Manfred, I am speaking generally. If you take the average US citizen he has had more education than the average german citizen. In the USA the masses have access to education to a higher degree than in all European countries. The model is different, in the USA you pay a high fee for many colleges, since many are private corporations that make profits (and there are scholarships too). For the rest there are scholarships and State colleges and that abates the fees enormously.
In Europe the college fees are a lot lower, but access is restricted since they simply do not have enough space to accept them all. The US system of profits makes the colleges expand if there are fee paying people at the door and so thay have indeed expanded.
As to quality. The US colleges run from high to low quality. Some are mere diploma mills, you pay a fee and get a PhD. That would not be allowed in Germany or Canada. In the USA if you went to AMD with a PhD in EE Diploma from the Palisades College, you might not get hired, as they would find out what it was and file your application in the waste-paper bin.
Now in the UK, Germany, and most of Europe the colleges are forced to meet high srandards via accrediting bodies that have to inspect the facilities, the profs and the curriculum before they will allow you to grant degrees or diplomas. This means that most european colleges are higher in quality than the average US college. This applies especially to Germany and the UK since they have the best tech colleges outside the USA. At the very top end, if you rated the top 25 US tech schools against the top 25 French, UK, german etc. I think you would find the US at the top with over 50% of the top 25 with a scattering of UK and german schools and a few others from france etc making up the rest. Since such a measurement is very subjective it is hard to get true ratings as we all feel our country, our school, our garbage men etc are the very best, and the rest of the world walks in our shadow.
Putting that aside, I feel that the US system seems to be the best. One guideline over the last 50 years is the number of Nobels won by grads of each school. I do not know if there has been a compilation done. I know the USA leads as a country, but what if it was all german PhDs who won the nobels in US labs.
All the above uses colleges as universities and does not include fine art or other liberal educations.
Well, 7:49 AM the trade day starts soon , back to the topic.
Bill |
