Abstract
In 1835, the number of Americans studying at universities in Germany comprised 1 % of the overseas student population. Sixty years later, the proportion ballooned to 22 % as Americans flocked to Germany to undertake its distinctive (and novel) research degree, the PhD. This development troubled the British, whose inchoate postgraduate programs offered nothing beyond master’s-level certification. “The enormous educational machine in America, which is so much more important than anything of the same kind we have in Europe, is almost entirely run from Germany. A very large proportion of the staffs of the colleges and Universities has received all its educational training, or at any rate its postgraduate training, in Germany,” said British writer and poet Alfred Noyes after a trip to America in 1916.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
1. Yale awarded its first PhD in 1861, but US doctoral programs were less developed than their German counterparts. Renate Simpson, How the PhD Came to Britain: A Century of Struggle for Postgraduate Education, Guildford: Society for Research into Higher Education, University of Surrey, 1983, p. 17.
- 2.
2. “America and the War: Interview with Mr. Alfred Noyes,” The Observer, 18 June 1916, p. 5.
- 3.
3. See: The National Archives, FO 395/11, 1916.
- 4.
4. Memorandum by Lord Bryce, “As to American Students at British Universities,” The National Archives, FO 395/11, 31 October 1916. Bryce believed that Noyes exaggerated the effect of Americans studying in Germany, but acknowledged that if they had instead studied in Britain, they would have a “fuller and better understanding of Britain and appreciation of our position in the War.”
- 5.
5. “The titles ‘Doctor’ and ‘Master’ do not signify different steps or degrees in the same Faculty of department of knowledge, but signify similar or corresponding steps or degrees in different departments of knowledge.” Minutes of the Senate, University of London, 21 October 1863, quoted in Simpson, pp. 48–9.
- 6.
6. Oxford was the first UK institution to offer a PhD. See: Simpson, pp. 135–60. This story was also told, in a shorter version, to a gathering of Marshall Scholars in celebration of the program’s 60th anniversary by David Willetts MP and UK Minister of State for Universities and Science from 2010 to 2014. David Willetts MP, Durbar Court, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 8 May 2014.
- 7.
7. The British have long mixed education and diplomacy—far before their introduction of the PhD—but they are not alone in having done so. A sampling of US educational diplomacy: the US commuted Chinese indemnities following the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 in exchange for a guarantee that thousands of Chinese students be educated in the US; the Fulbright Scholarship not only sends Americans abroad but also imports foreign students to American institutions; in the 1950s, the Ford Foundation funded Indonesian economists to study in America, hoping to export the American capitalist framework; coordinating with the Rockefeller Foundation and the US State Department, the Ford Foundation did the same with Chilean economists (later known as “The Chicago Boys,” as many of them studied under Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago) who rose to influential positions in the Pinochet government and established the modern economic order of Chile. For information on the Boxer Rebellion exchange, see related papers in FO 371/5326, also summarized in Simpson, p. 115. For information on the Ford Foundation and Indonesian and Chilean economists, see: Inderjeet Parmar, Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power, New York: Columbia University Press, 2012, pp. 124-148 and 180-220. See also: Hal Brands, Latin America’s Cold War, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
- 8.
8. For a copy of Rhodes’ will, which describes the program, see: Philip Ziegler, Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008, p. 339.
- 9.
9. Sam Lebovic, “From War Junk to Educational Exchange: The World War II Origins of the Fulbright Program and the Foundations of American Cultural Globalism 1945-1950,” Diplomatic History, Vol. 37 No. 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013; See also: “History,” Fulbright U.S. Student Program, United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Online, Accessed 14 October 2014, Available: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/about/history.
- 10.
10. “A defining characteristic of the Gates Cambridge Scholarships is the commitment of our Scholars to working for the greater good. Although broadly interpreted, this concept is nonetheless fundamental and sets this programme apart from others of its kind.” “Ideal Candidate,” Gates Cambridge, Accessed July 2014, Available: http://www.gatescambridge.org/apply/ideal-candidate.asp; See also: “About the Scholarship,” Gates Cambridge, Accessed August 2014, Available: http://www.gatescambridge.org/about/scholarships.asp.
References
Simpson, Renate. 1983. How the PhD came to Britain: A century of struggle for postgraduate education. 17. Guildford: Society for Research into Higher Education, University of Surrey.
Parmar, Inderjeet. 2012. Foundations of the American century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller foundations in the rise of American power, 124–148. New York: Columbia University Press. 180–220.
Brands, Hal. 2010. Latin America’s Cold War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Ziegler, Philip. 2008. Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes trust and Rhodes scholarships, 339. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Lebovic, Sam. 2013. From War junk to educational exchange: The World War II origins of the Fulbright program and the Foundations of American Cultural Globalism 1945–1950. Diplomatic History 37(2): 280–312.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mukharji, A. (2016). Diploma Diplomacy. In: Diplomas and Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58653-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58653-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59428-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58653-7
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)