| @Geo_Crazy: In addition to being founded by Thomas Jefferson (with additional help from Monroe and Madison, amongst others), it's generally credited with starting the liberal arts movement, since universities of the time were typically only focused on medicine, law, and theology. (Unemployed English majors, you can thank T.J.) It was the first to employ the "academic village" campus style, which is now common throughout the world. And although it wasn't the first public university in the U.S., it was arguably the first to be founded through a public-led movement (including financially) and not just a royal or state charter. It really did revolutionize higher education, and in a way that spread across the world in various ways. Education historians consider it to be hugely important not just in U.S. history, but world history as well, so it does make sense. |
Countries of Europe
Countries of Africa
Countries of Asia
