According to Jamil Salmi, an education expert at the World Bank and author of a study on the challenge of establishing world-class universities, the proliferation of international rankings means that students today are far more aware of how their universities compare with others. “The world’s best universities enroll and employ large numbers of foreign students and faculty in their search for the most talented,” Dr. Salmi wrote in a report. And though academic prestige cannot simply be bought, a lack of resources can hamper even the most prestigious universities in their efforts to recruit faculty or attract the most able students.
Dr. Salmi points to France and Germany, two prosperous countries, both with a long tradition of scientific achievement, yet whose best universities “are hardly recognized as elite institutions.”
“Universities in Germany, France and Scandinavia have traditionally relied on public funding,” he said. “But only the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland have been able to fund their universities at levels sufficiently generous to allow them to compete.”
This disparity may not have mattered when language and the high cost of travel meant students had little choice about where to study. “The European academic mind set has not been much interested in diversifying the sources of funding,” Dr. Salmi said.
Recently, however, that has been changing. Partly in response to decades of “brain drain” to the United States and partly prompted by increased competition from universities in the emerging economies of India and East Asia, European universities are increasingly turning to American-style fund-raising methods in an effort to amass endowments that would in turn give them greater economic independence and stability.
via www.nytimes.com
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