Rise and Fall

Back in the 1950s when the Soviets launched Sputnik, the event served as a wake-up call and led to higher ed and research as a U.S. priority. No sign of that happening now, as one empire declines and another rises:

...The U.S. remained the dominant nation overall, with seven schools in the top 10 and 60 in the top 200, but China’s massive investment in higher education continues to generate dividends, including placing nine more schools than last year in the overall ranking of nearly 1,400 universities. For the first time, China is now spending more money than any other nation, according to one closely watched funding metric.

“China’s rise is due to decades of focused reform and strong investment, which is clearly paying off with powerful results and which is set to continue,” said Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer of Times Higher Education, a London-based magazine that produced the global rankings and last week published its fourth annual ranking of U.S. universities in partnership with The Wall Street Journal...

The University of California, Berkeley and UCLA are the only two U.S. public universities in the global top 20...

Source: UCOP Daily News Clips (9-12-19) from Wall Street Journal (9-11-19)