United States Ranked To Have Best Higher Education System In The World

The United States has the best higher education system in the world, according to a new list released Friday by university network, Universitas 21.

The group said their researchers looked at the most recent data from 48 countries across 20 different measures, including investment by governments and private sector, research and the production of an educated workforce, international networks and diversity. Population size was accounted for in the calculations, a news release said.

This is the first time Universitas 21 has created these rankings.

The rankings did not factor in affordability or cost of attending college.

Check out the top 16 countries (in order of ranking):

Loading Slideshow

• United States

• Sweden

  Photo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Sweden.svg" target="_hplink">Credit</a>: (286 B) Anomie

• Canada

• Finland

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Finland.svg" target="_hplink">Skopp</a>

• Denmark

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Denmark.svg" target="_hplink">Madden</a>

• Switzerland

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swiss_Flag_on_Hotel_Royal_Saint_Georges.jpg" target="_hplink">Claude Schildknecht</a>

• Norway

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Norway.svg" target="_hplink">Dbenbenn</a>

• Australia

• Netherlands

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Netherlands.svg" target="_hplink">Zscout370</a>

• United Kingdom

• Signapore

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NationalDayParade-Esplanade-20070809.jpg" target="_hplink">Loo Beng Chye</a>

• Austria

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Austria_%28state%29.svg" target="_hplink">Peter Diem</a>

• Belgium

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gravensteen_copy.jpg" target="_hplink">Oreo Priest</a>

• New Zealand

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NZ_flag_Photo.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NZ_flag_Photo.jpg" target="_hplink">Tākuta / Edward Hyde</a>

• France

  Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drapeau_de_la_France.png" target="_hplink">Wox-globe-trotter</a>

• Ireland

  Photo Credit:<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Ireland.svg" target="_hplink"> SKopp</a>

View the complete list here.

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Comments

[user2308]

12:25 AM on 08/20/2012

We pay so much money for our education, it would be strange for us not to be at the top. Yet, I have many doubts regarding this ranking because, well, in reality we are really not the best. Many of the college graduates I have met have failed to impress me or show me some academic/personal growth through their college experience. It's a sad truth that's becoming an ever-growing problem. Yet there are these kind of articles, stating that we have the "best higher education program". I refuse to believe that.

[Una Bubba]

10:44 PM on 05/21/2012

If by best you mean most profitable, I'll believe it. I've hired too many college graduates that cannot master the English language to believe this drivel.

[kitsapdem]

01:28 PM on 05/19/2012

Really? I doubt it, but maybe we are still number one in something....

[see-ellen2001]

12:53 PM on 05/19/2012

What about access to education...not too 'best'.

[OHexpat12]

10:38 AM on 05/18/2012

from the report, the measures used for the rating are resources, environment, connectivity and output. I felt skeptical so I looked at one of them: connectivity.

"High connectivity provides two measures of the worth of a nation’s higher education system: it is an indicator of the quality of teaching and research and it is an indicator of absorption of new discoveries and ideas.

So they check how many international students there are and how many multi-university collaborative research projects there are.

Is it possible that there are other reliable ways of getting connected besides these indicators?

Furthermore, I measure output in terms of the number of students we can equip with critical thinking skills and an ability to learn absolutely anything. This survey, however, is still stuck in the Charles Locke idea of education as an elite function to provide managers for national domination. They tell our kids: Go and serve the 1% and ignore your fellow human being or your own potential. Just go in to work for Sax Goldman/BOA and do what they tell you. My kids? I told them to reject things that dehumanize us and point a way forward for us that enhances freedom, sustainability and mutual respect.

[Alex Wilson 123]

02:27 AM on 05/17/2012

Best college means best price :(
No doubt the quality of education in US is unmatched.

[OHexpat12]

10:43 AM on 05/18/2012

I have doubt of that.

[ifquilt]

07:55 PM on 05/16/2012

Ohhhhhhh, so that why all the foreigners are here on student visas. Hmmmmm and then they don't go home, to help their people. They bring them here, so we can help them!

