The secret of Harvard’s success: alumni

By Shailendra Raj Mehta. No country dominates any industry as much as the United States dominates higher education. According to Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s academic ranking of world universities, for example, 17 of the world’s 20 best universities are American, with Harvard topping the list by a substantial margin.
The traditional explanation for this phenomenon – America’s wealth, large population, generous research funding, widespread private philanthropy, and ability to attract scholars from around the world – is incomplete. Although the U.S. boasts the world’s largest economy, it makes up only a quarter of global GDP and possesses roughly a 20th of the world’s population. And its support for research is not unique.
Moreover, according to the accepted explanation, countries such as France, Germany, Japan and even China and India should also be represented at the top of global university rankings. But they appear only sparsely in such rankings, if at all. In fact, these countries lack a crucial piece of the puzzle: America’s innovative governance model for higher education.
Harvard was established as a public institution in 1636 by authorities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Its value to Massachusetts is exemplified in the Commonwealth’s post-independence state constitution, ratified in 1780, which includes a section about the university’s function and boundaries.