Higher education in the United States Information

Higher education in the United States is an optional stage of formal learning following secondary education. Higher education, is also referred as post-secondary education, third-stage, third-level, or tertiary education. It covers stages 5 to 8 on the International ISCED 2011 scale. It is delivered at 4,360 Title IV degree-granting institutions, known as colleges or universities. These may be public or private universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, or for-profit colleges. US higher education is loosely regulated by several third-party organizations.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and National Student Clearinghouse, college enrollment has declined since a peak in 2010–11 and is projected to continue declining or be stagnant for the next two decades.The US is unique in its investment in highly competitive NCAA sports, particularly in American football and basketball, with large sports stadiums and arenas.

US higher education functions as an institution of knowledge, but has several secondary functions. The primary function went through four phases in the development: preserving Christian civilization, advancing the national interest, research, and growing the global economy It has also served as a source for professional credentials, as a vehicle for social mobility, and as a social sorter. The college functions as a status marker, "signaling membership in the educated class, and a place to meet spouses of similar status".

In 2018, Universitas 21 (U21), the network of research-intensive universities, ranked the US first globally for overall higher education, but only 15th when GDP was factored into the equation. Accounting for GDP, the top 10 nations for higher education in 2018 were Finland, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Switzerland, South Africa, Israel and New Zealand.

Strong research funding helped elite American universities dominate global rankings in the early 21st century, making them attractive to international students, professors and researchers. Other countries, though, are offering incentives to compete for researchers as funding is threatened in the US and US dominance of international tables has lessened. The system has also been blighted by fly-by-night schools, diploma mills, visa mills, and predatory for-profit colleges. There have been some attempts to reform the system through federal policy such as gainful employment regulations, but they have been met by resistance.

According to Pew Research Center and Gallup poll surveys, public opinion about colleges has been declining, especially among Republicans and the white working class. The higher education industry has been criticized for being unnecessarily expensive, providing a difficult-to-measure service which is seen as vital but in which providers are paid for inputs instead of outputs, which is beset with federal regulations that drive up costs, and payments coming from third parties, not users. In a 2018 Pew survey, 61 percent of those polled said that US higher education was headed in the wrong direction. A 2019 Gallup survey found that, among graduates who strongly felt a purpose in life was important, "only 40 percent said they had found a meaningful career after college."

US Colleges and universities vary in their goals: some emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum (like polytechnic universities and land-grant universities) and others emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above, as comprehensive universities.

The term "college" refers to one of three types of education institutions: stand-alone higher level education institutions that are not components of a university.

Unlike colleges versus universities in other portions of the world, a stand-alone college is truly stand-alone and is not part of a university, and is also not affiliated with an affiliating university.

Almost all colleges and universities are coeducational. During a dramatic transition in the 1970s, all but a few mens colleges accepted women. Over 80% of the womens colleges of the 1960s have closed or merged, leaving fewer than 50. Over 100 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) operate, both private (such as Morehouse College) and public (such as North Carolina AandT State University).

Some U.S. states offer higher education at two year "colleges" formerly called "community colleges". The elevation in status comes from cooperation between community colleges and local universities.

Four-year colleges often have more students, offer a greater range of studies, and provide the bachelors degree (most commonly the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.). They are primarily either undergraduate only institutions (e.g. liberal arts colleges), or the undergraduate institution of a university (such as Harvard College and Yale College).

Higher education has led to the creation of accreditation organizations, independent of the government, to vouch for the quality of degrees. They rate institutions on academic quality, the quality of their libraries, the publishing records of their faculty, the degrees which their faculty hold, and their financial solvency. Accrediting agencies have been criticized for possible conflicts of interest that lead to favorable results. Non-accredited institutions exist, but the students are not eligible for federal loans.

Under the American secondary education system, student select compulsory and elective courses while at high school. Completing each course to the schools satisfaction gains the student a number of credits. To enter tertiary education the student will be doing a number of Advanced placement courses that will gain the highest number of credits. A student graduates from High School when the minimum number of credits has been achieved, and will be accepted by a college when their required number is achieved. The college system is similar: each course passed earns a set number of credits, and the student graduates with an undergraduate degree when the set number have been earned. The credits travel with the student should they change institution.

Universities are research-oriented educational institutions with undergraduate and graduate programs. For historical reasons, some universities such as Boston College, Dartmouth College, The College of William and Mary, and College of Charleston have retained the term college instead of "university" for their name. Graduate programs grant a variety of masters degrees (like the Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) or Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in addition to doctorates such as the Ph.D. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education distinguishes among institutions on the basis of the prevalence of degrees they grant and considers the granting of masters degrees necessary, though not sufficient, for an institution to be classified as a university.

Some universities have professional schools. Examples include journalism school, business school, medical schools which award either the M.D. or D.O., law schools (J.D.), veterinary schools (D.V.M.), pharmacy schools (Pharm.D.), and dental schools. A common practice is to refer to different faculties within universities as colleges or schools.

The American university system is largely decentralized. Public universities are administered by the individual states and territories, usually as part of a state university system. Except for the United States service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate universities. However, it can offer federal grants and any institution that receives federal funds must certify that it has adopted and implemented a drug prevention program that meets federal regulations.

Each state supports at least one state university and several support many more. California has three public higher education systems: the 10-campus University of California, the 23-campus California State University, and the 112-campus California Community Colleges System. Public universities often have large student bodies, with introductory classes numbering in the hundreds, with some undergraduate classes taught by graduate students. Tribal colleges operated on Indian reservations by some federally recognized tribes are also public institutions.