Abstract:

College and university level education in the European Union is different from education within its two principal competitors: China and the United States. The comparison may be made in several respects: reputation of the private vs. public sector, three vs. four years of study for a Bachelor’s level degree, quality of graduate level degrees, and salaries of faculty by rank and experience.

In the United States, private education is presumed to outshine public education, with but a few exceptions, whereas in both China and the European Union public education attracts the best students. In the European Union, in the 21st century, in most disciplines students will obtain a Bachelor’s level degree after three years of study, whereas in China such students may obtain only a diploma (degree requires four years), and in the United States normally the student with three years of study receives nothing (degree requires four years). Quality of graduate degrees at the Master’s and Doctoral levels are highest in the United States, next highest in China, and lower in the European Union, according to perceptions by foreign faculty teaching in the European Union. One reason for this is the lesser standard for a Bachelor’s degree, but this is new. Another reason is the reliance by some European Union countries, such as Austria, Germany, and Poland, upon the post doctoral “habilitacja” (functionally a second doctorate) as the screening mechanism for a full professorship. Consequently, universities give away doctorates, but will not promote faculty to professorial rank before they are “habilitated.” Many never are, some never try.

In addition to differences in quantity of instructional hours (three years compared to four years to earn a Bachelor's degree in the European Union, for example), there are qualitative differences as well. Many American faculty teaching in Europe for years believe a European Master's degree is about equivalent to an American Bachelor's degree. Some European and American faculty attribute this difference to the fact that, in Europe, for the best students at public institutions there is no tuition: all is paid for by the state. In America, at best, higher education is subsidised. In education as in almost every context of life, it is easier to waste someone else's money than one's own.

The major difference between American faculty and those in both China and the European Union is salary. The average salary in the United States for a full professor at a major university in 2008 was about US$ 80,000 (US$ 112,000 for a male full professor), whereas in China it was about US$ 24,000 and in the European Union it varies geographically, from about GBP 65,000 in the United Kingdom to about US$ 20,000 (per school) in Eastern Europe. Consequently, senior faculty in parts of Europe teach at multiple universities, to maintain a competitive quality of life for themselves and their families, which in turn diminishes effectiveness of teaching at any given position. The European Union has fallen behind China and the United States (particularly the United States), and must catch up quickly by pouring much more financial investment into its higher education.