All nations have academic hierarchies, which tend to reproduce socio-economic hierarchies. What is perverse in the USA is that the most prestigious universities are the most expensive to attend here. In Japan, the most selective universities -- Tokyo Daigaku, Kyoto Daigaku, Togaidai, etc. -- are Kokuritsu Daigaku ("national universities"), much cheaper to attend than Ekiben Daigaku (which may be translated as podunk private colleges) and more prestigious than even the best private universities like Keio and Waseda. In Europe, university education is almost completely free at all levels, except at private schools. The American system reinforces the idea that "you get what you pay for," by equating cultural prestige with extravagant tuition.
I believe that, in Europe and Japan, lower proportions of high school graduates enter into colleges and universities than in the USA. Examinations to select higher education materials in Europe and Japan are probably much more rigorous and competitive than in the USA also. In this regard, we may say that American higher education is more "populist" than European and Japanese ones. The main barrier in the USA is probably the lack of an ability to pay, rather than elitism in college admission, except in the cases of the most prestigious universities like Harvard. Apparent "populism" doesn't appear to be advantageous to the working class in the USA, though, economically or culturally. Workers in Europe and Japan have more working-class power vis-a-vis their respective ruling classes than those in the USA; differences in working-class power are translated into differences in work hours, quality of social welfare, etc. There is no evidence that American workers are more educated than European and Japanese workers either. Most likely, at US colleges and universities with the exception of the most selective ones, at least the first two years are spent on teaching students what they should have been taught in high schools. It does students no intellectual good to make them take "composition" classes in college; it is dreary for teachers to have to teach them.
It is inevitable that capitalist education systems are elitist in one way or another. The questions, then, are whether or not elitism is displayed up front and what qualities of elites are produced by various education systems.
The French system of higher education is perhaps among the most unabashedly elitist:
***** Education in France
* High school: the final exam, the "Baccalauréat" or "Bac" is very important for French students because it gives them access to university studies. It is a rigorous exam with no multiple choice questions; nearly 30 per cent of those who take it fail. Every year, the "bac" is one of the major events of the month of June and newspapers publish and discuss the subjects in Philosophy and Literature. * France has a dual system for higher education : "Universités" and "Grandes Ecoles"; the latter (less than 5% of students) requires very competitive selection entry exams.... * Education is almost free at all levels (tuition $100 a year at Sorbonne: read below) except for private schools and business schools. 26% of university students receive scholarships. * Schools do not sponsor extra-curricular activities, or hardly any. The only thing that goes on at school is....schoolwork. * The grading system goes from 0 to 20 with 20 being excellent. The grading system is extremely tough. Hardly anyone ever gets a 20 or even an 18 or 19. * Teachers read the grades out loud when they hand back homework. School is hard on French children.... * All French students study Philosophy in their last year of high school. France is the only European country with Spain which requires this. * Math is the yardstick by which performance is measured. Even though a student may be of a literary bent, he or she will probably choose the "Bac S" (the math "bac") because it is seen as the best....
Understanding the "Grandes Ecoles" France has a dual university system: the "Universités" and the "Grandes Ecoles". Grandes Ecoles have no equivalent in the USA.
* After High School, some students (among the best) apply to be admitted in a "Classe Préparatoire ": these classes prepare students (in two or three years) for a very competitive admission test to Ecoles d'Ingénieurs (Sciences), or to Business Schools, and to a few other kinds of schools. * These schools are not part of the rest of the University system: they are smaller, they have much more money, they are kept apart from the rest of the educational system, they are based on fierce competition of the students among themselves and the schools between themselves. The most prestigious schools give access to the new French nobility: their graduates will always be the boss! * The tuition is almost nothing (except in Business Schools where it is around 8 to 10,000 $/year) and in some cases, the students are paid a salary. The number of students in the Grandes Ecoles represents a few % only of the total number of students. * The most prestigious Grandes Ecoles are Ecole Polytechnique (called "X"), Ecole Normale Supérieure ("Normale Sup") and Ecole Nationale d'Administration ("ENA"), whose initial missions are to train military engineers, university professors and high ranking state officials. They are followed by Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), Ecole des Mines, Ecole Centrale, etc... * France is practically run by people who graduated from X and ENA (sometimes both): the President of France, and the Prime Minister, most of the cabinet members, most CEO of major companies (more than 30 out of the 40 companies of CAC-40, the index of the Paris Stock Exchange), In France, most of the leading positions are occupied by people with an engineering degree, very often civil servants or former civil servants!...
<http://perso.club-internet.fr/hwelty/France/Education.html> *****
A visibly and unabashedly elitist education system has one clear advantage: it reinforces class consciousness on the part of the working class. Aside from this general advantage, the French system perhaps offers another one: the production of a national elite whose formative experiences (in education, personal connection, career, etc.) are explicitly affairs of the state and whose outlook on the world are likely to be rational and bureaucratic in a good Weberian sense. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>