5 ms·

The Weibuo quote in the article sums it up. Would you rather have your child go to Tsinghua or MIT? The fact is, MIT remains the most prestigious scientific and

The Weibuo quote in the article sums it up. Would you rather have your child go to Tsinghua or MIT? The fact is, MIT remains the most prestigious scientific and engineering school in the world, and number of published articles be damned. Another metric not considered by USNWR is academic freedom. Can students and faculty at Tsinghua use Google? I don't think so. No Google Scholar, no Google Books, not even Search. How ridiculous. Without equal access to the Internet, a fair comparison is not possible. And what if a student published an article complaining about lack of access to some internet resources? End of career. That said, this evaluation should be a wake up call to American educators that our formerly great academy has deteriorated, brought down by decades of decaying performance in K-12 and lack of energy and commitment in the universities, where many or most of the science and engineering graduate students are foreign born.

seanmcdirmid 11y ago
They usually know how to jump the wall or get direct lines out for erm research purposes. ChinaSys, an acedemic/industry systems conference, is taking registrations in... Google docs. I hope this is not a wake up call: what we don't need in academia is more gaming of the publication and citation system! This is a wake up call to not take usnews too seriously.
- blisterpeanuts 11y ago
  Interesting. I guess when it's a matter of national prestige and encouraging scientific accomplishment, the authorities might look the other way. But that's not really the same as complete and open access. And I agree with you that we don't need even more gaming of the system; but we definitely need more motivation of K-12 students in the math and science fields.
  - seanmcdirmid 11y ago
    The "motivation" should come from a genuine curiosity and interest in making the world a better place. Academia, even western academia, is often motivated by securing more funding so they can....secure more funding. That creates a closed loop that serves no one outside of it. The US News report just shows who is better at gaming the system. Heck, even MIT has its problems, though you'll find more pockets of genuine interest and capabilities. Tsinghua also has a lot of great researchers, but usually this is inspite of, not because of, the games played to optimize for these metrics.

seanmcdirmid 11y ago

They usually know how to jump the wall or get direct lines out for erm research purposes. ChinaSys, an acedemic/industry systems conference, is taking registrations in... Google docs. I hope this is not a wake up call: what we don't need in academia is more gaming of the publication and citation system! This is a wake up call to not take usnews too seriously.

blisterpeanuts 11y ago
Interesting. I guess when it's a matter of national prestige and encouraging scientific accomplishment, the authorities might look the other way. But that's not really the same as complete and open access. And I agree with you that we don't need even more gaming of the system; but we definitely need more motivation of K-12 students in the math and science fields.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  The "motivation" should come from a genuine curiosity and interest in making the world a better place. Academia, even western academia, is often motivated by securing more funding so they can....secure more funding. That creates a closed loop that serves no one outside of it. The US News report just shows who is better at gaming the system. Heck, even MIT has its problems, though you'll find more pockets of genuine interest and capabilities. Tsinghua also has a lot of great researchers, but usually this is inspite of, not because of, the games played to optimize for these metrics.