> Well in the United States colleges and universities have
> long been interested in recruiting students who had
> little interest in intellectual pursuits as such. Back in
> the 19th century, it was not the norm even among
> the wealthy upper class for young people to go on
> to college.
True. But that changed in the second half of the 19th century with the introduction of research universities based on the German model, of which trend the Johns Hopkins was the precursor.
I am not denying that the credential dispensation has always been a part of academic institutions. I am arguing that the credential dispensations function was relatively less important in the past than it is nowadays due to the changes in the workplace, especially the loss of status of skilled workers, the popularity of the idea of social advancement through education, employers' demands, and structural unemployment.
Wojtek