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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]University of Chicago and also Oxford.  My DC just spent a year there and it was a truly unique intellectual experience all around - nothing like it in the states.[/quote]

Get ready for more statements like this: that Oxford or other foreign universities are better than the US.

Republicans aim to destroy our university system, the best in the world and the driver of the US tech economy.  And it’s working.[/quote]

Nope, kiddo. Oxbridge is extraordinarily unique in the world of higher education. Always has been, always will be. The Ivies were modeled after Oxbridge and are the closest equivalent.

Beyond that the lists of top universities produced by various publications is pretty stable. Dominated by major American research universities. No evidence whatsoever in your completely unsubstantiated claim that the Republicans are out to destroy American higher education.

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Anyone who uses the phrase “extraordinarily unique” is not someone whom you should trust to evaluate what constitutes an excellent education.[/quote]

It isn't really accurate to say Ivy League schools were modeled after Oxbridge.  Sure, Yale has colleges and Harvard has houses, but they are much less federated than Oxford, don't use tutorials, were much quicker to develop professional schools (e.g. Penn) and to adopt elements of the German system which fostered the development of modern research.[/quote]

The American liberal arts model comes closest to the Oxbridge model, and Oxbridge is unique within the UK, which is why it's so sought after. in that country Most of the Ivies were founded on strong liberal arts principles, quite similar to how Oxbridge taught their students, but expanded beyond it (Penn and Cornell were much more universities from the get-go). One can argue that the top American universities offer a good balance between the Oxbridge model and the German research university model, offering the best of both worlds.

Oxbridge is quite unique and special so I disagree with the PP who expressed disdain at the notion of Oxbridge as an example of an excellent education. It may very well offer the best education in the world from a certain perspective. Even if we disagree with that, only people who fall closer to the category of fools rather than intellectuals would pretend Oxbridge does not offer an excellent education or that the Oxbridge model is one of the most recognized, distinctive and intellectual higher educational system in the world. [/quote]

Again, I would disagree that Oxbridge provides a liberal arts education.  Undergraduate students there focus on depth in one area rather than the breadth of a liberal arts program.  [/quote]

I suspect you know little on the topic. I did not say Oxbridge is identical to the American liberal arts system but the American liberal arts system comes close, for it has its roots in Oxbridge; the founders of the early liberal arts colleges and universities in the United States as well as earliest professors prior to the Revolutionary War were mainly Oxbridge graduates. They brought over that close teaching model and the early American colleges were focused on the teaching of both theology and the Classical subjects, which is what Oxbridge also focused on at the time. The schools expanded the breadth and depth of their offerings in the late 18th and 19th centuries and evolved in separate directions. But the model of a *residential* college with the basis of a close interaction between faculty and students directly engaging with one another in a seminar setting format that we find at American liberal arts schools and universities is a direct offshoot of the Oxbridge tutorial style, unlike the continental education via lecture format, where students traditionally sit in lecture halls and take notes and rarely challenge the authority or knowledge of the instructor. Naturally, we do find this style at American colleges or other British universities, too. Even at Oxbridge. But it remains that Oxbridge style of instruction and teaching and the American liberal arts style of instruction and teaching is very close. Think of them as cousins of each other. And pertinent to this thread, Oxbridge is among the most intellectual universities in the world. There is no disputing this.

I do agree with you there is an advantage to the breadth of a typical Liberal Arts education (in theory, it does depend what you study and how you study it) versus the more narrow subject-specific courses at Oxbridge. At the same time, the Oxbridge approach gives you a greater depth of knowledge in your subject area. So there are pros and cons to both.

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