The Global Economy in Turbulent Times

CHAPTER 98 Onward the Harvard Connection ¹

Fair Harvard”: That’s the university hymn I heard when I first set foot on the Yard from Harvard Square during the summer of 1969. Harvard inspires. It’s also contagious. This is not surprising, since the university is consistently judged number one globally. QS Rankings and London Times Higher Education Survey place Harvard as the world’s top university (mean rank position) over the past 10 years.² Mind you, personally, I attach little significance to such rankings— though it does please me as an alumnus to find Harvard right there on top. I know of many who regard this as “invidious, crude, and meaningless.”

Still, looking at the top 10 or even 50, Harvard does lead the world in basic science research and is at the cutting edge of the social sciences. Indeed, students the world over seek to enter in large numbers. Since its founding in 1636, 140 years before the United States became a republic, Harvard has built a solid reputation of being among the best and finest there is. It has won 44 Nobel and 46 Pulitzer prizes. Much of its staying power can be traced to the unusual characteristic of US private university life of being competitive (against the English, European, or Asian “continental model”). In the United States, it is not unusual for institutions of similar stature to actively compete for faculty, research funds, students, and peer recognition, and much else. Stanford, Chicago, and Harvard, for example, aggressively compete ...