U.S. universities lead in innovation; Asia a rising power

The sad part about the top universities in the US is that the students are not taught by the top professors. They are off doing research. The students are taught by graduate students working on their PhD's.

Each of the leading universities listed in the article attracts achievement oriented people from all over the world. Yes, many are from the privileged classes, from families able to buy the best preparatory education, but many others are there because of their academic abilities. They are there because they have been admitted based on merit.

The education they get at these elite institutions is highest quality, but I think bright people being around other bright people is the best part of their education. They learn from each other and their knowledge then snowballs. The best professors might not teach the, but they attract research grants that enable the university to get even better facilities.

My sense is Japanese universities are stuck, like most Japanese industries, in the model that brought them the bubble years. I also think the primary and secondary educational institutions are stuck in the same model.

I saw a brief TV segment that showed Japanese children taking private computer programming lessons. The show interviewed some young Japanese nerds who had formed their own little community of programmers helping each other learn more about computers. They were helping each other get better. I’l bet some of them, or people like them, will go on to make fortunes with no help from the established institutions.

Couldn’t a bit more attention be paid by the schools and universities to preparing students for the current world of technology, with an eye on the future? Technological singularity might be sci-fi, but something approximating it is very likely. I don’t think - based on what I know - Japanese schools at any level are even close to being up to speed in this regard.

I know it’s not the Japanese way, but a possible start would be attempts at a meritocracy, in education and industry. Another start would be revising school curricula, which could include teaching meaningful language skills, more emphasis on technology, more emphasis on world issues, and more emphasis on business and the importance of entrepreneurship.

The standard approach, which seems to be to create fungible human assets for bubble year industries, should be broadened to include more alternative schools for those who are differently abled - and disaffected.

Actually they are being taught by underpaid adjuncts, who make up 76% of the American professoriate.

Many of the students who graduate from them are doomed to spend the first 20 years of their working lives paying off high-interest loans.

I wonder which survey this article is referring to. There are a number out and they are at variance from one another. The ranking of universities a silly business.

Actually they are being taught by underpaid adjuncts, who make up 76% of the American professoriate.

This is what happens when you have liberals and the unions hijack and running the educational school system. It's a total disaster.

What boggles the mind is that while the US universities can be amazing places of really great higher learning, junior highs and high schools are filled with bad teachers, lazy kids, and parents who don't know to encourage education at home.

Regarding comments about grad-students and adjuncts teaching the courses in the US schools, I love how this is mentioned in a derogatory sense. If one accepts the premise of the article/study, then these grad-students and adjuncts are producing alumni superior to competing schools... And these grad-students and adjuncts are in their own right superior to the actual professors at the other schools... By the logic of the study. Congratulations to the hard-working grad-students and adjuncts of the USA!

The point is that adjuncts, not to be confused with grad students, are grossly underpaid, receive no benefits and can have their contracts cancelled without explanation. Usually adjuncts have no offices where they can meet with students. Adjuncts have MAs and often doctorates. Many manage to publish, though their time is grossly taken by commuting from school to school. A lot of adjuncts are homeless, living on friends' couches, if not in their cars. These are bright people but they are hamstrung by an unfair system.

Korea had 8 in the top 100 including no's 10 and 12 while their rivals Japan had 9 with the highest being Osaka at 18. Considering South Korea's tiny population compared to Japan's what does that tell you about the state of innovation in Japan?

You ought to have a look at Reuters top 100 list. Its evaluations are based on scientific and technological innovation. It is interesting, compared to other rankings. I was going to write it is eccentric. But similar rankings are also eccentric in their own ways. None agree with each other. The trouble with rankings is that invariably someone is overrated and someone is shortchanged.

Anyway, as an American academic in Japan I have a lot to say about what has happened to American universities (overpriced and overflowing with useless and overpaid administrators) and Japanese universities (sleep centers). There are good things about both of course. But why dwell on that?

U.S. universities lead in innovation; Asia a rising power

Where in Asia? Certainly not NE Asia.

There are certainly a lot of bright and innovative people in Asia. Unfortunately, Asia's social and political systems are not innovative, except in repressing people in one way or another. Tons of bright Asians in Silicon Valley who don't want to go home.

