Higher Education Is the Gateway to a Successful Career - Essay Example

Higher Education in the USA emerged under totally different circumstances than in western European countries. Generally speaking, three major methods of education system can be found in the USA. (Viz. Elite Higher Education Universities, Mass Higher Education Universities, and Universal Access Universities)
Elite Higher Education Universities are conventional brick-and-mortar colleges whose accessibility is to students who have undergone training in systematic secondary education schools. Also, the fee structure of these colleges will be high in comparison to the other two forms of colleges. In addition, Elite institutes demand a good student-teacher ratio with a highly qualified teaching fraternity. The duration of the courses will be usually four years.
Mass Higher Educational institutes are usually funded by Governments and are established with the goal of Education for all classes of society. These colleges are popularly referred to as Community colleges(www.usa-vs-uk.com). The usual duration of community colleges is two years. One more type of college under this category is commonly referred to as a four-year college whose courses come in handy for all sections of society.

Universal Access Institutes (Martin Trow 2000) is the direct impact of the Information technology (IT) revolution that swept the globe. These institutes offer online courses and distance learning facilities to their wards. Flexibility is the key factor here as students can learn from their office or home without the hassles of attending college physically. The motto of these Universal colleges is to provide a continuous learning environment as it has been realized that learning cannot be stopped and is a continuous process irrespective of age factor. One can say Information Technology has liberated the education system from the constraints of time and space. The USA has gracefully embraced this development to its benefit.
The most important feature of the educational system of the USA is the Credit system and flexibility of transferring credits from one university to another. This credit system helps students to pursue their education by taking breaks during their education.
Challenges in European Countries:
The fundamental difference between Higher education in Europe and USA is:
In Europe, higher education is a highly regulated industry whereas it is less in the USA. The USA is predominantly market-driven while the European system is under bureaucracy. Even if the European system borrows a modular course structure and credit transfer system from the US it is difficult to reproduce a cluster of cultural and structural features. This gives an advantage to the USA.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 2011,chronicle.com), The British Government in its new budget has cut down the funding to higher education as a measure to accelerate the move away from a predominantly publicly supported system to a private system. This is a clear indication of embracing American Higher education policy.
Conclusion:
The US policy of private and market-driven Higher education systems has gained momentum in Western European countries and they too are adapting to the US style. Read More