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This monograph is an extension of remarks delivered at the Academy of Athens on May 6, 2003, by Peter James Liacouras, Member of the Academy of Athens (Abroad-residing), Chancellor of Temple University and University Professor of Law. The Greek translation by Dr. Kyriakos M. Kontopoulos, Professor of Sociology at Temple University, was published by the Academy of Athens later in December 2004 (ISBN: 960-404-063-4).

Access to higher education is a critical issue in emerging as well as mature democracies, stirring emotional debates as aptly demonstrated by reactions to a January 2004 law in the United Kingdom requiring university students to finance a part of their education through tuition and fee payments. While American students have been co-payers for two centuries, there is robust debate in the United States centering on the increasing financial burden borne by a wide range of students in relation to the government’s share in meeting college costs. Rather than emphasizing the nation’s success in achieving nearly universal access to higher education, American self-criticism centers on its deficiencies rather than in comparing American and European experiences, and records, on access.

This monograph, after a cursory description of disparities in access in Europe and United States, offers a glimpse of the incredibly diverse “system” of American higher education, and the United States’ record in pursuing the goal of universal access based on individual choice rather than government fiat. It is offered in the spirit of open discussion on matters of common interest beyond national borders.

The “Text” contains an overview of the “system” of American higher education, and how, from a supply side, the USA has met the enormous demand for access to colleges and universities. Highlighted are three supply-side interrelated features of this “system”: (1) a history leading to institutional autonomy of more than 4,000 American colleges and universities with highly diverse missions and resources, each with an independent Governing Board with final authority over all matters; (2) the continuous competition for students and resources among these institutions at every level in ecologically sophisticated markets; and (3) the uniquely American history of a more limited yet significant role of government in higher education that stands in contrast to government-controlled systems that sharply rationing access.

The “Notes” and “Data and Commentaries” address such contemporary issues as: school “drop-outs” and “at-risk children”; SATs and affirmative action; “non-traditional students” that today comprise more than half of all college students; the public and private benefits for those attending college; the price, cost and relative financial burdens borne by government and students in higher education; “graduation rates”; productivity and accountability of institutions; the commodity feature of courses and course modules; on-line actors, “for profit,” and other innovations in reaching new markets; and data on those and other subjects that lay a foundation for inter-nation comparisons.

While the primary audiences for the “Text” are in Greece and Europe, there is a deliberate effort in the “Notes” and “Data and Commentaries” to enrich the dialogue among American educators, government leaders, opinion makers and members of governing boards. Such attempts simultaneously to reach disparate audiences lead to unevenness in substance and sophistication, but the outcome can be worth the effort. Indeed, while the content throughout is holistic and interrelated, one can approach and read this monograph as three separate papers: (1) the Text, (2) the Notes, and (3) the Data and Commentaries. A selective Bibliography is included, and applicable URL and related websites are used whenever feasible to facilitate long-distance access to sources and citations in this paper.