Jeff HuffmanSEP. 18, 2015 - 12:15AM JST U.S. universities lead in innovation; Asia a rising power Where in Asia? Certainly not NE Asia.

Well, according to the article South Korea dude, and China no doubt since they are steaming ahead in R & D in science and tech not to mention Taiwain.

Oh, NO!

A non-Japainese study places Japain ahead of Korea and China comes in 72(!!!)

Obviously the academic papers are: 1) Wrong;

2) Japain bribed the academics to present them in a good light;

3) Actually Korea is far ahead of Japain by at least double digits (plain mistake by the researchers)

4) China is definitely wiping the floor with Japain in everything (how could the researchers make such a mistake)?

5) This bogus study is only perverting the course of justice by presenting fake facts.

6) Japain and Japainese are third “worlders” and they should know it!

shonanbbSEP. 17, 2015 - 08:03AM JST The sad part about the top universities in the US is that the students are not taught by the top professors. They are off doing research. The students are taught by graduate students working on their PhD's.

KabukiloverSEP. 17, 2015 - 08:33AM JST Actually they are being taught by underpaid adjuncts, who make up 76% of the American professoriate.

Have either one of you even been to university in the U.S.? Have either one of you ever taught at a university in the U.S.?

While it's true that adjuncts may teach some introductory classes primarily for freshman as well as lead lab or smaller group study sessions, once you get into upper division courses teaching assistants are primarily paper pusher for tenured professors. You don't really need or want your best academic minds lecturing in Psych 101 to 400 freshman.

However, if this is a piece about elite scholarship, much of it taking place at the Ivies, MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and a about two dozen more schools better than the best universities in Asia, these schools typically have much smaller enrollment with student to faculty ratios less than 20 to 1 and many introductory courses are taught by tenured faculty. And when you get to the research aspect of universities (biology, chemistries, engineering, etc.), it's grad students and department research assistants working with the lead researcher. They aren't in the labs by themselves isolated from the rest of the university.

harvey pekarSEP. 17, 2015 - 01:16PM JST What boggles the mind is that while the US universities can be amazing places of really great higher learning, junior highs and high schools are filled with bad teachers, lazy kids, and parents who don't know to encourage education at home.

And how is this any different than anywhere else? Though I can't speak to all nations, I do know that Japanese primary and secondary school system is no better than that in the U.S. Japan actually has more school-leavers than we do in the U.S. in part because you can do so before you finish HS. This is, in part, what makes Japan "look" smarter when we draw generalizations from standardized math and science tests - part of the herd has been culled.

However, the top 10% of secondary school students in the U.S. are easily more capable than the top 10% in any Asian country because students here are allowed to think and question rather than spending countless hours on rote memorization. And while standardized testing is on the rise in the U.S., the best students in the U.S. (and Canada for that matter) are much better schooled in the social sciences, humanities and arts. There are no drama or music programs to speak of in Japanese schools and what pass for physical education and school sports (just as necessary for a well-rounded individual) are completely lacking.

igloobuyerSEP. 18, 2015 - 12:33AM JST Jeff HuffmanSEP. 18, 2015 - 12:15AM JST U.S. universities lead in innovation; Well, according to the article South Korea dude, and China no doubt since they are steaming ahead in R & D in science and tech not to mention Taiwain.

As has been the case for decades, dude, the U.S. still leads the world in pure research and produces more Nobel Prize winners in science and technology with many of the recipients being Asians who chose to work in the U.S. because the social, political and research environment and resources are superior to what is found elsewhere. Nothing indicates that this has changed.

As it was once a nation of great innovation several hundred years ago, there is a chance that the sheer size of China will again produce an abundance of great thinkers. But China's (and India's) over-populations is also an obstacle - never enough resources to do the job right, especially when combined with the high levels of corruption in so many facets of life and with a government that is deathly afraid of anything innovative that it can't control. Taiwan and S. Korea suffer from the same sorts of academic sclerosis as Japan, and while China has too many people, S. Korea is aging faster than Japan, arguably losing too many of it's "best and brightest" to the U.S., and Taiwan's has a population is smaller than California.