[abadger9]

I've wished at least 2 dozen times over the last decade that the nordics had better research universities. I spent a portion of my life in Finland and the quality of life is so much better there, I would say it's probably unattainable here (the reduced crime, the affordability of everything, lack of homelessness, a more well educated population, etc.). Unfortunately the research being done at the top universities there in the hard sciences are rudimentary compared to resources available here. I was quite interested in pursing a PhD in chemistry there, but the research labs I checked out had resources less than and not comparable to the undergraduate labs I had here.

[georgeecollins]

As an American (who has spend time some time in Finland, btw), it is really strange how mediocre European Universities are. My children are travelers and I want them to try things so I thought, why not apply to some good school in Europe? And there are some good schools for sure. But it's hard to find a school in say Italy or Spain (which have some of the oldest Universities in the world) that can compete in research or faculty with say, University of California San Diego, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Mid-tier schools in the US punch way above their weight for some reason.

[foepys]

You are trying to apply a US-centric metric where it doesn't work. If you want research, you need to look elsewhere. Universities in Europe are usually for teaching and doing some broad research.

Highly specialized research on US levels is done at dedicated institutes like the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Fresenius, CERN, and many more in collaborative efforts on the EU level.

[silvestrov]

Problem in Denmark is that every small town wants their own university.

You can't have 5 research universities in a country of 5 million people.

[inglor_cz]

The same trend can be observed in Czechia.

The EU seems to be rather obsessed with achieving an end state where a huge proportion of people (like 50 per cent?) have a degree, but this necessary leads to dumbing down of the curriculum and emergence of mediocre colleges.

We already have people with bachelor degree who can barely write gramatically correct Czech, even though they are natives.

[Noted]

In Czechia is there not a difference between research and teaching institutions? In the US we have things like community colleges and other colleges/universities where you can get your associates or bachelors, but not Masters / PhD. They have a focus on teaching their students, rather than doing research.

Although maybe that's what you're considering "mediocre colleges"

[TMWNN]

Having one major one would be a good achievement for a country of 5 million.

In the US, Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Alabama are the states with populations in the 5-million range. The University of Wisconsin, Colorado, and Minnesota are all AAU members, and each would comfortably be the finest university in every country on earth smaller than, say, Spain (40 million people). South Carolina and Alabama aren't as prestigious but both do quite credible jobs of serving as the flagship universities of their states.

[t_mann]

> You can't have 5 research universities in a country of 5 million people.

Really? I'm counting at least 7 research universities (ranked <200 globally) in a country of 8 million people.

https://www.google.com/search?q=switzerland+population

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/sw...

https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/arwu/2022