[3] Current modeled honors programs began in public universities around the beginning of the second half of the 20th century.
One notable early honors program at a private institution, that exists today, is that of Swarthmore College, founded in 1922 by its then President Frank Aydelotte and initially modeled on the tutorial system of Oxford University.
The College convenes faculty and undergraduate students from universities worldwide to conduct joint, structured, and sustained investigations of enduring and emerging global issues.
Students from public and private institutions, including Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Peking, Korea, Waseda, and others, participate in a Global Seminar – an annual, summer-long intensive course on Earth sustainability matters ranging from food and agriculture to natural disasters.
Wankat and Oreovicz insist that any sort of extra attention – athletics, clubs, informal socials, small first-year seminars, eating meals with professors, visiting professors homes, and the like – helps retain students who have the makings of good scholars.
[12] Along with Wankat and Oreovicz, there is an ongoing debate on how social media plays a role in the retention of honors students.
For honors colleges and programs that offer exclusive accredited coursework and labs for participants, the style often places less emphasis on testing and more on personable interaction, such as small seminar-styled classes and mentoring and academic apprenticeship.
Engineering, technical fields, undergraduate sciences, and pre-med, for instance, might place more focus on acceleration, in lieu of enrichment, with the goal of taking the student further.
In many cases, concerns over enrichment vs. acceleration are moot because students at the collegiate level can determine their workload by the classes they choose.
Or the reverse correlation can occur: an extended period (a decade, for instance) in a weak economy with a poor job market can serve as a reality-check for liberal arts programs, even those of international rank, swaying academicians and students to surrender liberal arts enrichment in favor of professional education.
The logic being that, with acceleration – for math and engineering, as an example – professors simply cover more advanced material at a faster pace – using resources in hand and curricula already developed.
This donor funding may be either through donations (whether it be alumni, celebs, or other), or fundraising in direct support to the honors colleges specifically.
[15] Notwithstanding concerns over funding, honors programs, initially (in the early 1960s), served as less costly alternatives to scholarships when competing for exceptional students.
Exceptionally bright, motivated students who perform at high levels cultivate strong leaning experiences for university communities.
[ii][iii][iv][i] Several liberal arts oriented institutions, including Reed College, have strongly rejected the validity of ratings, namely those of US News & World Report, arguing that, among other things, the ratings lead to data-driven educational policies that, in turn, cause institutions to alter programs at the expense of quality – simply to look more appealing.