| The Decline of America's Universities |
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| Written by Bill Costello | |
| Tuesday, 23 February 2010 | |
 Don’t look back. Asia is catching up.
See also: China Universities on the Move Since 2004, the world's top 200 universities have been ranked annually by the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. Recently, Asian education systems have been making significant gains on the United States, long considered to have the world’s best education system. In 2008, the US had 37 universities in the top 100 and 58 in the top 200. In 2009, that dropped to 32 and 54, respectively; although 12 of the top 16 in the world are still in the US. Between 2008 and 2009, Japan went from 10 in the top 200 to 11, Hong Kong went from 4 to 5, South Korea went from 3 to 4, and mainland China maintained its position with 6. Having visited nearly half of these Asian universities and having seen their extensive expenditure on research facilities, I am not surprised when I read about Asian nations making enormous investments in their universities. Asian nations are investing to produce massive numbers of innovative people who can contribute significantly to economic growth. I am surprised, however, when I read about concomitant funding reductions for US universities, particularly public ones. For example, the University of California, long regarded as the nation's leading public university, recently suffered a US$813 million reduction in state financing. Disinvestment is also happening to universities in Michigan, Washington, Arizona, and many other states. Budgets are being cut from state-supported universities primarily because states are facing budget shortfalls of historic proportions. However, short-sighted state politics like this will lead to long-term consequences. For example, state budget cuts force universities to raise tuition, cap enrollment, and cut academic programs. These changes result in a smaller number of graduates, which in turn results in a shrinking skilled workforce. The US needs a growing, skilled workforce, not a shrinking one, to continue to compete in the global economy. Foreign students have for decades made up an important part of that skilled workforce, staying in the US to work in such technology incubators as California’s Silicon Valley and the Route 128 area in Massachusetts. In the 2008-2009 academic year, 671,616 foreign students were enrolled in American colleges and universities. China supplies by far the biggest number of those students, with 98,510 graduate and undergraduates in American schools. Currently, the US has the best universities in the world. They attract the best students from around the world. After graduating, these non-US students often stay in the US to work, helping to fuel the nation's innovation and economic growth. Today 55 percent of PhD engineering students are foreign born, along with 45 percent of graduate physicists working in the US. However, when US universities decline in quality and lose their elite status because of budget cuts, bright students from around the world will seek universities in other nations. The effect of overseas students on the US scientific community is crucial. More than 30 percent of American Nobel Prize winners in Medicine and Physiology between 1901 and 2005, for instance, were foreign born. The goal of Asian nations is to create world-class universities that surpass US universities. They have "every prospect of success," argued Yale University President Richard C. Levin in a recent lecture, titled "The Rise of Asia's Universities." Levin also stated that rising Asian nations "all recognize the importance of an educated workforce as a means to economic growth and the impact of research in driving innovation and competitiveness." It should be noted, of course, that too many of Asia’s universities continue to have the same problems as their primary and secondary schools in that they rely heavily on rote learning, with negative effects on critical thinking and innovation. Singapore, for instance, has invested millions of dollars in seeking to foster innovation with little effect. But Asian educators are becoming better at seeking solutions to the problems of innovation and creativity. Speaking at the inaugural Asian Roundtable of Presidents of Universities of Education, Xu Jialu, director of the College of Chinese Language and Culture at Beijing Normal University, said that China needs to produce massive numbers of innovative people if it is to continue its robust economic growth. He added, "In Chinese education, the development of a creative mindset and abilities among students is urgently needed." In the current issue of Foreign Policy Magazine, Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Fogel predicts that China's GDP will reach US$123 trillion by 2040 partially because of "the enormous investment China is making in education." He also predicts that the US's share of global GDP will be roughly one third that of China's. Without increased investment, the US will no longer have the best universities in the world, will no longer be the world's innovation leader, and will no longer have the world's largest economy. It's time for the U.S. to increase, not reduce, university funding. As the American patriot, inventor, and philosopher Benjamin Franklin put it, "An investment in knowledge pays the best dividends." Bill Costello, M.Ed., is an education columnist, blogger, and author of Awaken Your Birdbrain: Using Creativity to Get What You Want. He is based in the US, and can be reached at www.makingmindsmatter.com. Comments
(8)
 written by black haired people , February 27, 2010
Why would anybody distrust the Chinese? They may be communist but they have not colonised you, they have not fought wars on your territory to promote communism, they have not bullied you to give consessions. It's the opposite. The Chinese are the favourite objects of bullying by whites. America is surrounding China with bases. Have the Chinese done that to USA, Europe or Australia? The Chinese are the symbol of coloureds rising in the world of the future. The caucasians are feeling uncomfortable. USA is still in the throes of deceit and cheating by Wall Street. Now the contagion is spreading to Europe. Do you still trust Goldman Sachs and UBS etc? The Chinese are trying to give their people a future, a future without the likes of colonism by 1st world countries. I have worked in London 40 yrs ago and it was very obvious that even the ordinary man in the street still has the aura of a colonist. The tendency to bully is ingrained in the minds of former colonial powers. That's the reason for the expressions of racist expressions in the football terraces and the popular media, esp directed towards the blacks and Chinese. Do Chinese express racist sentiments? Of course they do. But not to the same level and intensity of the whites. Ask the thousands of MNC's in China. Every one earning good money there are enjoying a life style not available to them in their home country. The Chinese are using their prescence as a stimulus to improve themselves. That's the basic difference. The prejudice by the whites is because the Chinese are catching up from behind - the prejudice by the Chinese is because they are being impeded by the whites. So what you get from Obama is nothing short of paranoia and jealousy of the up and coming Chinese. So don't look back. You know who is behind.
