The Seattle Times today proudly ranks the UW as # 54 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 list of the best national universities. We rank 16th among public universities in this list.
I am unimpressed
My issue here is completely different from the usual debate in our state about how can we send more kids to school so they can get a job. That debate is about diplomas, degrees that have become not much more valuable that certificates from a vocational training program.
Do we want our kids getting mediocre degrees?
Sure, the UW ranked far above WSU (#143) and our other local PAC 12 rivals in Oregon. ( I do not think Idaho plays in that league?) But this list is not about football or basketball. It is about the academic quality of education and our best kids’ ability to compete in an increasingly tough global market.
As a state with a huge investment n technology and science, Washington state’s higher education system looks pretty bad. Unlike all of the other states with premier public research universities, Washington state is not blessed with great private schools like those that fill the top 20 of U.S. News & World Report’s list. Nor do we have several top ranked pubic universities as exist in larger states like California, Texas and New York.
It is not just that we are falling in the ranks. UW’s ranking is only two places lower than in last year’s national list. But the list is changing. The list is now dominated by our real competitors, the private elites of the Ivy that dominate the top half of this list. It is also likely that we will begin to see more foreign competition as China, India, Malaysia and even Israel invest more state money into elite education.
There is some hope in our small colleges. Western Washington University — (Bellingham) is 2nd for top public universities in the West. Evergreen State College is 5th for top public universities in the West
Other regional Washington universities showing promise in the West:
Gonzaga University — 4th Seattle University — 8th Whitworth University — 11th
Pacific Lutheran University — 15th
All this brings up the magic word … MONEY. How many of our state legislators realize that is now much cheaper, or even free to send a Washington state kid to Harvard or Stanford than to the UW? These schools, with great endowments, now subsidize their students with a full boat … just as we do for athletes!