[OHexpat12]

10:47 AM on 05/18/2012

Americans are coming to Asia to study now because you can get a decent education for only $500 a term. Decent meaning you will be equipped with a degree in nano engineering. You will get a medical license and more. Tell me then...if you could solve corporate production problems could you make a decent living? you bet! You see, this push to Harvard is part of an elite idea of education that fails us. Dare to reject that mistaken value.

[ifquilt]

04:09 PM on 05/18/2012

Funny thing is I won't go to a doctor with a degree from a foreign country.  That includes Americans that go abroad.  I also don't know ab out a push to Harvard.  Either you can get in and pay or you don't.  This country is full of many, many affordable Universities with superior educations.   Both public and private.  In the end it is all about what YOU do with Your education.  Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, college drop outs,  so there you have it! 
 
I'm not sure where you got "elite idea" from.  But, as a poverty child myself.  It was ticket to comfort and a piece of the American Pie.  I push all young people to go to school.  No matter the cost.  I teach public school,  in an impoversihed community.    In the end, in America, you make your way alone.
 
Plus, it is just plain fun to live in America.  That is a value you can bank on!  Ask any foreigner that refuses to go home.  There are millions of them, educated or otherwise.  I love America!

[kitsapdem]

01:29 PM on 05/19/2012

We need to keep them here, but our idiotic immigration policies educate them and then make them go back home? Stupid. Just Plain Stupid.

[Therealkarmabug]

09:36 AM on 05/16/2012

Yeah okay best education the world? Notice my sarcasim.

[moremoneyfortherich]

08:00 AM on 05/16/2012

simple no riff raff
they deny the unqualified- including bad teachers

[ashamed of m bachmann]

10:50 PM on 05/15/2012

Too bad no one can afford to go.

[Rachel Petrie]

08:00 PM on 05/16/2012

not all colleges are expensive. You can get a fabulous education at a very affordable price. Most people want the name of an expensive college and they pay for it. The USA offers financial aid and the individual colleges give out financial and merit scholarships. You just have to be smart about where you go.

[MyNameIsMickey]

09:53 PM on 05/15/2012

GOP rich kids, the new college elite.

[mlaiuppa]

06:12 PM on 05/15/2012

By all means, factor in affordability the next time around.

[billslater]

12:53 PM on 05/15/2012

I was proud to see this, especially because I am an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Teaching Experiences: http://on.fb.me/vfGRVi

http://billslater.com/career

[ifquilt]

07:56 PM on 05/16/2012

Good for you, you should be proud. You make a difference, even when you piss the students off! LOL

[Lolman1234134]

11:28 AM on 05/15/2012

I accept that the US has a good higher education system, but coming from England I have seen a noticeable difference between our high school students. There seems to be a higher emphasis here on high school.

And I think that it shows when we have a country that is one fifth the population and much much smaller in physical size but yet has one of the leading GDP's alongside the US.

[PirateJohn]

03:01 PM on 05/15/2012

The problem here in the US is that there is too much emphasis on assigning blame when things go wrong. It's in our culture.

Plus, we often compare ourselves to other countries and lament that we spend more per student on education yet get lower results, but those comparisons don't take into account that the USA is unique in its mandate that all children are required to get the same education through high school, whereas many of the countries to which we compare ourselves have a large percentage of school-age children not enrolled in school, thus shifting the averages.

[kitsapdem]

01:30 PM on 05/19/2012

Yeah our high schools suck, no question there.

[onehotjock]

09:05 AM on 05/22/2012

Am I missing the point from John's post, or are you? He is saying we mandate all children get a free public high school education, where in Europe they test out, if your not college material you don't go to high school, you would go to a tech school. We are comparing all our students to their select students.

[carolgregor]

10:34 AM on 05/15/2012

That's because we accept so may foreigners who had better high schools.

[RocheTm]

02:27 PM on 05/15/2012

My best teachers in college where from India (computers and electronics) and Hungary(economics).

[carolgregor]

01:04 PM on 05/16/2012

educated here?

[ifquilt]

07:57 PM on 05/16/2012

I had a nice teacher from India, it took me six weeks to understand the accent. What a waste of time.