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written by hassan , February 27, 2010
I will commit suicide if China becomes the world power. I will always remain loyal to America as it is always the superior. I don't trust the chinese government, not with my life.
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written by Vindice , February 26, 2010
The elephant in the room, especially in China's case, is academic freedom. The CCP will never allow full academic freedom as known to those in the west due to issues of corruption, human rights, freedom of speech, etc..
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written by black haired people , February 24, 2010
Lest I sound racist, this is the conclusion of some first world countries. When the British were in Malaya, they were surprised that the Chineses were better in their businesses eg. in rubber and tin. Chinese contractors, though not educated to technical college and not able to read/speak English, could build sky scrapers and dams. Hence they used all the tricks in the book to reduce the number of Chinese in Malaysia eg banning them to China, stopping migration from China. etc. It was logical for them to hand power to the Malays whom they regarded as "Nature's gentlemen". Now these nature's gentlemen have become extremists and have gone soft on fast track promotion and guarenteed success in everything. That was a side track. In the US, president Reagan was shocked to discover that 70 to 80% of the best entrants to the Ivy League universities were "black haired people". He couldn't believe his eyes! The whites were being beaten flat by their favourite object of bullying ie. the Chinese. He issued a presidential order to the Ivy League Universities to put a racial quota. Hence now they admit according to the % in the population. How racist can that be? And I thought that the minorities were to be encouraged to apply! The same in Melbourne. Every year, for admission to Monash and Melbourne uni. ,for the top 20% scholarships are automatically given. 65 to 75% of them are also "black haired people". Why are the black haired so hard working and successful?. It is a combination of inborn intelligence and a strong desire to acquire knowledge and skills. The whites are discovering it but not acknowledging it(maybe grudgingly) and do their best by "discrimination"against the "black haired people". Hence the great desire of the US to contain China. It is the combination of paranoia and realism. It is inevitable that the Chinese will surpass the whites. This paranoia will drive some of the 1st world countries to do silly things. But China is very patient and will bide it's time. Those who have commited progroms against the Chinese will worry as will those who have been bullys. I do not recommend retribution but retribution will befall the bullys because of their rash actions.
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written by 3rd World People , February 24, 2010
This ranking business, while useful, can best be treated as a rough reference. It is entirely not surprising to note that most universities which dominate the upper rankings are consistently derived from English-speaking, Anglo-Saxon UK, Australian, US roots. While not to demean this deliberate bias as politically motivated, it certainly raises concerns as to its ulterior hidden commercial interests. It is also strange why while the Russians seem capable of consistently producing world class fighter aircrafts & submarines, its universities seem to rank so lowly in so many of these ranking tables. Here is another catch:it definitely seems to imply the dodgy impression that English-language medium of instruction universities are more superior than others.
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While we marvel at those which outperform others, there is definitely no cause to panic. Shall we be similarly awed & shocked at why it seems that only pro Western politically-correct personalities are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize all these years? Shall we be overly excited about a system which is designed & constructed by the West to serve mainly the Western audience? report abuse
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written by I know , February 23, 2010
You're wrong from the start when using TIMES HIGHER Education ranking as a benchmark. This ranking is nothing more than a rank to boost the morale of the universities in the UK and former colonies.
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Times Higher Education's World University Rankings are changing. We are no longer using data supplied by QS, but instead are workind with the world-leading research metrics company, Thomson Reuters to create a new, improved, more balanced and rigorous rankings methodology. You can read all about the changes, and the major improvements so far announced, at http://bit.ly/ErAag, where we will also post regular updates.
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Phil Baty, rankings editor. report abuse
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But recent research on serious problems in U.S. society (conflicts, governance, regulatory policy, declining living standards for persons not in the highest income brackets, etc.) shows increasing dissatisfaction with the elite universities and their policies. In fact, both President Obama and a rapidly increasing number of students are putting priority on community colleges and other "humble" institutions of higher learning whose costs are far lower than the full range research universities. Faculty of these institutions are mainly focused on teaching (rather than personal research) and skills required for work, professional fields, etc.
Given the fact that there are important reasons for persons to identify the most advanced research institutions in given fields, I suggest that it is much more useful to identify the particular skills, research areas, and objectives of interest, and THEN seek the specific departments, institutes, etc. that qualify among the leaders. For the individual, of course, a myriad of other considerations come in: location, language, cost, related societal connections (e.g. Germany's machine tool programs in universities, that maintain direct links to industry, etc.