Millions of teenagers are deciding where to go to university next autumn, and praying there will be a vaccine by then. As my own children veer into sight of that age, I’ve begun asking the question: “If you are 18, looking to study in English, where in the world should you go?”
The standard answer for decades has been: “The US or Britain.” That remains true for a tiny elite. If you can get into one of the world’s 20 or so highest-ranked universities, almost all of which are in the US or UK, do it. You can get an excellent education at Cambridge or Princeton. Even if you don’t, others will think you did, so the brand name will help you through life. But outside the elite, the British-American preference no longer applies. You can now probably do better in continental Europe or Canada.
I was surprised to reach this conclusion because, like most people, I had based my preconceptions of universities on outdated memories of my own student days. About 30 years ago, I did an undergraduate degree in Britain, and studied in Germany and the US for a year each, while watching childhood friends from the Netherlands pass through Dutch universities.