Blog 9: Asian Universities Challenge US-UK

Asian Universities challenge US-UK Universities
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/mar/15/top-100-universities-times-higher-education

 

According to rankings, the Asian Universities have increased in the past year, and challenged spots for top Universities such as Harvard and MIT. Britain better Universities than China, but slowly they are coming in behind. The results, published as a league table by Times Higher Education magazine, places 44 US universities in the top 100, one fewer than last year, while Britain has 10, two fewer than last year. Japan and the Netherlands have five each in the top 100. Some of the UK's leading universities have dropped several places since last year, while China's universities have improved their performance. China is expanding its higher education system faster than most other countries in the world. Phil Baty, rankings editor at Times Higher Education magazine, said there was a clear risk that UK universities, other than Oxford and Cambridge, would be "relegated from the premier league … in the eyes of the world, with tangible and sustained damage". He states that "Perception is reality and it seems that we are perceived as a fading power," he said. There are several other league tables of the world's universities, but this one only ranks institutions on their reputation. Universities are likely to use the rankings to judge how much they should charge in tuition fees. "This is symptomatic of the chaos and confusion being created by the government as a result of their rapid changes to higher education. Trebling tuition fees and cutting funding to universities has damaged the promise of Britain and this has been reflected around the world."

I believe that this was an interesting article to read because it shows how competitive Universities can truly be. Although it is rather difficult to get into a University in the US, it is just as difficult to attend a University in Britain, and our biggest competitor, China. All Universities hold a reputation that is valuable to their name, but now they are starting to use that to their advantage and it is a deciding factor on how much tuition is going to be. Even a small public University such as UNCG has a good reputation, but nothing compared to Stanford, which is in the top 10. On a global perspective, this could be harmful because if Universities are raising their tuition because of their rankings being “likely” to increase, more people are going to feel pressured. They will feel pressured to go to a top school, pressured to pay the top dollar, and this could greatly affect our society.