Harvard Extension School (HES) is the continuing education school of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1910, it is one of the oldest extension schools in the United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Extension School is one of Harvard University's 13 degree-granting schools. While most courses are offered on an open-enrollment basis, Harvard Extension School also offers selective undergraduate and graduate degree programs, academic certificate programs, and a post-baccalaureate pre-medical certificate, primarily for adult learners and nontraditional students.
Emerging from a collaboration between Harvard University and the Lowell Institute, founded in 1836, Harvard Extension School was established by then-Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell in 1910 to extend Harvard's educational opportunities, equivalent in academic rigor to traditional Harvard programs, to nontraditional and part-time students, as well as lifelong learners. Under the supervision of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the school offers more than 675 courses spanning various liberal arts and professional disciplines, offered in on-campus, online, and hybrid formats. Most courses are available to both its matriculated students and to the general public.
Degrees earned through the Harvard Extension School are formally conferred by Harvard University under the authority of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They include the Bachelor of Liberal Arts (A.L.B.) and Master of Liberal Arts (A.L.M.). Harvard Extension School degree recipients are Harvard alumni.
History
The school was founded in 1910 by Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell who built on his work with the Lowell Institute. He wanted to tether his work to a "proper university" and serve the "many people in our community, who have not been to college, but who have the desire and the aptitude to profit by so much of a college education as, amid the work of earning their living, they are able to obtain." 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".
James Hardy Ropes, Extension's first dean, said that "our aim will be to give the young people of Boston who have heretofore been prevented from securing a college education the same instruction they would receive were they undergraduates at Harvard [College]". He added that "many persons who wish that they had a college education will be able to get gradually an effective substitute for it--in some respects more effective than the ordinary college education because of the greater eagerness and maturity of such students".
In the early years, a commission composed of several Boston area schools ran the courses, though it was largely a Harvard-run program. Early faculty included Charles Townsend Copeland, William Yandell Elliott, William L. Langer, Oscar Handlin, Perry Miller, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Frank M. Carpenter. During the 1920s, affiliates traveled around New England to teach courses offsite. While they were primarily aimed at teachers, courses were offered whenever 40 or more students expressed an interest. Professors traveled on a weekly basis to places as far away as Yonkers, New York, some 200 miles away.
Lowell's bequest limited tuition to no more than "two bushels of wheat". During the Great Depression, this amounted to roughly $5 per semester course. Several years after his retirement, president Lowell wrote that the Extension courses "have given a service to the public ... which seems to me of the utmost importance." In his will, John Lowell asked his successors to develop courses "more erudite and particular corresponding to the age". By the 50th anniversary of the Commission on Extension Courses in 1960, more than 1,400 courses had taught to over 85,000.
In the 2010s, more than 100 years after its founding, the Extension School's classes were described as "surprisingly affordable" and the school itself was said to be a "thriving institution."
The Extension School currently offers two degrees (and has offered these degrees since 1979): the Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies (ALB) and the Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies (ALM). From 1911 to 1933, the school offered an Associate in Arts, and from 1933 to 1960, it offered an Adjunct in Arts. Both were considered the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. From 1971 to 2014, the school offered an Associate of Arts in Extension Studies (AA), the equivalent of a two-year degree.
Deans The dean of the extension school is also the Dean of the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, who works under and reports directly to the Dean of Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. There have been seven deans in the school's history and three are alumni of Harvard College: James Hardy Ropes, Chairman of Commission on Extension Courses, Dean of University Extension, 1910–1922 Arthur F. Whittem, Chairman of Commission on Extension Courses, Director of University Extension, 1922–1946 George W. Adams, Chairman of Commission on Extension Courses, Director of University Extension, 1946–1949 Reginald H. Phelps, Chairman of Commission on Extension Courses, Director of University Extension, 1949–1975 Michael Shinagel, Director of Continuing Education and University Extension, 1975–1977, and Dean of Continuing Education and University Extension, 1977–2013 Huntington D. Lambert, Dean of Continuing Education and University Extension, 2013–2019 Nancy Coleman, Dean of the Division of Continuing Education, 2020–present
Accreditation and partnerships
Harvard University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Harvard Business School Online's Credential of Readiness (CORe) program can be counted for Extension School undergraduate academic credit on a pass fail basis.
The graduate program in Museum Studies has a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. The partnered courses include two active learning weekends in Washington, D.C. Harvard Extension School has collaborated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology Micromasters program for Management, Sustainability, and Development Practice Masters degree program.
