{"id":290261,"date":"2018-12-13T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=290261"},"modified":"2018-12-13T06:00:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T20:00:37","slug":"why-us-universities-are-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/why-us-universities-are-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Why US universities are good"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author\u2019s Note: This was originally published on April 10, 2016. I believe it is worth a second look, and it appears here with only a few modest updates.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

American universities are the best in the world.\u00a0This is widely recognized by experts in\u00a0higher education\u00a0from every nation. Fifteen of the world\u2019s top 20 universities worldwide are in the United States.\u00a0Assessment and ranking systems in the U.S., the U.K., China, India and Japan confirm this standing led by the\u00a0Times Higher Education\u00a0of London, global authorities on the subject.<\/p>\n

There is rising disquiet regarding America\u2019s ability to remain preeminent.\u00a0A 2014 New York Times\u00a0Upshot\u00a0analysis provides a voice of consternation. Nevertheless, here is what makes U.S. higher education the envy of the world.<\/p>\n

One:\u00a0 Strong universities expose students to\u00a0intellectually broadening\u00a0core curricula (Columbia led the way), coupled with training in specific disciplines through applied skill sets. This one-two punch has been the might of American higher education since the industrial revolution, the development of the land grant university idea and\u00a0Charles Eliot\u2019s\u00a0introduction of professional programs at Harvard.\u00a0All occurred in the latter part of the 19th\u00a0century.\u00a0This integration of reflective thinking\u00a0and\u00a0doing makes our nations institutions great.<\/p>\n

Two:\u00a0 U.S. universities have traditionally held to the concept of\u00a0mission differentiation. Major research universities have recognized and rewarded research as well as teaching excellence. In regional and comprehensive institutions, teaching comes to the fore with scholarship recognized but in service to teaching.\u00a0Clark Kerr, former president of the University of California, cemented this idea into state policy through the 1960\u00a0A Master Plan for Higher Education in California. Different missions define free choice, roles and expectations for faculty, students and families.\u00a0Focus allows attainment of mission.<\/p>\n

Three:\u00a0 Academic freedom, a concept woven into the\u00a0muscle of America\u00a0through constitutionally-protected speech and rugged individualism, remains the international high watermark, made possible by a republican form of government.\u00a0When ideas based on creative activity, research and scholarship follow from investigation, dogmatism falls off the table.<\/p>\n

Four:\u00a0 U.S. universities exist in a\u00a0highly competitive\u00a0three-party environment. Public, private not-for-profit and private for-profit universities all share the market. Many believe the\u00a0for-profit sector\u00a0is new to the landscape of American higher education, but their genesis as business schools dates to the mid-nineteenth\u00a0century.\u00a0A form of educational Darwinism ensued.\u00a0Separating grain from chaff is essential, time consuming and messy, but the unfettered market place always prevails.<\/p>\n

Five:\u00a0 Only religious organizations benefit from\u00a0American philanthropy\u00a0more than universities.\u00a0The causes for this are manifold, but the effect is that universities have become excellent because of philanthropy.\u00a0Generosity ceases when quality falters. Philanthropy is both barometer and instigator of excellence. Conversely, state support will continue long after effectiveness wanes.<\/p>\n

Six:\u00a0 The U.S. model for university management and leadership has historically respected students\u00a0and their aspirations.\u00a0Some Chinese universities are struggling to unshackle universities from overly authoritative frameworks that undervalue individual initiative and creativity.\u00a0The power of respecting student aspirations\u2014not as customers but as learners\u2014is the gold standard.<\/p>\n

Seven:\u00a0 American universities attract internationally\u00a0excellent scholars. The strength of our universities may be a factor, but the overarching concept of a free society, and the egalitarian nature of individuals succeeding\u00a0based on merit\u00a0rather than genealogy, politics or national doctrine, is the magnet.<\/p>\n

Eight: Pragmatism\u00a0in U.S. higher education often calls for faculty and students to address real problems.\u00a0Paul Simon, former Illinois Senator and presidential candidate, told me he viewed the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute as a\u00a0\u201cdo\u201d tank\u00a0rather than a \u201cthink\u201d tank.\u00a0This articulates a pervasive strength of U.S. higher education\u2014innovation gives birth to public benefit through action.<\/p>\n

Nine:\u00a0U.S. universities, until the time of the\u00a0Morrill Act of 1862, were typically isolated from political interference and\u00a0conceived as sectarian.\u00a0Beginning in the nineteenth century, boards at Michigan and Berkeley discontinued church appointments. The transformation evolved and public universities are secular, eschewing any form of religious influence. Trading church influence for challenging and oftentimes\u00a0coercive political forces, and the Orwellian idea of governmental\u00a0order\u00a0as righteous objectivity, has proven risky. Thoughtful free expression, not political correctness in any form, must rule.<\/p>\n

Ten: Considerations beyond standardized test scores and high school GPAs, the rule in many nations, are common in admissions processes at many U. S. institutions.\u00a0Holistic admissions, when properly managed and guided by faculty insight, provides wisdom that enlivens the numb simplicity of easily measurable aspects of student performance.<\/p>\n

These 10 characteristics help define U.S. higher education. The price of not attending to their animating force will undermine universities and the mantle of U.S. leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author\u2019s Note: This was originally published on April 10, 2016. I believe it is worth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23476,23477,37,23478],"class_list":["post-290261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-charles-eliot","tag-clark-kerr","tag-education-2","tag-one-strong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}