Why is america\'s system of higher education so good?

A question I have been asker innumerable times,especially when traveling abroad,is,america\'s system of higher education so good? It is,as has been said all too often,the envy of the world. I think there are seven primary reasons for the excellence of US higher education relative to that in other countries:

We have abroad diversith of institutions ranging from small liberal arts colleges to lvy league schools,to the great land grant universities,and to somewhat more focused institutions like MIT or caltech.this diversity provides  a wealth of environments and opportunities,from which indivdual students can select a school that best matches their needs and capabilities.

We offer new assistant professors a wide-open  field offreedom to choose what they teach and the topics of research and scholarship they engage.We reject the hierarchical systems of many other nations in which junior faclty are subservient to,and indeed apprenticed to ,senior professors we therefore enjoy a constant flow of new ideas passions and approaches that keep us fresh and robust.

In our research universities we meaningfully weave together teaching and research.This too brings a freshness,intensity,and constant renewal that is a critical component of institutional excellence.

we welcome to our nation and our insitutions student,shclars,and faculty from other countries.It is not possible to overstate the intellectual and cultural richness that immigrants have brought to US campuses.They have joined us to create what we are,even the constant flow of i nternational visitors to our campuses,and our faculty to theirs,is critically important.

we have an implicit national science and technology policy that recgnizes the support of frontier research in our universities as an important reponsibility of the federal govemment.This policy i s intended to provide financial support to researchers,in whatever institution they are located,baseon their merit in a competitive marketplace of ideas,it has the additional feature,elegant in its simplicity,that funding for infrastructure is attached to grants and contracts,and therefore flows to the reseachers with the most meritorious ideas and track records.

We have a tradition of individual philanthropy through which our alumni and others who believe in excellent education support our colleges and universities.They enable talented students from families of modest means to attend even the most costly schools.We hae tax laws that encourage and enable such support,to an extent that is unique in the world.

We have a sysytem of free competition for faculty and sutdents.Such inter-insitutional competition,though it may be the bane of academic adminisrators,daily lives,drives excellence.

我在国外旅行时，人们会无数次问我一个问题：美国的高等教育何以优越？是的，如人们常说的那样，美国的高等教育令人羡慕。我认为，与其他国家相比，美国高等教育之所以优越主要有以下七个方面的原因：

我们有多种多样的学校，包括规模不大的文科学院、常春藤盟校和政府拨赠土地的大学，还有专业性较强的院校，如麻省理工学院或加州理工学院。学校的多样性提供了大量的机遇和不同的学习环境，学生可以藉此选择最适合其需要和能力的学校。

我们给新助理教授提供完全开放的自由空间，让他们自己选择教学内容，选择研究课题，并提供所需奖学基金。我们不赞成其他许多国家的等级制度：资历浅的教员须给资深教授打下手，实际上是当学徒。所以，我们享有不断涌现的新思维、新激情和新方法，因此我们充满活力、生机勃勃。

在我们的研究型大学里，教学和科研有机结合，从而使教学内容具有新鲜感，得到了加强和不断更新，这是我们保持学校卓越的关键所在。

我们欢迎其他国家的学生、学者和教师到我们国家和学校。可以毫不夸张地说，移民丰富了美国校园的智慧和文化。他们与我们一起创造了我们的今天。就连经常光顾我们校园的国外访问学者和我们派出的访问学者都对我们的发展至关重要。

我们国家在科技领域有个不成文的政策，那就是把支持大学里的前沿研究当作联邦政府的重要职责。该政策旨在为研究人员提供财政支持，依据的是他们在竞争激烈的思想论坛上的价值，而不管他们在哪个机构。该政策还有一个简单而明确的特点：基础学科的资金来源依附于捐赠和合同，从而使该资金流向那些有最可称赞的想法和取得优异成绩的研究人员。

我们的校友及其他相信优异教育的人通过个人慈善传统资助我们的高等院校。他们让家庭经济困难但有才华的学生能上得起最昂贵的学校。我们的税法对这种资助的鼓励和支持达到了世界上绝无仅有的程度。

我们有教员和学生的自由竞争制度。这种机构内的竞争虽然会打乱学校管理人员的日常生活，却有利于争创一流。