It may be worth analysing whether our edge is being lost in terms of quality as well as quantity of degrees awarded. While some European schools are excellent, few compare with the top tier of American institutions. Likewise, in areas outside of engineering and some hard sciences, we are still ahead in terms of the quality of our student’s education.

What is more worrysome is the inability of the academy to focus its student resources on preparing Americans to compete against their foreign counterparts. The Chinese, Indians, and Koreans have scrapped the liberal arts at many of their engineering schools, and some Indian and South Korean programs are five years of straight engineering and math.

This should be compared with the American system, in which students take two full years of liberal arts, and then two yeares of engineering. Given that we are behind in Mathmatics already, how our students will be better trained in two years than their counterparts with five escapes me.

If the academy would address career-prep related issues, corporations would be more willing to spend money to send employees back to school on their dime. While classes on TV shows and sex humor are still a major presance, it may be hard for them to justify the cost.

The rapid rise in the cost of college should also be addressed. Indian schools are cheap, the European ones are government subsidized, and we bear a high cost of education that dissuades low-income student from even attempting a degree. Perhaps the academy should be looking at where its money is spent and cutting the fat so our students can afford their education.

Kevin, Undergraudate, at 1:38 pm EDT on September 14, 2005

This article brings up some interesting points, but they are merely statistics without the larger picture attached. First, America doesn’t need as many scientists, we are a much larger economy, and even today, many scientists with masters and PhDs cannot find jobs; degrees don’t equal jobs. Second, like Rome, Americans live in decadence unknown to the world. The quality and ease of life lived by suburban upper class kids is unrivaled by other countries. Of course our math scores are going to decline, math is one of the most labor intensive (mentally) academic fields. Other countries with the culture for math (e.g. South Korea, Japan, China, India) already fill the rosters of economics, math, and science programs in the United States. This is no suprise.

Notice though, the key mathematicians and scientists in the United States, however, are mostly from America. And it is these researchers, our homegrown researchers, who dominate the world. So this report doesn’t assess the whole, just a few parts.

Lastly, while 50% of Canadians might be getting a college degree, they don’t have the same resources as American students do. Our funding and research programs are unrivaled. Looking at the undergrduate level is a good indicator, but maybe we should look at graduate degrees, or also what are the world rankings of these schools? I would bet that Americans, on average, attend better schools, thus possibly nullifying the percentage gap of socialized countries with major funding problems.

brett, indiana university, at 3:08 pm EDT on September 14, 2005