Matching Up to the Group of 8

……….The federal study compared the United States with the other members of the Group of Eight on a range of indicators related to educational attainment by citizens and educational investment by the countries themselves.
On several fronts the United States still leads the pack. It remains the most attractive destination for the world’s students, at a time when the number of people seeking higher education outside their own borders has swelled to 2.7 million in 2004, the year examined in the NCES study. Of those 2.7 million, about two-thirds were enrolled in the Group of Eight countries, and nearly a quarter of those, 22 percent, were enrolled in the United States. The United Kingdom followed with 11 percent, Germany with 10 percent, and France 9 percent. Canada, Japan, the Russian Federation and Italy lagged.
While the United States enrolled far more foreign students than its peers, the U.S. had among the smallest proportions of foreigners in its mix of students, given the large enrollment of American colleges and universities over all. Foreign students made up 16 percent of all students at colleges in the United Kingdom and 11 percent in Canada, France and Germany, for instance, but just 3 percent in the United States.
The U.S. also continues to spend more money per capita on higher education (and education generally) than its European peers and Japan, spending a total of $24,100 per person on higher education and a total of $37,500 on education over all in 2003. [View Full Article]