Does USA really top the universities league table?

30 May 2011

Interesting - if polemical - piece in the London Review of Books attacking the notion that the USA is the world's leading higher education system. 

In his essay 'Don't look to the Ivy League', Howard Hotson argues that once you take account of relative population size, the USA's leading position in world university rankings is rather less impressive than the UK's. He says that - on a per head of population basis - the UK has more top 20 universities than the USA.

He goes on to argue that this should throw doubt on the UK government's policy of copying the US by encouraging the growth of private sector providers, such as BPP. 

The full article is available free here: www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n10/howard-hotson/dont-look-to-the-ivy-league

User Comments

Rebecca Hanson - 02 Jun 2011

Something dubious - where are the Israeli Universities?

I chat extensively on a variety of international discussion forums and I have to say the Israeli academics stand out on them. There's clearly incredible stuff going on in their universities.

So where are they on that league table?

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