Collegiate institute
Encyclopedia
A collegiate institute is a term that can refer to a school either of secondary education
or of higher education
. It has a complex definition that varies regionally, and has been largely unused outside of Canada
since the early 20th century.
In Canada, collegiate institute has a specific meaning. In 1871, the province of Ontario
set up two parallel secondary education systems. Collegiate institutes offered arts and humanities education, including Greek and Latin, for university
-bound students. High school
s offered vocational and science programs for those planning to enter the workforce upon graduation. This system was later adopted by other provinces including Manitoba
, Alberta
, and Saskatchewan
.
It was quite quickly realized that this division did not work very well. Over time, high schools responded to students' needs and increasingly offered the arts courses that were essential for the workforce. At the same time, as universities began teaching science and engineering, so did the collegiate institutes. Within a decade, the distinctions between the two systems were greatly blurred, and eventually the two systems were merged in to a single secondary school system. Most new Ontario schools were from then on named either high schools or secondary schools, but the term collegiate institutes is still used for new schools from time to time. Most cities, the oldest and most established high schools are still known as collegiate institutes. Most cities in Ontario have a collegiate institute near the town centre. In some cases, a more academic focus has been retained, and collegiate institutes are thus sometimes regarded as better than "standard" high schools. Many of Ontario's most prominent high schools are collegiate institutes, such as Lisgar Collegiate Institute
and Glebe Collegiate Institute
in Ottawa
, as well as William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute
, Riverdale Collegiate Institute
, North Toronto Collegiate Institute
, and Malvern Collegiate Institute
in Toronto
. Almost every high school in the city of Toronto is a "collegiate institute". Despite this, many of the suburbs around Toronto have secondary schools, like Bayview Secondary School
in Richmond Hill, Ontario
and high schools like Pickering High School in Pickering
, Ontario.
In western Canada, far fewer schools are known as collegiate institutes, most having been closed or renamed in the decades since the separate systems were abolished. In Saskatoon
and Regina
, however, the term collegiate is still used to mean high school; all public high schools and some Catholic
high schools there are "Collegiates," including those recently built or recently opened. Outside of Saskatoon, some remain such as Lethbridge Collegiate Institute
in Lethbridge
, Alberta.
In the United States
, the term has largely fallen into disuse. Collegiate institutes in the United States were, for the most part, college
s, and even the first name of Yale University
when founded in 1701 was a similar-sounding Collegiate School. But the definition of a college in the U.S. also differs from that of other countries, and has been primarily based on the liberal arts college
model of higher education
. Two examples of collegiate institutes in the United States before the term fell out of use are the Oberlin Collegiate Institute of Ohio
, now Oberlin College
, and the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute of New York
and Rhode Island
, now the Eastern Nazarene College
of Massachusetts
. Both were founded as postsecondary institutions (in 1833 and 1900, respectively), but the latter would drop its college curriculum and exist as a college preparatory school from 1902 until 1918, demonstrating the flexibility of the term collegiate institute. Partly because the term institute
holds some ambiguity of its own and can denote either educational extreme, from a pure research institution to an unrecognised
educational institution, both schools would later change their names to use college instead of collegiate institute (in 1850 and 1918, respectively, each after less than 20 years since its founding) to more accurately represent their nature and mission, in step with the trend that the term "collegiate institute" would see little use beyond the early 20th century.
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
or of higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. It has a complex definition that varies regionally, and has been largely unused outside of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
since the early 20th century.
Canada
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
set up two parallel secondary education systems. Collegiate institutes offered arts and humanities education, including Greek and Latin, for university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
-bound students. High school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s offered vocational and science programs for those planning to enter the workforce upon graduation. This system was later adopted by other provinces including Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
.
It was quite quickly realized that this division did not work very well. Over time, high schools responded to students' needs and increasingly offered the arts courses that were essential for the workforce. At the same time, as universities began teaching science and engineering, so did the collegiate institutes. Within a decade, the distinctions between the two systems were greatly blurred, and eventually the two systems were merged in to a single secondary school system. Most new Ontario schools were from then on named either high schools or secondary schools, but the term collegiate institutes is still used for new schools from time to time. Most cities, the oldest and most established high schools are still known as collegiate institutes. Most cities in Ontario have a collegiate institute near the town centre. In some cases, a more academic focus has been retained, and collegiate institutes are thus sometimes regarded as better than "standard" high schools. Many of Ontario's most prominent high schools are collegiate institutes, such as Lisgar Collegiate Institute
Lisgar Collegiate Institute
Lisgar Collegiate Institute is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board secondary school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.Lisgar Collegiate Institute, one of the country's best regarded public schools, is located in downtown Ottawa by the Rideau Canal and is only a few blocks from Canada's Parliament Hill...
