UN's Human Development Index 2010 for released

Patroklos said:
Because most of what you belly ache about or would use to do your evaluating is figments of your imagination ;)

It should be noted, as always, that for these lists the differences between #1 and #5 and #10 are irrelevant. We are all on the same relative level, fighting over pennies.
Click to expand...

Well, assuming the HDI is linear, the difference between Norway and Canada is about equal to the difference between Madagascar and Rwanda.
 
And just like there is little difference between Norway and Canada, there is also little difference between Rawanda and Madagascar. At least by the metrics used.
 
Apparently. But then there are lies, damn lies and statistics. :)
 
How is the UK's "mean years of schooling" 9.5 years??? It's compulsory between age 4 and 16 ffs!!
 
Arwon said:
I like a functional public health insurance system and reliable social safety net. There's no guarantee that I or my loved ones won't ever need, say, disability or uninsurance support.

And yeah, even people with proper private health insurance can get screwed over by those companies in the US. Their medical system is terrifying.

And then there's education costs, if I ever have a family...
Click to expand...

And yet most people do just fine...

Your attitude is bizarre to me. I am concerned about how I will make a million dollars, how I can get the best job I can possibly get, how I will live in a great house and send my kids to the best college... I absolutely am not concerned about being in a place where government dole is readily available. I don't expect things to go that wrong; even if they did I would have my savings, even if I didn't have enough savings I could turn to my family, even if I didn't have a family I could turn to my friends...

And it's hardly just me. From my experience, when people are offered similar positions on multiple countries they will overwhelmingly choose the USA, with Canada and Australia also being very popular.

As for education, that's a major reason people move to the USA. They have absolutely the best universities on the planet, so if you're concerned about the future of your hypothetical kids and want to give them the best, that's the place to be.
 
How lovely for you.
 
Of course, Oxford and Cambridge, let alone any of the other prestigious universities in Europe, simply can't hold a candle to Harvard and Yale, right?
 
Arakhor said:
Apparently. But then there are lies, damn lies and statistics. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe it's time to acknowledge that you people shouldn't be reading The Sun that much. It worsens your HDI, you know?

Arakhor said:
Of course, Oxford and Cambridge, let alone any of the other prestigious universities in Europe, simply can't hold a candle to Harvard and Yale, right?
Click to expand...

Of course not. It's still better to hire some guy with a degree from some brazilian university. Besides, everyone knows that the US have the best primary and secondary educations in the western world, right?
 
The Sun is for people failed by HDI. The Daily Fail is what worsens our HDI. :D
 
Sorry. For someone who lives in a place where yellow journalism has not taken over the whole market it's hard to differentiate between the many kinds of it you got in the UK.
 
Arakhor said:
Of course, Oxford and Cambridge, let alone any of the other prestigious universities in Europe, simply can't hold a candle to Harvard and Yale, right?
Click to expand...

Where did I say that? That's your own strawman, not mine.

There are excellent universities in many places. The UK is definetely a top place for education as well. But the very best for superior education is the USA. If that offends you take it up to the people that create those rankings, not me.

ganglieri said:
Of course not. It's still better to hire some guy with a degree from some brazilian university. Besides, everyone knows that the US have the best primary and secondary educations in the western world, right?
Click to expand...
Considering that I am not exactly known for defending Brazil, and that I never said anything in this thread or any other defending Brazilian education, your lame troll attempt fails.
 
Arakhor said:
Of course, Oxford and Cambridge, let alone any of the other prestigious universities in Europe, simply can't hold a candle to Harvard and Yale, right?
Click to expand...

Actually no, they don't. Especially the continental universitites. Well, I won't say they don't hold a candle, but they are usually ranked below the US ones in general. Even if we said they were equal you can't rank a nations university system on two schools. The real damning problem for Europe is that of the top 100 universities in the world, more than half are in the US.

For reference, top ten:

1 Harvard University Cambridge United States (Massachusetts)
2 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley United States (California)
3 Stanford University Stanford, CA United States (California)
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge United States (Massachusetts)
5 Cambridge University Cambridge United Kingdom (England)
6 California Institute of Technology Pasadena United States (California)
7 Princeton University Princeton United States (New Jersey)
8 Columbia University New York City United States (New York)
9 University of Chicago Chicago United States (Illinois)
10 Oxford University Oxford United Kingdom (England)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities,_2010

Thats good for the UK being such a small country, but still not enough to claim a better university quality than the US. The UK unquestionably destroys the rest of Europe though, which is very odd. Why do continental universities systems trail so badly?
 
