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A comment on We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015). Parent comment

Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by krn on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @07:46PM (#23981906)
> Even education - there's no Ivy League of Europe, there's no Stanford. There are some schools that may be considered good, but elite - not really.

In the world's top 20, there are 10 North American universities and 7 European universities at the moment[1]. That's not such a huge difference, given the fact, that undergraduate degrees in most European countries are only taught in the local language. As a result, only universities in the UK and Switzerland are able to reach the "elite" status – and these countries combined are much smaller than the US.

[1] https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-un...

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by auganov on Wednesday July 29, 2020 @04:10AM (#23984420)
> that undergraduate degrees in most European countries are only taught in the local language

While "most" might be true quantitatively, from what I've seen most of local "best" schools do offer studies in English. Most top schools in Germany seem to offer this. Even an American could get in on these super cheap deals. But there aren't that many takers (from the US). Given the enormous cost differential you'd think people would be storming these schools.

I have some Indian friends that attend such a program at a local university. From talking to them most wanted to go to US (some Canada) but couldn't get in or afford it and this was their second choice. Also none are planning to stay.

The rankings, again, I have to dispute. The best way to rank schools would be to actually ask people which schools they'd go to if cost/admissions wasn't a factor.

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by krn on Wednesday July 29, 2020 @06:24AM (#23985174)
> While "most" might be true quantitatively, from what I've seen most of local "best" schools do offer studies in English. Most top schools in Germany seem to offer this.

Even in Germany, probably 90% of the undergraduate courses are taught in German only. The percentage of postgraduate courses available in English is much higher, though. Still, most professors are required to be able to teach in the local language. Therefore, the number of international faculty members outside the UK and Switzerland is very limited.

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by auganov on Wednesday July 29, 2020 @08:12AM (#23985748)
> Even in Germany, probably 90% of the undergraduate courses are taught in German only

Because there isn't a lot of demand for English courses? Otherwise you'd expect them to increase prices and offer more English courses.

We can go even further - if Germany really offers anything close to an American standard of living and education you'd expect many people would learn German and go live there.

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Re:We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015) by krn on Wednesday July 29, 2020 @02:33PM (#23990080)
> Because there isn't a lot of demand for English courses? Otherwise you'd expect them to increase prices and offer more English courses.

That's because the first undergraduate degree is completely free for all Germans.

> We can go even further - if Germany really offers anything close to an American standard of living and education you'd expect many people would learn German and go live there.

My entire point was, that European universities outside the UK and Switzerland are unable to compete with the US schools, because they are very unattractive options for foreign professors who don't speak the local language.

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