Global Research and the Collaboration

Here's news from MIT...
"Collective efforts lift us all to the starry heights by Charles Vest President Vest was recently asked to write an opinion piece for the first-ever "world university rankings" issue of the Times (UK) Higher Education Supplement.
The focus of the piece was on how higher education is likely to evolve, on a global level, in the future. MIT was ranked third in the survey, out of 200 universities around the world, behind Harvard and Berkeley.
Collective efforts lift us all to the starry heightsEveryone everywhere gains by combining competition with collaboration in higher education, argues Charles Vest.
In its new ranking of the world's 200 best universities, The Times Higher found the top three to be US institutions - Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There are good reasons why US universities fare well in competitive rankings, and other nations could profitably consider the structural and policy factors that help them achieve such heights.
But collaboration may be even more profoundly important than competition in determining the future of higher education. Indeed, informal global cooperation is already beginning to create the meta-university that will see the best scholarship and teaching shared worldwide.
The factors I believe contribute the most to the excellence and competitive success of US higher education include:
The diversity of institutions - from small liberal arts colleges to large public and private universities - allows students to select the school that best matches their needs New assistant professors have freedom to choose what they teach as well as research Our research universities weave together teaching and research in ways that bring freshness, intensity and renewal to both activities We welcome students, scholars and faculty from abroad. Their intellectual and cultural richness help define our institutions Support of frontier research in our universities has long been an important responsibility of the federal government, which awards grants to researchers on the basis of their merit in a competitive marketplace of ideas A tradition of philanthropy, fostered by US tax law, encourages alumni and others to support our colleges and universities. Scholarship funds they provide allow talented students from families of modest means to attend even the most costly schools Open competition for faculty and students drives excellence"