Why is there none NATIONAL university in America

Parents Forum
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<p>Politically, it wouldn’t be viable either. No congressman or senator would appropriate funds for a national university that would draw students, teachers, and resources away from the universities in their own states. Many of those universities sustain whole economic eco-systems in towns that would die without them. </p>

<p>And no President would push for the huge financial outlay starting such a university would require, when people seem generally happy with the university choice they have. </p>

<p>What we choose to do instead is to try to make the universities that exist more accessible to more students, through federal aid and other programs, rather than try to create a national university that would only help a few students.</p>

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<p>Correct. The US already dominates every iinternational ranking of universities that I’ve ever seen, regardless of methodology. In this particular ranking American schools hold 17 of the top 20 slots:<a href=“http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2007/ARWU2007_Top100.htm[/url]”>http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2007/ARWU2007_Top100.htm&lt;/a&gt;
Do we really need to make it 18?</p>

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<p>If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.</p>

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<p>The US doesn’t need to establish a “national” U.</p>

<p>The role of education is largely state and regional. </p>

<p>The US needs to just do what it does best - and not try to run one National University, which would become politicized depending on whoever was in the White House and/or who controlled Congress at the time.</p>

<p>BTW…I love post #17. The military academies do well because political Washington doesn’t really have much, if anything, to do with how they operate.</p>

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<p>Good grief, what a mess that would be. It would have to be an entire system of universities, at least 50 because I’m sure every state would want one there.</p>

<p>Most of our top universities are private anyway, and out of the top 50 universities in the world they make up about half anyway.</p>

<p>But I even question the premise. I’m not sure you can point to a clear National University for every country. For everyone in the UK who says it is Oxford there will probably be somebody saying it is Cambridge. I’m sure it’s the same in a lot of places.</p>

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<p>^ Both Oxford and Cambridge function as the UK’s foremost universities, receiving more government funding than any uni.</p>

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<p>Why is that?
And is West Point part of that “state function”?
who’s state is shouldering West Point?</p>

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<p>RML, both France and the UK have multiple leading universities: Oxbridge, the Grandes Ecoles, et al. </p>

<p>It seems that your real question is “Why aren’t universities in the USA funded primarily by the federal governemnt?” That question has been answered already.</p>

<p>One reason that the federal government isn’t establishing a “national university” at this stage of the game is that it simply isn’t needed. There are plenty of superb institutions already.</p>

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<p>I think you miss this one. </p>

<p>If America had one, maybe there would be less than 17 in the top 20, for America’s national university would monopolize the achievements leaving other national universities of other countries more room to occupy in the upper echelon of the ranking.</p>

<p>What’s wrong with the idea of having a special academic institution that would give Harvard a run for their money?</p>

<p>But, frankly, I’d be more interested to see it rival Harvard as Harvard has been there since 4 centuries ago or so.</p>

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<p>hawkette, if America would have one, your 40 would probably be trimmed down to 20.</p>

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<p>What’s the national university of England? I’m not aware there’s ONE. I don’t think Germany has a universally agreed on best uni either.</p>

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<p>RML there are already a bunch of good schools that rival harvard. In fact in Engineering there are quite a few public schools that are significantly better than Harvard.</p>

<p>I see no point to your post at all</p>

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<p>What is best anyway? We talk on this forum all the time about how the best fit for one student would be a poor fit for another. It doesn’t make any sense to throw that out the window and now say that one College will magically be the best.</p>

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<p>I doubt it. Then there would just be one more American university in the top 20. Most of those private schools are financed by tuitions, alumni contributions, and large private endowments with investment income. They may get some government funding and grants but I’m sure they still would.</p>

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<p>RML,
There might be a reduction in the number of colleges, but I doubt that the 40 privates that I mentioned would be the ones to close. I’m also not sure how the reduction in the number of colleges improves the educational level of the country’s student population.</p>

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<p>I think I’m the only proponent of a national university on these entire boards. :stuck_out_tongue: I don’t feel it would be inappropriate whatsoever. I can’t help but empathize with the excellent students from areas like the Dakotas and Nebraska who are too bright for their less-than-stellar state universities, yet fall through the cracks with financial aid to top tier privates; thus they are forced to attend a, frankly, bad school. A national university would alleviate both of these issues, providing there was competent staffing. </p>

<p>I don’t think you can argue that the US lacks a political capitol either. Cultural, yes. Political, definitely not. DC is absolutely the heart of American political society.</p>

<p>Also, as an aside, I believe Jefferson made a large push for a federal university, but was ultimately overruled. I tend to agree with him that the federal government needs to play a larger role in education. We’re all Americans, and the fact that people from other states are perhaps not getting the best educational experience only hurts all of us in the long run.</p>

<p>Anyway, I’m sure there would be a massive uproar over it if such a thing ever came to be since the nation is trillions in debt and the current president has decided to introduce some very colorful characters into the administration, including an extremely controversial education “czar.” It’d be labeled as an indoctrination camp and not get very far.</p>

<p>However, RML, I don’t think you’re grasping some basic concepts about the mindset of Americans. To your last point, why would you think that any American would want to loose spots to other international universities? We’re extremely proud that we have the highest concentration of amazing education facilities in the world.</p>

<p>The main thing that you’re not grasping is the American sense of individualism. As a whole, we tend to not want government to be very involved in our lives. I think the reason that you’re not understanding this is because you come from a socialist nation with a very strong government presence. It’s just as hard for you to understand what it’s like here as it us for many of us to understand what it’s like over there. In our Constitution, the federal government is delegated a specific set of powers and that’s it. Everything else is covered under the reserve clause, which says that any power not expressly given to the federal government is reserved for the states. THAT’S why we have historically had a state-run public education system.</p>

<p>On the other hand (and on an irrelevant note), I do agree with you that Harvard needs to be booted out of the top spot. I doubt there’s many people that would argue that it remains number one because it excels in everything, and that it’s name alone doesn’t keep it afloat. </p>

<p>P.S. To the poster that wanted to know whether the UK had a main national university, I believe this is as close as it gets. [University</a> of London - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_London]University”>University of London - Wikipedia)</p>

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<p>Not a chance. Population-wise the US is the third largest country in the world, ranking behind only China and India. It could easily fill up one more university with high-end applicants without causing a significant drop in quality of students enrolled at the other top schools.</p>

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<p>fwiw:</p>

<p>we DO have a University that was chartered by Congress. (I’ll let y’all mull that one awhile before I name names.)</p>

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A quick Google search revealed the answer. Interesting! I’m not surprised at which one it is, but I didn’t know that about the school.</p>

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<p>OP appears to believe the federal government does not finance American universities. In fact, through support for students andresearch grants to universities and faculty members, the federal government provides a vast amount of funding.</p>

<p>OP is also not fully grasping the size of university required to be the national university for a country as large as America; the obstacles of having a single national unviersity for a country whose mainland is 3000 miles wide; and the foolishness of thinking that 1, government-imposed approach to a “best education” is preferable to competing publ;ic and private visions.</p>