and Glebe Collegiate Institute
Glebe Collegiate Institute
Glebe Collegiate Institute is a high school in the Glebe neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Administered by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Glebe Collegiate Institute has approximately 1,500 students; students and sports teams are referred to as "Gryphons".The school offers many...
in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, as well as William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute
William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute
William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute is a semestered secondary school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 20 Tillplain Road. It was built in 1960 to accommodate the skyrocketing number of new students in what was then known as North York, and to ease overcrowding at Northview Collegiate...
, Riverdale Collegiate Institute
Riverdale Collegiate Institute
Riverdale Collegiate Institute is a high school located at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1907 and was at that time on the outskirts of the city. It was extensively renovated in the 1990s but the original facade was maintained. It is the academic school for lower east end Toronto.On...
, North Toronto Collegiate Institute
North Toronto Collegiate Institute
North Toronto Collegiate Institute is a non-semestered public high school of over 1,000 students located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Toronto District School Board....
, and Malvern Collegiate Institute
Malvern Collegiate Institute
Malvern Collegiate Institute is a Toronto high school that was founded in 1903 as "East Toronto High School", in what was then the village of East Toronto...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Almost every high school in the city of Toronto is a "collegiate institute". Despite this, many of the suburbs around Toronto have secondary schools, like Bayview Secondary School
Bayview Secondary School
Bayview Secondary School is a 9–12, 2-semester high school under the York Region District School Board. It is located just north of the northeast corner of Bayview Avenue and Major Mackenzie Drive in the Town of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada....
in Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill is a town located in Southern Ontario, Canada in the central portion of York Region, Ontario. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, being located about halfway between Toronto and Lake Simcoe...
and high schools like Pickering High School in Pickering
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, the largest metropolitan area in Canada.- Early Period :...
, Ontario.
In western Canada, far fewer schools are known as collegiate institutes, most having been closed or renamed in the decades since the separate systems were abolished. In Saskatoon
Saskatoon
Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
and Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...
, however, the term collegiate is still used to mean high school; all public high schools and some Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
high schools there are "Collegiates," including those recently built or recently opened. Outside of Saskatoon, some remain such as Lethbridge Collegiate Institute
Lethbridge Collegiate Institute
Lethbridge Collegiate Institute is the largest school operated by Lethbridge School District No. 51. The public high school is one of four in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, that serve grades nine through twelve. Entry into LCI is loosely based on resident location in either south or west...
in Lethbridge
Lethbridge
Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Alberta's fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, and the third-largest by area after Calgary and Edmonton. The nearby Canadian Rockies contribute to the city's...
, Alberta.
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the term has largely fallen into disuse. Collegiate institutes in the United States were, for the most part, college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
s, and even the first name of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
when founded in 1701 was a similar-sounding Collegiate School. But the definition of a college in the U.S. also differs from that of other countries, and has been primarily based on the liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
model of higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. Two examples of collegiate institutes in the United States before the term fell out of use are the Oberlin Collegiate Institute of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, now Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, and the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, now the Eastern Nazarene College
Eastern Nazarene College
The Eastern Nazarene College is a private, coeducational college of the liberal arts and sciences in Quincy, Massachusetts near Boston, in the New England region of the United States. Known for its strong religious affiliation, distinctive liberal arts core curriculum, and excellence in science...
of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Both were founded as postsecondary institutions (in 1833 and 1900, respectively), but the latter would drop its college curriculum and exist as a college preparatory school from 1902 until 1918, demonstrating the flexibility of the term collegiate institute. Partly because the term institute
Institute
An institute is a permanent organizational body created for a certain purpose. Often it is a research organization created to do research on specific topics...
holds some ambiguity of its own and can denote either educational extreme, from a pure research institution to an unrecognised
Educational accreditation
Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met...
educational institution, both schools would later change their names to use college instead of collegiate institute (in 1850 and 1918, respectively, each after less than 20 years since its founding) to more accurately represent their nature and mission, in step with the trend that the term "collegiate institute" would see little use beyond the early 20th century.