Carnegie Units Entrenched Seat‑Time

The U.S. credit-hour system arose because Carnegie’s professor pension plan required standardized 'Carnegie units' and credit hours, locking time-in-seat into admissions and degrees. A 1938 Carnegie study found course units poorly tracked student knowledge, yet the framework persisted. This helps explain why competency-based and mastery models face structural headwinds. — It reframes education and credentialing reform as an institutional legacy problem that still shapes funding, admissions, and degree design.