Abraham Flexner

Abraham Flexner (1866-1959 ) was an American educator and author whose advocacy of higher education fundamentally influenced medical education and the general standards for university scholarship in the United States. He promoted high quality in professional, liberal arts, and science education through his reports and books, and by his direct involvement in schools and organizations.

"Of humble origins, Flexner joined the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and evolved into an influential figure affecting the course of medical education by releasing his 1910 report, which paved the way for research-based hospitals and medical scientific education. Later he became a leading figure in philanthropy through the Rockefeller Foundation, and founded the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton." (reference for quote: Herubel, Jean-Pierre V. M. Contextual Culture of the Master's Degree and the Decline of the M.L.S. Thesis: An Exploratory Review Essay Libraries & Culture - Volume 40, Number 1, Winter 2005, page 63)

Flexner report, 1910

Universities: American, English, German, 1930

Early life

Born in Louisville, Kentucky

Education

"The education of Abraham Flexner consisted of a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1886, a master's degree in psychology from Harvard University in 1906, and the study of comparative education at the University of Berlin." (reference for quote:"Abraham Flexner." American Decades. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007).

Throughout his schooling Flexner came to believe in the superiority of German universities and believed that the United States should restructure its educational system in like fashion