[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.