Amanda Goodall
For many researchers around the world, landing a position at a leading American university is a coveted outcome. Schools like Berkeley and Stanford not only pay well – they furnish excellent facilities and above all strong colleagues. This allows the US to attract talented PhD students and professors from countries like China, France, Norway, and India (Cole 2009, Clotfelter 2010).
If one turns back the clock 120-150 years, one finds something starkly different. At the time, many American academics coveted positions abroad, particularly at European universities. To illustrate this, one can analyse the universities Nobel prize winners were students or professors at – the idea being that schools that train or host such people tend to be productive at research. Such data show that the US was at the back of the pack circa say 1870, and is the clear leader today.
How US replaced Europe as Nobel Prize magnet
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General view of the Blue Hall, with the Table of Honour (C), during the 2015 Nobel prize award banquet in Stockholm City Hall.
(FILE PHOTO: REUTERS)
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In the early 20th century, Nobel laureates were most likely to have German or French academic history. Today, the US dominates the CVs of scholars who win the coveted prize. What has changed in a hundred years?
A study by W. Bentley MacLeod and Miguel Urquiola of Columbia University describes how several higher education reforms in the US led to increased competition and revolutionized the quality of research.