Why the United States has the best research universities
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Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#2Research focus in US and EU seems a bit different.
Europe produces a lot of high quality science. Research in US is on the other hand increasingly application-focused (something that EU is not very good at).
This is my observation as a former researcher who has experience in both regions; I don’t have references. It’s partly driven by culture, and economic system. The strong public system in Europe supports longer term research, whereas the strong private sector in US focuses on applications and commercialization. It wasn’t not like that in US few decades ago.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#3Research focus in US and EU seems a bit different. Europe produces a lot of high quality science. Research in US is on the other hand increasingly application-focused (something that EU is not very good at). This is my observation as a former researcher who has experience in both regions; I don’t have references. It’s partly driven by culture, and economic system. The strong public system in Europe supports longer te…
Citation needed? Never heard or noticed any bias like this before.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#4Research focus in US and EU seems a bit different. Europe produces a lot of high quality science. Research in US is on the other hand increasingly application-focused (something that EU is not very good at). This is my observation as a former researcher who has experience in both regions; I don’t have references. It’s partly driven by culture, and economic system. The strong public system in Europe supports longer te…
At least in Germany a lot of research isn't being done at universities but at dedicated research institutes. Quite a few PhD students are working part time at uni and part time at one of the Fraunhofer Institutes or at Forschungszentrum Jülich. Another European example is CERN in Switzerland.
This model just doesn't conform with all those research university rankings.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#5Research focus in US and EU seems a bit different. Europe produces a lot of high quality science. Research in US is on the other hand increasingly application-focused (something that EU is not very good at). This is my observation as a former researcher who has experience in both regions; I don’t have references. It’s partly driven by culture, and economic system. The strong public system in Europe supports longer te…
I don’t know why anyone should believe you. Can you source some concrete facts if any?
This is a provocative comment ready to start flame wars.
Please tell specifics and not paint broad brushstrokes to flame the fires. I’m sorry to flag your comment.
Edit: One source we can look at the awards given to fundamental research. They’re overwhelmingly US-based. Fields, Nobel, Turing, etc. This contradicts the popular generalization.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#6Lets not fool ourselves. First and foremost the money is here and the business environment (capitalism) is the most favorable than any other region of the world.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#7Research focus in US and EU seems a bit different. Europe produces a lot of high quality science. Research in US is on the other hand increasingly application-focused (something that EU is not very good at). This is my observation as a former researcher who has experience in both regions; I don’t have references. It’s partly driven by culture, and economic system. The strong public system in Europe supports longer te…
Citation needed? Never heard or noticed any bias like this before.
Look at university research labs, and see where they get their funding from.
Companies tend to fund applied research.
Funding in Europe, whether academic or industry motivated, is simply lacking across all scientific, engineering, and social science disciplines.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#8The US has the best research universities in part because it's socially accepted, even expected, to call anything remotely good "the best" over here. People are a bit more restrained elsewhere.
For universities, they're admittedly the best by several objective measures too, but the willingness for self-promotion helps :)
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#9Because they have the most money.
Re: Why the United States has the best research universities
#10tenure exists in many countries, sounds relatively irrelevant. After all the US doesnt have nearly as many tenure positions as would be required, as does (not) the rest of the world.
In US, even if research doesnt pan out, there's lots of industries to pursue. Also, universities in US/UK have fees and actively pursue students from abroad, whereas this barely exists in continental europe. I doubt there's something structurally superior in US universities, the main reason seems to be that US in general gives the best opportunity to those who are capable, and also, money