Shifting Alliances in the Accreditation of Higher Education: On the ...

ecome concerned with quality control within their profession and with the self-
definition of specialists and a clear ―pecking order‖ within the field. Entry into the field is
limited to those who go through the proper training. The profession begins lobbying the
government, usually on the state and local level, for legal support of their training and
certification system. Finally, a formal code of ethics is developed. 66
A case could be made that the teaching of higher education first became a
profession in the US circa 1870, with the rise of the university. In his book, The Shaping
of American Higher Education, Arthur M. Cohen notes that an important element of the
professional is that s/he ―gains a specialized body of knowledge during a long period of
formal education. Ministry to a client population, autonomy of judgment, adherence to
ethical standards, licensure or formal entry requirements, and associations that monitor
all the above characterize the group.‖ 67 Prior to the rise of the university, Cohen argues,
faculty at colleges were little more than tutors, teaching a wide variety of subjects with
little or no area of expertise. With the development of the university, however, faculty
became professors, each with a specialized area of knowledge and ―a commitment to
long-term, full-time employment.‖ 68
US universities, greatly influenced by those in Germany, began to emphasize the
pursuit of knowledge rather than the storage and dispensation of old knowledge. 69 This
new emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge meant that universities were becoming places
66
Ibid. 144-145.
67
Cohen, The Shaping of American Higher Education, 124.
68
Ibid., 124-125.
69
Ralph F. Fuchs, ―Academic Freedom. Its Basic Philosophy, Function, and History,‖ Law and
Contemporary Problems 28, no. 3, (Summer 1963): 435.
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