University of Virginia Library

ORIGIN AND PURPOSE

University extension as an organized movement among American universities
is relatively new, having developed for the greater part during the past fifteen
years. The idea was borrowed from England and Europe where many of the
older universities attempted rather early in the nineteenth century to carry
university instruction to those who for various reasons could not become resident
students. In addition to offering guidance in study to individuals who
could not enroll for resident work, American universities have also attempted
through Extension to be of more assistance to the economic, social or governmental
units which form the component parts of the state or community which
they serve.

The University of Virginia was among the first universities in America to
give special importance to this new movement and to organize its efforts to the
end of rendering the greatest assistance to capable and ambitious students who
could not come to the University; and to play a more effective part in the
intellectual and cultural development of the life of the state. As early as 1915
the Bureau of Extension was inaugurated as an agency through which all
Extension activities of the institution could be directed. Later the work was
organized into a division with enlarged resources to better enable it to carry
out its purposes.