The study of history as a subject in colleges is still necessary as at today. It's not only necessary, it is essential, sacrosanct, important and expedient that it's taught in schools.
In ancient times before the widespread of civilization and before the advent of formal schools, there was the existence of informal education which is practically gotten from the family. This education is one of the functions of the family as the chief agents of socialization and it specializes in passing down the history of the society and the family from generations to generations through folktales, folklores, myths and legends, that way every member of the family including the Children are taught the history of the family, the society, their traditions, culture, language and their occupations and they in turn take the job of passing it down to the next generation. This simply shows that as way back as the medieval era and ancient times, they understood the importance of history being taught to their kids.
Winston Church hill and George Santayana says Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." . This quite simply shed light on the importance of learning history. Teaching history in colleges is letting the kids know their identity, the struggles of their past heroes, the mistakes of their past, the achievements of their country, the culture, tradition and language of their people so as to be able to not just understand and make well informed decisions in the future but also to understand themselves just like as Robert Penn Warren says "History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future."
Therefore, it is still very much necessary for history to be taught as a subject in colleges so that kids can know about their origin and identity since parents are now too busy to perform the chiefly function of passing history for generations to generations through the traditional means.