re: elitism and European universities - the Continental system is very different than ours, university and even graduate education is pretty much open to everybody and is very cheap. consequently way too many students stay in school for way too long and the systems are all clogged up. America with its zillions of pricey competitive schools doesn't really have this problem.
It should be added that the extra students in the Continental system definitely doesn't make for a bigger or better academy. they've already reached what we in america fear: every school has one or two super elite chairs for a super expert in a given field, and all the teaching is handled by recent phds and advanced grad students who are only given 1 year slots. very few tenure and tenure track appointments are available. it's a disastrous job market.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-05-28 03:53 pm (UTC)re: elitism and European universities - the Continental system is very different than ours, university and even graduate education is pretty much open to everybody and is very cheap. consequently way too many students stay in school for way too long and the systems are all clogged up. America with its zillions of pricey competitive schools doesn't really have this problem.
It should be added that the extra students in the Continental system definitely doesn't make for a bigger or better academy. they've already reached what we in america fear: every school has one or two super elite chairs for a super expert in a given field, and all the teaching is handled by recent phds and advanced grad students who are only given 1 year slots. very few tenure and tenure track appointments are available. it's a disastrous job market.