<p>"I think we would all agree that colleges were created to develop and spread the skills necessary for the success of a society. "</p>
<p>Not really. The medieval university concentrated on theology, philosophy and the like. Yale and Harvard were founded as training institutions for ministers.</p>
<p>“When you look at the highest eductional instutitions going back in time, they were places that collected agricultural, mechanical, medical, and military knowledge and used it to train those who would be leaders and influential in a society in the skills deemed critical to the advancement of that culture.”</p>
<p>I don’t think so. Agriculture was not taught at Oxford and Cambridge or at the University of Paris. Neither was mechanical and military knowledge. Medicine, yes, to some degree. History, languages, science, philosophy, yes. </p>
<p>You seem to be thinking of the American land grant school as a model, not the university in history.</p>