion of faculty members in the continuing research.

4) Conduct special conferences under the auspices of an All-University agency.

5) Support research fellows of various grades and from various fields in the research activity of the Center.

In late 1956, the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Corporation approved a two-year grant to support McConnell’s plan. But there was still the need for formal establishment of CSHE within the university itself.

On May 17, 1957, the Committee on Educational Policy, a body of the University of California’s academic senate, recommended establishment of CSHE. Shortly after, the University’s Board of Regents gave final approval of the Center as an Organized Research Unit. McConnell held the title Chairman of the Center for the Study of Higher Education. It was then housed in temporary quarters, and by fall 1957 "in an old house on the corner of Bancroft Way and Piedmont." CSHE became the first center focused on the study of higher education institutions and systems in the United States, and probably the world. Shortly after the original commitment by the Carnegie Corporation for CSHE, John Gardner decided to fund other research centers, specifically at the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania, in part built on the CSHE model.

With CSHE established, the Carnegie foundation funded a five-year study focused on the academic and civic engagement of college students over their college years, and provided another five-year grant to fund the administration of the Center.

Early CSHE Research

Besides comparative work on state systems of higher education, under McConnell the initial research focus of CSHE included innovative studies on the dimensions of student attitudes and orientations supported by work by Martin Trow (then a young faculty member in the Department of Sociology), the organization of university systems, and other broad policy issues, including financing of higher education in California.

One of the first major studies supported by CSHE was Lyman Glenny's groundbreaking The Autonomy of Public Colleges largely completed in 1958 and published in 1959 -- the first major scholarly study of state systems of higher education. Other important and publications by CSHE affiliated researchers in the initial years of the Center included:

Burton Clark, The Open Door College: A Case Study, 1960

Burton Clark, “The Cooling-Out Function in Higher Education,” American Journal of Sociology, 1960

Paul Heist, “Diversity in College Student Characteristics,” Journal of Educational Sociology, 1960

Herbert Maccoby, “Controversy, Neutrality and Higher Education," American Sociology Review, 1960

T.R. McConnell (with P. Heist), “Do College Students Make the College,” College and University, 1959

Leland Medsker, The Junior College Progress and Prospect, 1960

Martin Trow, “Reflections of the Recruitment to College Teaching,” in J.W. Gustad (ed) Faculty Supply Demand and Recruitment, 1960

Harold Webster (with Paul Heist and Marvin Freedman), “Changes in personality During College,” in Nevitt Sanford (ed) Social Science and Higher Education, 1960