Academics
Year Courses offered 1910 161915–15 24 1918–19 33 1921–22 22 1922–23 27 1923–24 29 1951–52 30 1953–54 32 1956–57 37 1959–60 56 1962–63 70 1971–72 144 1974–75 135 1975–76 ~200 1979–80 316 1980–81 335 1981–82 398 1983–84 480 1984–85 527 1986–87 575 1999–2000 584 2016 ~800 2018 2019 >900
Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Extension School offers more than 900 on-campus and online courses, most of which have open enrollment. The number of courses offered has continuously grown over the school's history.
Students may enroll full or part-time, and classes may be taken on campus, via distance-learning, or both. In order to earn an academic degree, students must complete a minimum number of on-campus-only credits at Harvard. Since the school's inception, it has only graduated less than two out of every thousand (0.2%) of its students. As of 2009, nearly 13,000 have graduated with degrees.
In August 2018, Grossman Library, located in Sever Hall, merged with the larger Harvard College Library system, giving non-degree students access to the Harvard Library, including electronic resources and select computer facilities. Those registered for a course at the Extension School may also access writing tutorials at the Writing Center as well as assistance with math and related courses at the Math Question Center. Career services and academic advising are offered through the school's Career and Academic Resource Center.
Ropes, the school's first dean, said that "our aim will be to give the young people of Boston who have heretofore been prevented from securing a college education the same instruction they would receive were they undergraduates at Harvard." The Harvard Undergraduate Council found in a 2020 study of Extension courses that 156 were identical or nearly identical to courses at Harvard College and 95 were equivalent or similar, while 344 were unique to the Extension School. A New York Times guidebook stated that professors said some courses were "virtually identical." As of the 2022-2023 academic year, courses for undergraduate credit at the Extension School were $1,980 and courses for graduate credit were $3,100.
A number of on-campus Harvard courses are recorded and offered to Extension students online. For these courses, office hours and other student support are typically available through live or asynchronous software. The majority of instructors at the Extension School, 52%, are Harvard affiliates; 48% are faculty from peer schools and industry professionals. Nobel laureate Roy J. Glauber has taught Extension courses.
Special student Extension degree candidates are eligible to apply for "Special Student status," allowing them to enroll for either one or two courses in Harvard College, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, or another Harvard graduate School.
Pre-medical program A pre-medical program was established at the Extension School in 1979. Students who successfully complete the program are eligible for sponsorship and a committee letter of support in their applications to medical school.
Distance education Harvard Extension was a pioneer in distance education. Beginning on December 5, 1949, courses were offered on the Lowell Institute's new radio station. New Englanders could go to college six nights a week at 7:30 in their living rooms simply by tuning into courses on psychology, world history, and economics. The first course on radio was by Peter A. Bertocci of Boston University.
The radio courses proved to be so successful that when the television station WGBH went on the air in October 1951 they began broadcasting an Extension class every weekday at 3:30 and 7:30. The first course, offered by Robert G. Albion, was on European Imperialism. In the late 1960s, three of the televised courses were offered in the Deer Island Prison. Students who watched the courses on television could attend six "conferences" and take a mid-term and a final exam at Harvard in order to gain credit for the class.
, distance-learning courses at Harvard Extension School are offered in two formats: asynchronous video courses (lectures are recorded and uploaded within 24 hours of on-campus class meetings); and live web-conference courses (courses are streamed live, and typically allow for synchronous participation from students via a secondary online platform).
The first online courses were offered in 1997. Between 2013 and 2016, the number of online classes grew from 200 to more than 450.
Degree programs
Year Associate Bachelor's Master's References 1913–1933 120 n/a n/a 1934–1936 24 n/a n/a 1937–1952 78 n/a n/a 1953 6 n/a n/a 1954–1962 57 n/a n/a 1963 n/a 14 n/a 1964 n/a 22 n/a 1966 n/a 35 n/a 1967 n/a 31 n/a 1968 n/a 48 n/a 1971 n/a 38 n/a 1972 44 54 n/a 1975 37 42 n/a 1976 <82 <82 n/a 1980 n/a ? 1 1981 n/a ? 3 1982 n/a 91 15 1985 n/a <158 <158 1987 n/a <143 <143 2000 <226 <226 <226 2008 7 111 91 2013 <645 <645 <645 2014 5 152 539 2016 8 148 627 2017 7 144 706 2018 4 153 890 2019 3 159 962 2020 0 166 1,070 2022 0 192 1,287