College versus University

A review of "College: What it was, is, and should be" by Andrew Delbanco

One Monday morning in October, 2021, I was in school for an exams scheduled for 8am. I came to school with a book I borrowed from the library some two months before, to return it. That is prior to the unrest in Jos which led to a temporal lock down of the school. The book was long overdue in my custody, however, not my fault. 

I had some thirty minutes from 8am to spare before the setting for the exams is in order. I hurried to the library and returned the book in exchange for my library card.

Returning to the exam venue, I waited for an unexpected and unpleasant news. 'We are sorry about that', the exams coordinator continued her appeal. 'The exams will hold in the coming weeks, after we resolve the challenges at hand'.

Of course I was upset. As a way of taming my emotions, I walked back to the library. In the same shelf and in the same rack I saw the book I returned earlier, I saw this fine book to which I was attracted by its title and the simplicity of the cover design from seeing the spine.

A phone shot of the book on a library desk in school

I had in mind a book to while away time with but somehow this very book caught my fancy. Before leaving the library some two hours or so after, I was about 35 pages in already. It addressed issues I have been concerned about myself though not clear enough to me what I was particularly concerned about.

In College: What it was, is, and should be, Andrew Delbanco, an amiable literary scholar at Columbia University, brings to bare the intricacies of higher education in America by digging into its origins, which seem to have global similarities to universities in other nations.

The first intriguing aspect for me in the book was the distinction he made between colleges and universities. He wrote:

College is about transmitting knowledge of and from the past to undergraduate students so they may draw upon it as a living resource in the future. University is mainly an array of research activities conducted by a faculty and graduate students with the aim of creating new knowledge in order to supersede the past' (pg. 2).

Probably, I am the only one who always thought that "college" is the word for higher institutions of learning in American lexicon while "university" is for the British. And that in Nigeria we use the latter because we were colonised by the British. It is, however, quite an interesting reveal that these names are representations of the activities that goes on in each of these institutions. Thus, they shouldn't be used interchangeably. In extension, colleges can be found in a university and never vise-versa.

Noteworthy:

At its core, a college should be a place where young people find help for navigating the territory between adolescence and adulthood. . . . It should help them develop certain qualities of mind and heart requisite for reflective citizenship' (pg. 3). . . .

In short, the university is the key institution that nurutures, exemplifies, and promotes a fundamental idea of modern culture: the idea of progress (pg. 95).

Most likely due to his discipline as a literary scholar, Delbanco repeatedly stresses the need to consider history in any discuss of how to address the problems of the present and in thinking of ways to make a befitting future for any matter, in this case, in higher education in his nation. (You should see the preface to find his answers to your speculations as to why he wrote such a book given that he is not a Don in Education). In looking at the past he gives both the wrongs  and right a fair share of consideration, thereby learning significant lessons from even the deemed outright wrong based on critical analysis.

The exposition throughout all the chapters reads like an interesting novel against the backdrop of arrays of relevant statistics and facts. He X-rays fictional literary pieces which were crafted based on the points he tries to make in every chapter, and given that he is a literary scholar himself, you find lots of recommendations of novels set in diverse campuses. This is yet another case showcasing the intentionality behind fictional works as revealed to me in 2084 by John C. Lennox against my undue appraisal of fictional pieces as "less intentional pieces of literature ". They are, in fact, weaving of the writer's perception, beliefs, and convictions embodied in the characters and events described in them.

Interesting experience it was for me to find some of my assertions in conversations with friends and coursemates about issues relating to education supported. I saw further explanations of some points made in a conversation I had with friend in school in preparation for an exam in EDU305: Curriculum and Instruction. That is the exposition that schooling benefits to students transcends the experiences that happens in the classroom and between the teacher and students only. One way he puts it:

A college should not be a haven from worldly contention, but a place where young people fight out among and within themselves contending ideas of the meaningful life, and where they discover that self-interest need not be at odds with concern for one another. We owe it to posterity to preserve and protect this institution (pg. 177).

While I cannot make a case for or against any of the deductions made in the book, I am appreciative of such fine work of art in writing about such issue in simple, approachable, and comprehensible manner. A book which aroused similar feelings I had while reading The Big Picture: Education is everyone’s business by Dennis Littky with Samantha Grabelle. 

This is a good recommendation for anyone interested about understanding what learning should be, at higher education level specifically. It is also a noteworthy piece for ministries of education, administrators, faculties, and students (undergraduate and graduate alike) who care about ensuring quality education in today's society.

The book does just exactly what the subtitle says on the title.