The State of Higher Education in the United States

Abstract

For the last half a century, the American system of higher education has widely been hailed as one of the United States greatest institutional accomplishments. Offering advanced education to all United States citizens regardless of ability, fostering diversity and class mobility, and offering students an unprecedented degree of educational choice, the United States system has enabled millions of ordinary Americans to learn new skills, undertake research, and improve their earning power. Even more remarkable, the system has managed to secure this fundamentally populist orientation within a meritocratic structure designed to identify, foster, and reward exceptional ability. Without abandoning their commitment to the common man, American universities have long functioned as intellectual hubs, educating a substantial portion of the worlds business and scholarly elite and serving as one of the worlds primary loci for technological innovation and scientific discovery.