In Europe, universities struggle to compete and adapt

European students also are voting with their feet: Twice as many European students come to America to study than the reverse, and US students tend to study overseas on a short-term basis for cultural exchanges. Meanwhile, Europeans often seek advanced qualifications in the US, especially in science and technology, according to Mr. Lambert's study on the state of European higher education.

Dr. Powlowski's university runs differently from most European models: It charges $1,700 a year, offers degrees in business, computer science, and political science, and helps place graduates in jobs through a network of alumni.

While there is consensus that the problems in European academia run deep, there is wide debate about how to fix them.

Lambert and many others argue that European universities should look to the American model of higher education, which offers a wide variety of schools to meet student needs, relies more on private funding, and gives schools more autonomy in managing curricula and finances.

In Greece and many other European nations, governments directly fund universities, so students pay no tuition. But as a result, governments can wield enormous influence over schools, even dictating curricula or hiring instructors. In many cases, institutions don't have the right to choose students or to specialize, which makes it difficult to create elite, selective programs. European universities also are short on funds: On average, they spend less than $11,000 a year per postsecondary student, vs. $25,000 in the US.

To address this funding gap, some countries have begun implementing tuition fees in recent years. British university students now pay up to $5,500 a year, for instance. International institutions such as the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the EU are increasingly advocating this approach.

But attempts to implement fees are often politically unpopular and bitterly opposed by students.

"It's taken for granted that the market-oriented approach is going to happen," says Janja Komijenovi, a student activist from Slovenia. "The whole society benefits from education, so it should be in the public interest to pay for it."

Greece's universities are some of Europe's most troubled, yet students here are among the most resistant to change. There are no lending libraries, and many courses rely on a single state-approved textbook. Many students take years, even a decade, to complete their coursework.

"It has very little in the final analysis to do with the actual reforms," says Thanos Veremis, president of the Greek National Council of Education of the protests. "Students are there mainly because they are afraid they won't get jobs."

Eight of the world's Top 10 universities are in the United States, according to rankings by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Its list of the top 500 universities, which it compiled to gauge the gap between universities in China and elsewhere, can be found at: http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005 Main.htm

1. Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

2. University of Cambridge, England

3. Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

4. University of California, Berkeley

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

6. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.

7. Columbia University, New York

8. Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.

9. University of Chicago

10. University of Oxford, England

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