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I wonder if a smaller local revolution has happened before: formation and spread of great research universities. Govts have tried to set up great research universities by will, China is trying hard, India is making small steps, so are places like Germany. But they have not succeeded yet. Even in a small country like UK, only 3 great universities have emerged.

Within US, Stanford is today a great research university but it was not so in 1945. Great luck like the combination of cold war spending and the idea of steeples of excellence by Terman made it happen. Uni. of Florida or ASU may be today aspiring to greatness, but they are fighting the 'locality' of research universities. Maybe some random events will help them out.



"only 3 great universities have emerged."

Do you mean Oxford, Cambridge, UCL?

Oxford & Cambridge are not 1 university, there are a lot of different colleges.




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