What country, what university, what subjects and what time-period?
I mean, similar to USA, location and school and subject can result in vastly different experiences. Southern Italy versus Southern Germany.
I am most familiar with German, Dutch, and French University systems and education systems. And China’s elite Uni’s (Beijing, Tsinghua, Fudan, Hong Kong Tech, etc.) are modeled after these. They pretty much crush the USA (as systems for turning out large numbers of high performing professionals). And when I say, the USA, I mean the USA, not just Harvard, MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, CarnegieMellon (where my stepson got PhD), etc. As many in the space say, these are businesses/hedge funds with a side gig in education. And as for ruthless efficiencies, publish or permanently perish, etc: USA! USA! USA!
As for efficiency, China is not less ruthless. At least, so attest my Chinese friends and colleagues. But that definitely has changed a bit recently and, as I said, if I were young and wanted great opportunity and a decent lifestyle, Berlin or Shanghai/Shenzhen would be the places to go.
Re: your remark about ASML: one thing about Europe is that it doesn’t hop from trend to trend. It takes the long view. No need for another ASML, since as the Chinese have found out, there are some things that you cannot do without a long and deep experience in them. Of course, China is learning that lesson a bit and certainly way more than the USA and why the USA is falling further back in all kinds of critical tech.
Already Europe dominates so many core features of a modern technological society. Last normal year, USA had $139BB deficit to EU… and the EU has a number of crappy ex-Warsaw Pact economies. And almost all of that EU surplus is GOODs… you know, making things and employing people.
China bought the pre-eminent industrial robotics company, Kuka, a German company. And Germany quickly regretted it. No car in the USA or Europe or China can be manufactured without it. But Germany instantly learned their lesson: so no more sales of crown jewels.
There’s no doubt that the USA has an amazing infrastructure for basic research. However, it’s majority staffed by Europeans and Asians. I remember in the 90’s going into the labs at Harvard and MIT where my Chinese girlfriend did her 2 post-docs. The PI in most of them was either the only or part of the tiny minority of Americans. Now more and more Americans are going to Europe and China. Whatever you want to say about what is coming, what is going is American pre-eminence generally. Unless we learn.
