New York
As British universities lurch from funding crisis to funding crisis, the jealous eyes of the academic establishment focus obsessively on the United States as the role model for future success. The assumption is that if UK universities charged ‘realistic’ fees, they would recreate themselves as ‘world class’ — or, at any rate, superior — institutions, like those in America.
But what is the truth about American universities? Are they really so much better than those in Britain? Are US students in general better educated? Does the US profit from the enormous sacrifice made each year by parents and students?
Some — perhaps 20 or 30 — American universities are better than all but a tiny handful of their British equivalents. A few, such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford, but also MIT, Chicago and Berkeley, make up the global crème de la crème of academia. Most US universities, however, are very ordinary places. The average US college degree is a lowly thing, requiring the standard once achieved by most Brits by the end of their first year. It is only at the post-graduate level that American excellence truly kicks in. This is also where the big bucks go.
Much of the cash lavished on colleges is spent on comfy rooms, Internet access and insanely competitive basketball and football teams. The high spending allows tenured professors to have a second car, a lakeside summer home and no-quibble health insurance. In no serious sense is it spent on education. That is why, as you drive past a typical US college, it will announce not that it is number 34, or whatever, in the national league of academic excellence, but that its women’s basketball team took top honours in 1988 or 1992.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in