National Collegiate Honors Council - History

History

The concept of an honors education in the western university tradition can be traced to the establishment of ‘pass’ and ‘honors’ degree designations at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in 1830. Harvard was the first American institution to offer a degree with honors. By the 1920s liberal arts colleges had developed honors curricula, and many departmental majors offered honors designations. By the late 1930s, over 100 honors programs existed in the United States, a number that remained stable until the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957; the “space race” that followed gave American educators the thrust needed to support enriched education for high-end students. In 1957, the Inter-University Committee on the Superior Student (ICSS) was formed as a clearinghouse for information on honors activities. ICSS received funds from the Carnegie Corporation, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Office of Education to help establish honors programs at colleges and universities across the United States. In 1965, ICSS disbanded when its external funding expired.

Spearheaded by people committed to maintaining a professional association of honors educators, the National Collegiate Honors Council was formed in 1966. NCHC continues to grow as a resource and network for those involved in undergraduate honors education. Although honors programs and colleges are specific to individual institutions, all share a common philosophy of academic enrichment based on the theory that students profit from close contact with faculty, small courses, seminars or one-on-one instruction, individual research projects, internships, foreign study, and campus or community service.