Harvard Extension School
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Established | 1910 |
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Parent institution
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Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of Continuing Education |
| Dean | Huntington D. Lambert |
| Students | 1,798 degree candidates (588 undergraduates) (1,210 graduates) 25,000+ non-degree students |
| Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | extension.harvard.edu |
Harvard University Extension School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the twelve degree-granting schools of Harvard University, offering graduate and undergraduate liberal arts-based degree programs as well as professional and continuing education in 60 fields. Approximately 150 bachelor's and 550 master's degrees are awarded each year.
The school also has a long history of offering professional and distance education, and provides a variety of amenities and opportunities to students and degree earning alumni. Since its establishment in 1910, it is estimated that 500,000 students have taken a course at the Extension School. The majority of these students are not degree seekers but take one of the many on-campus and distance-learning based courses offered for professional development or personal enrichment. Such students are not granted the same privileges as degree-seeking students.
Founded in 1910 by President A. Lawrence Lowell, the Harvard Extension School grew out of the Lowell Institute, which was created according to the terms of a bequest by John Lowell, Jr. It was designed to serve the educational interests and needs of the greater Boston community, particularly those "who had the ability and desire to attend college, but also had other obligations that kept them from traditional schools." It has since extended its "academic resources to the public, locally, nationally, and internationally."
During the 1920s professors from Boston and Harvard Universities left the confines of their campuses and traveled to teach courses offsite. While they were primarily aimed at teachers, courses were offered wherever 40 or more students expressed an interest. Professors traveled on a weekly basis to places around New England and as far away as Yonkers, New York, some 200 miles away.
Despite falling revenue due to the Great Depression, A. Lawrence Lowell insisted in 1931 that the bequest from John Lowell prevented courses from costing more than two bushels of wheat. As a result, a half-year course cost could no more than $5, and a full course no more than $10. Some courses cost as little as $2.50.
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