Is this similar to the US list of greatest ever generals, where nine of the top 10 were American and Alexander the Great came in at 91st?

Granted, the US has a LOT more universities of international calibre than the UK, but upon what grounds are they basing this?
 
Patroklos said:
Actually no, they don't. Especially the continental universitites. Well, I won't say they don't hold a candle, but they are usually ranked below the US ones in general. Even if we said they were equal you can't rank a nations university system on two schools. The real damning problem for Europe is that of the top 100 universities in the world, more than half are in the US.

For reference, top ten:

1 Harvard University Cambridge United States (Massachusetts)
2 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley United States (California)
3 Stanford University Stanford, CA United States (California)
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge United States (Massachusetts)
5 Cambridge University Cambridge United Kingdom (England)
6 California Institute of Technology Pasadena United States (California)
7 Princeton University Princeton United States (New Jersey)
8 Columbia University New York City United States (New York)
9 University of Chicago Chicago United States (Illinois)
10 Oxford University Oxford United Kingdom (England)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities,_2010

Thats good for the UK being such a small country, but still not enough to claim a better university quality than the US. The UK unquestionably destroys the rest of Europe though, which is very odd. Why do continental universities systems trail so badly?
Click to expand...

That's academic rankings, not really teaching. Citations and prizes stuff aren't really that relevant to someone starting an undergrad degree.

The ranking compared 1200 higher education institutions worldwide according to a formula that took into account alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10 percent), staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20 percent), highly-cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories (20 percent), articles published in Nature and Science (20 percent), the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index (20 percent) and the per capita academic performance (on the indicators above) of an institution (10 percent)
Click to expand...
 
Patroklos said:
Actually no, they don't. Especially the continental universitites. Well, I won't say they don't hold a candle, but they are usually ranked below the US ones in general. Even if we said they were equal you can't rank a nations university system on two schools. The real damning problem for Europe is that of the top 100 universities in the world, more than half are in the US.

For reference, top ten:

1 Harvard University Cambridge United States (Massachusetts)
2 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley United States (California)
3 Stanford University Stanford, CA United States (California)
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge United States (Massachusetts)
5 Cambridge University Cambridge United Kingdom (England)
6 California Institute of Technology Pasadena United States (California)
7 Princeton University Princeton United States (New Jersey)
8 Columbia University New York City United States (New York)
9 University of Chicago Chicago United States (Illinois)
10 Oxford University Oxford United Kingdom (England)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities,_2010

Thats good for the UK being such a small country, but still not enough to claim a better university quality than the US. The UK unquestionably destroys the rest of Europe though, which is very odd. Why do continental universities systems trail so badly?
Click to expand...
A question of money.

The aggregate wealth accumulated in the places makes them where everyone at the top of the academic profession wants to go, internationally as well. Of course they're wonderful because of it, but the level where the actual significant talent gets its formation is rather the top 200 universities or so, and not the top 10. The top 10 wouldn't be as good as they are if they couldn't draw talent from these places. And if one looks at the 200 list, the US has about the same representation as Europe. European university systems suffer from being smaller and national than the aggregated US. They EU might eventually do something about it, but it's still far away.
 
Arwon said:
That's academic rankings, not really teaching. Citations and prizes stuff aren't really that relevant to someone starting an undergrad degree.
Click to expand...
Especially as for instance German universities are pretty crap at research in the sciences. The private Max Planck Gesellschaft research institutes are pretty fab at it though. Except of course they do no teaching. So there's a de-coupling between university teaching, and institute research. For list-purposes the universities score low, and the institutes aren't counted since they aren't universities.

The French "Great Schools" getting the funding over the universities is another of these problems.

I say that as an allumni/employee of three Swedish universities all in the top 100. As a Swede I actually would have had a hard time avoiding the top 100 list. I've also had run ins with the French Great School system (EHESS).

Everyone these days is struggling with higher education and research. The US way of playing a small elite and declaring victory on the slender margin of that isn't much of an option. If it was, they'd probably be a lot less keen on welcoming talent from Europe, and elsewhere.
 
Arakhor said:
Of course, Oxford and Cambridge, let alone any of the other prestigious universities in Europe, simply can't hold a candle to Harvard and Yale, right?
Click to expand...

Who cares about your inferior countries education system, Norway #1 & Australia #2!
 
Quackers said:
Why is ireland so high?

where is UK? :O :D :(
EDIT: takes comfort from the fact 5 of those nations are derived from the British isles...
Click to expand...

I only count four, and even at that the US is a big stretch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom