McGill University is a high-ranking one of international prestige. It also happens to be a public University with a relatively low budget and costs little even to foreign students, as compared to other similar ranking Universities. I see it as a sign of success and efficiency in the public University sector.

However, let us not forget the successes of the private University sector. As any quick glance at University rankings will reveal, the United States dominates the field. Of course, it has ten times the population of Canada, something that has to be considered. But Canada has three Universities in the top hundred, in contrast to the United State’s fifty-nine, rather than the thirty that would seem proportional.

I’ve often heard people complain that, though it is true that the United States is renown for its Universities, that they are far too expensive for the common family to afford. Of course, Harvard does not filter its students on merit alone (though it still offers many ways for the most brilliant students of this world to get in, regardless of their economic status). But on the whole, it seems that Universities are perfectly accessible:

University graduation rates. Bachelor’s degree.
Norway        38.3%
UK        35.2%
New Zealand    33.0%
USA        32.9%
Canada        29.4%
Sweden        25.1%
France        24.0%

University graduation rates. Master’s degree.
USA        14.6%
New Zealand    14.1%
UK        12.3%
France        6.3%
Canada        4.5%
Norway        5.2%
Sweden        0.4%

University graduation rates. Doctorate.
Sweden        2.2%
USA        1.3%
UK        1.2%
France        1.2%
Norway        1.1%
Canada        0.8%
New Zealand    0.7%

http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/STAT/indic01/indic01A/ia01509.pdf

It seems that a larger share of the US-Americans are University educated, in terms of Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorates, than Canada and many other countries with “fairer”, more public education systems. It may not have the most University graduates, but by all other measures, its population benefits greatly from its top-class University market. It should also be noted that a Bachelor’s degree is not always the same as a Bachelor’s degree; one from the United States, where Universities are so much better than elsewhere (with a few exceptions), is worth more.

People often seem to draw a line between good and bad, public and private. Some scream out against the government’s incompetence, how it should not be trusted with our health, our education and so forth. Then there are those who say the opposite: that we should not trust the private sector with such things.

Though I believe that, by default, we should rely on the private sector, rather than government institutions, what matters most of all are results. I don’t think that public or private defines what is good or bad. If we look at health care (which I will not go in-depth here), the United States quite clearly has a particularly atrocious system, where roughly a 50% greater share of their GDP is spent on health care, for less results (life expectancy, number of failed births are all revealing).

Do note, however, that a bad and more privatized health care system in the United States does not mean that a private health care system is necessarily worst. The same goes for education and whatever else. However, countries such as France should consider looking at the United States for lessons on University education, just like the United States should consider looking at France for lessons on health care.

On the left, one of the main criticisms of a private education system I hear is that education should be free of charge, that it should be a right. This sort of language is meaningless. What matters are the results, not how people feel about the facts. What matters is how well the country’s potential is tapped and, looking at the proportion of citizens who manage their way into University, it seems better tapped in this respect than many countries that would like to pretend that their system is more fair.

As a final point, I wonder what these numbers mean, in contrast with the University numbers:

PISA, the main measure of pre-university education. It is a test given to 15 year-olds to measure their knowledge of science, mathematics and language.
Finland        1st    563
Canada        3rd    534
New Zealand    3rd    530
UK        12th    515
Sweden        20th    503
France        22th    495
USA        24th    489
Norway        27th    487

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/42/8/39700724.pdf

1 Comment »

1. [...] Working-class families and US Universities [...]

   Pingback by Public services: how should we pay for them? | Montreal Philosophy — March 31, 2010 @ 7:16 PM

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