www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

Dismantling the once-great American universities

Updated: 2011-07-25 13:03

By Patrick Mattimore (chinadaily.com.cn)

  Comments() Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按鈕 0

According to the annual Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Rankings, over 50% of the world's top 100 universities are in the US and about 80% of the top 50 are US universities. The rankings are based upon criteria such as the number of Nobel Prizes awarded to staff and alumni and numbers of citations in prestigious journals.

In his 2009 book, "The Great American University," Columbia professor Jonathan Cole writes that what makes American universities the best in the world is the ability of those schools "to produce a very high proportion of the most fundamental knowledge and practical research discoveries in the world."

Cole explains how US universities became preeminent, what they can do to improve, and why they are at risk of losing their dominant status. With regard to the risks, Cole is most concerned that Americans will abandon their traditional commitment to education, perhaps choosing instead to spend money on defense or placing visa roadblocks in the paths of talented foreigners wishing to study in the US.

Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz suggest that America was able to create technological breakthroughs beyond what other nations accomplished during the twentieth century because Americans were socially committed to mass education, including college education.

According to Cole, one of the major advances in American education was the production of the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education in California, which was the brainchild of Clark Kerr, the twelfth president of the California system. One aspect underlying Kerr's California model was a perception that America's military superiority and economic welfare depended upon a highly educated population and a smaller elite group of scientists and engineers.

Recent signs suggest that America's universities may be about to topple. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that higher tuition costs and reduced services were eroding the University of California system. UC has seven of the top fifty universities in the Shanghai Rankings. At UC-Riverside, budget cuts have delayed the opening of a new medical school and UC's President Mark Yudof said university trends were "abysmal."

There are, as well, subtle signs that America's universities are in trouble. A recent PEW Research Center survey found that 57% of Americans think that higher education is not a good value. A Washington Post editorial urged that colleges streamline curriculums and begin offering students three-year degrees. In other words, colleges should dumb down their programs to satisfy market demands.

There is evidence that the dumbing down has already begun. One way colleges dilute education is by offering students accelerated degree programs in which students can earn Masters degrees in four years. A New York Times report this week suggests that universities are able to do that by downgrading Masters requirements, thereby creating credential inflation. Eric Hanushek, an education economist at the Hoover Institution, told The Times that, "(t)here is definitely some devaluing of the college degree going on."

So, Americans value higher education less and less and colleges are responding by offering easier-to-get degrees that will make American degrees worth even less. That appears to be a prescription that will doom American universities.

The author is a freelance journalist.

主站蜘蛛池模板: 久久精品国产亚洲7777小说 | 国产欧美日韩一区 | 韩国精品一区二区三区在线观看 | 白云精品视频国产专区 | 欧美精品一区二区在线观看播放 | 亚洲精品久久久久久久网站 | 美女视频网站色 | 亚洲精品一区二区三区国产 | 美女一丝不佳一级毛片香蕉 | 国产一区二区三区在线视频 | 亚洲一区二区中文 | 国产精品久久久久久久久久免费 | 午夜影院黄色 | 自拍偷在线精品自拍偷无码专区 | 国产成人高清亚洲一区91 | 成人观看免费大片在线观看 | 国产乱纶| 国产大片中文字幕在线观看 | 日韩色综合 | 欧美大陆日韩 | 欧美日韩一区二区三区免费不卡 | 婷婷久久久五月综合色 | 免费看片亚洲 | 99热久久国产综合精品久久国产 | 日日噜噜噜夜夜爽爽狠狠69 | 99re热精品这里精品 | 国产永久免费视频m3u8 | 免费黄网在线观看 | 午夜成年人网站 | 国产99视频精品免视看7 | 国产一级久久久久久毛片 | 国产激情久久久久久影院 | 九九免费在线视频 | 九九视频在线播放 | 成人欧美视频在线观看播放 | 国产精品三级在线播放 | 国产美女一级毛片 | 成人在线视频免费观看 | 直接看的毛片 | 国产精品福利午夜一级毛片 | 久久综合久久88 |