N. Kryazheva - The United States and the United Kingdom. Past and Present (pdf), страница 25

One can say that the transformation from college to California Institute ofTechnology was started owing to astronomer George Hail, came to Pasadena in 1907 as the first directorof the Observatory on Wilson Hill. He decided to make Pasadena the centre of scientific work and builtwell occupied laboratories. Then he invited two American scientists (chemist Artur Noise and physicistRobert Milliken) to become professors of Caltech. In 1925 Institute added geological faculty in division ofhumanities.

In addition in 1926 aeronautics faculty was found. One may stress that biological faculty wasfound by Tomas Morgan, he was the discoverer of a chromosome.So, now California Institute of Technology is one of the main universities in the USA, specializing onexact sciences and engineering. It is considered, that education in Caltech is more difficult than in manyother institutes because the students are to learn huge amount of information in a short term.Caltech is divided into six divisions, which include specializations. For example: Divisions of biology,chemistry, engineering (it includes: aeronautics, materials technology, civil engineering and others),geology, physics, math and astronomy and so on.

One can say that the academic year consists of threeterms. And in contrast to students of other universities, Caltech students have five courses. In additionspecializations are not divided into "majors" and "minors". Each student can specialize in one or twosubjects from different divisions. One may stress that collective execution among students theirhomework is allowed and countenanced. Many students take part in research work.One can say that Caltech students have many yearly traditions. For example, in every Halloweenstudents drop pumpkins frozen in liquid nitrogen from the highest place on the campus.

Other interestingtradition is the Absence day. On this day 4th year students move off, leaving by doors differentmechanical, electrical and computer devices and tasks, which must be solved by students so as to enterby the door. And this day professors cancel all classes.PRINCETON UNIVERSITYPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States.The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the ColonialColleges. It is ranked 8th internationally in the Academic studies.In 1746 at Elizabeth, New Jersey, as the College of Jersey, it was moved to Newark in 1747, then toPrinceton in 1756 and renamed "Princeton University' in 1896. (The present-day The College of NewJersey in nearby Jersey, is an unrelated institution.)Princeton was the fourth institution of higher education in the US to conduct classes.

The university,unlike most American universities that were founded at the same time, did not have an official religiousaffiliation. At one time, it had close ties to Presbyterian Church, but today it is makes no religiousdemands of its students. The university has ties with the Institute Advanced Study, Princeton TheologicalSeminary, and the Westminster Choir College Rider.Princeton University has traditionally focused on undergraduate education, although it has almost2,500 graduate students enrolled. A unique blend of research university and liberal arts, Princeton doesnot offer professional schooling generally, but it does offer professional Master's degrees (mostly throughthe Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) and doctoral programs in the , sciences,humanities, and social sciences, as well as engineering.MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university located in Cambridge,Massachusetts, United States.

MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academicdepartments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research. MIT is one of two privateland-grant universities and is also a sea-grant and space-grant university.Founded by William Barton Rogers in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the UnitedStates, the university adopted the German university model and emphasized laboratory instruction froman early date. Rogers sought to establish a new form of higher education to address the challengesposed by rapid advances in science and technology during the mid-19th century with which classicinstitutions were ill-prepared to deal.

The Rogers Plan, as it came to be known, reflected the Germanresearch university model emphasizing an inde- pendent faculty engaged in research as well asinstruction oriented around seminars and laboratories. Rogers proposed that this new form of educationbe rooted in three principles: the educational value of useful knowledge, the necessity of "learningby doing", and integrating a professional and liberal arts education at the undergraduate level. Itscurrent 168-acre (68.0 ha) campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile (1.6 km) along the northernbank of the Charles River basin.MIT researchers were involved in efforts to develop computers, radar,and inertial guidance in connection with defense research during World War II and the Cold War.

In thepast 60 years, MIT's educational programs have expanded beyond the physical sciences and engineeringinto social sciences like economics, philosophy, linguistics, political science, and management.MIT enrolled 4,172 undergraduates, 6,048 postgraduate students, and employed 1,008 facultymembers in the 2007/08 school year. Its endowment and annual research expenditures are among thelargest of any American university. 73 Nobel Laureates, 47 National Medal of Science recipients, and 31MacArthur Fellows are currently or have previously been affiliated with the university.Organization and administration. MIT is chartered as a non-profit organization and is owned andgoverned by a privately-appointed board of trustees known as the MIT Corporation.The current board,with 74 members drawn from scientific, engineering, industry, education, and public service leaders, ischaired by Dana G.

Mead. The corporation approves the budget, new programs, degrees, and facultyappointments as well as electing the President to serve as the chief executive officer of the university andpresiding over the Institute's faculty.MIT is "a university polarized around science, engineering, and the arts. "It has five schools (Science,Engineering, Architecture and Planning, Management, and Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) andone college (Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology), but no schools of law or medicine.The chair of each of MIT's 32 academic departments reports to the dean of that department's school, whoin turn reports to the Provost under the President.

However, faculty committees assert substantial controlover many areas of MIT's curriculum, research, student life, and administrative affairs.Classes. Undergraduates are required to complete an extensive core curriculum called the GeneralInstitute Requirements (GIRs). The science requirement, generally completed during freshman year asprerequisites for classes in science and engineering majors, comprises two semesters of physics classescovering classical mechanics and electricity and magnetism, two semesters of math covering singlevariable calculus and multivariable calculus, one semester of chemistry, and one semester of biology.Undergraduates are required to take a laboratory class in their major, eight Humanities, Arts, and SocialSciences (HASS) classes (at least three in a concentration and another four unrelated subjects), and nonvarsity athletes must also take four physical education classes. In May 2006, a faculty recommended thatthe current GIR system be simplified with changes to the science, HASS, and Institute Lab requirements.Although the difficulty of MIT coursework has been characterized as "drinking from a fire hose," thefailure rate and freshmen retention rate at MIT are similar to other large research universities.

Some ofthe pressure for first-year undergraduates is lessened by the existence of the "pass/no-record" gradingsystem. In the first (fall) term, freshman transcripts only report if a class was passed while no externalrecord exists if a class was not passed.In the second (spring) term, passing grades (ABC) appear onthe transcript while non-passing grades are again rendered "no-record".Most classes rely upon a combination of faculty led lectures, graduate student led recitations, weeklyproblem sets (p-sets), and tests to teach material, though alternative curricula exist, e.g.

ExperimentalStudy Group, Concourse, and Terra-scope. Over-time, students compile "bibles", collections of problemset and examination questions and answers used as references for later students.Research. MIT employs approximately 3,500 researchers in addition to faculty. MIT faculty andresearchers disclosed 487 inventions, filed 314 patent applications, received 149 patents, and earned$129.2 million in royalties and other income. The GNU project and free software movement originated at MIT.