Although America is home to the greatest number of globally ranked universities, LSU President F. King Alexander said he would rather have no highly ranked universities if it meant U.S. college graduates would rank higher against their international peers.
Last week, a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed a drop in competitiveness of younger generations of U.S. workers in relation to their international peers.
Alexander said LSU is doing as much as possible to bolster the country and state’s reputation.
“LSU has the highest graduation rate in our history,” Alexander said. “We are doing everything we can to help students finish school. ”
In addition, Alexander said to educate more students in the state, LSU has to get involved in combating the poverty in our region.
“The more LSU can do to lift children out of poverty, the greater ability we have to educate students,” Alexander said. “We as a nation and particularly a state ought to be working to eliminate poverty.”
Alexander said Louisiana ranks 49th in the U.S. percentage of adults with four year college degrees.
U.S. workers aged 45 to 65 outperformed the international average of literacy against others their age, but workers aged 16 to 34 are far behind the average of their international peers, according to the study. It tested 166,000 people ages 16 to 65 and found that Americans ranked 16th out of 23 industrialized countries in literacy and 21st out of 23 in numeracy. Moreover, the U.S. ranked 17 out of 19 in the problem solving in technology rich environments test.
Americans with college and graduate degrees tested behind the global average of their counterparts when it came to numeracy and solving problems using a computer.
“Out of all the statistics that have come out, the one that sticks with me is if you look at our 25 to 64 year old population with higher education, we actually rank third in the world, but if you look at the 25 to 34 year old population with college degrees, we drop to tenth,” Alexander said.
Alexander said the U.S. has its work cut out for itself. He believes this is a complicated problem without easy solutions.
He added that President Barack Obama is the first person to say the U.S. educational system is not as impressive as commonly thought.
Alexander also said that, while LSU attracts many international students, this is primarily based on what the United States’ reputation used to be. The real question is what the U.S. will look like 20 years from now if things don’t change, he said.
“So we are one of the only countries with older people who are more educated and faring better than younger people.”