Education: Does U.S. 'Catch-Up' At The College Level?

nomadic asks: " Reuters recently published an article about how American scientists, as well as foreign-born scientists who work in America, tend to dominate the Nobel prizes in science; it attributes this mostly to the fact that the U.S. government tends to invest more in science research than its foreign counterparts (the National Science Foundation funded 78 U.S. winners before they got their Nobels), and private and corporate entities contribute large amounts as well. The article talks about the scientific and economic culture of the U.S.; young scientists exist in an extremely competitive environment, where they are encouraged to challenge traditional authority. But it only touches on education a little. Now I've seen some truly venomous attacks on the U.S. educational system on /. by people in other countries, but this article implies while the U.S. is behind in science and math education in elementary and high school, 'there is something that happens on the college level'. Does the U.S. 'catch up' at the college level? I'll be honest, the exchange students I've met from more math and science-savvy educational systems have been well-educated, but not on some higher plane of thought that the media would lead one to believe. It seems commonly accepted (though I'm not sure I agree) that a high school graduate from most countries in Europe is on the average better-educated than one from the U.S. How about a college graduate? Graduate school? Is the U.S. dominance in science only about financial investment in the U.S., or can the U.S. university system take some credit?"

Comments

Graduates

[sql*kitten]

I don't have any figures to hand, but based on my experience of working both in the UK and the US (educated in the UK), while Britain has more rigorous Bachelors degrees, far fewer Brits than Americans go on to take a Masters degree. Americans are more likely to intern, Brits are more likely to take gap years to do degree-related placements in industry. So, I think by the ages of 24-25, there's a fairly even match between the two countries, when everyone's finished their first round of college education and has worked for a couple of years.

After that, it comes down to investment in research, not by the government necessarily, but also by private industry. Britain has experienced many cases of innovators who could not get funding to develop their ideas at home, so left for other countries including the US. The US has yet to experience a significant "brain drain" (as the UK is constantly at risk of), and in fact imports scientific talent from the entire world.

I think the simplist distinction between Europe and the US is that Europeans are enamoured of the status quo, and Americans are impatient with it. This gives the US the edge in commerce and industry at the expense of culture and history.

It's up to each individual to vote with their feet and decide where they'd rather be.