> US system computes hell out of statistics for ranking and validation of quality. Other countries, including India or China, has no such things. There, univers

> US system computes hell out of statistics for ranking and validation of quality. Other countries, including India or China, has no such things. There, universities/institutes are "ranked" by sort of public perception and media image. Having worked in university administration, I can assure you these two things are not so different after all. US News ranking, is for example, a survey of professors and high school councilors, plus some reporting about things like overall budget per faculty member and per student, and yes, some statistics about the incoming class. And... the ghost writing problem is not unheard of in the US. After all, a lot of PhD candidates hail from India and China, so this shouldn't surprise you overmuch. > Government mandates have typically evolved in these countries for a reason. I suspect it's because of government mandates in these countries and others. For example, advanced degrees help in obtaining visa status in the US.