Land-grant university

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A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890,^[1] or a beneficiary under the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994.^[2] There are 57 institutions which fall under the 1862 Act, 19 under the 1890 Act, and 35 under the 1994 Act.

Signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, the first Morrill Act began to fund educational institutions by granting federally controlled land to the states for them to sell, to raise funds, to establish and endow "land-grant" colleges. The mission of these institutions as set forth in the 1862 act is to focus on the teaching of practical agriculture, science, military science, and engineering—although "without excluding other scientific and classical studies"—as a response to the industrial revolution and changing social class mobility.^[3][4] This mission was in contrast to the historic practice of higher education concentrating on a liberal arts curriculum. The 1890 act required states that limited the enrollment in their land-grant school to the "white race" (in practice mostly those in the Southern United States) to provide a separate land-grant institution, in practice generally for African Americans (HBCUs). The 1994 expansion gave land-grant status and benefits to several tribal colleges and universities.^[2]

Ultimately, most Morill land-grant colleges became large public universities that today offer a full spectrum of educational opportunities. However, some land-grant colleges are private, including Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Tuskegee University.^[5] The 35 tribal colleges or universities are generally smaller institutions.