College and University Student Work Programs: Implications and Implementations

The history of financial assistance to students in high schools, colleges, and universities in this country underlies what the authors of this book see as a changing educational philosophy. From the founding of Harvard College in 1636, and its effort to provide employment for needy students, to money allocations made to land-grant colleges after the Civil War, and to the recent federal enactments, it is clear that there has been a shift from the concept of financial aid for only needy students to the concept of work-study programs as an integral part of the total educational process. This view is supported by the fact of current large federal appropriations for the development of such programs and by the fact that co-operative work-study programs have become a part of academic planning.

A measure of the importance of this study may be derived from these figures: of the 7.6 million students in American universities and colleges at the present time, one in four participates in federally-financed aid programs; of the 2,242 million dollars in student aid granted in 1967, 70 percent came from the federal government in the form of work-study programs, outright grants, loans, and scholarships; and in large universities, from one-fourth to one-half of all students receive some sort of financial assistance.

An important part of this work are the descriptions of work-study programs in operation in various universities and colleges. In addition, the authors’ conclusions and recommendations for structuring work-study programs will be valuable to administrators, counselors, and educators in general.