Quality, Not Quantity

The US may need to have "fewer but better" top research institutions, the president of the Association of American Universities, Robert Berdahl, says. In February, Berdahl wrote a letter to Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), asking, among other things: "How many research universities does the United States realistically require in order to maintain its agenda of innovation and advanced training?" Alexander and three other members of Congress have now asked the National Academies this week "to study and report on the 'top 10 actions' that the government and research universities could take to maintain the quality of the universities and ensure the nation's economic growth," says the Chronicle of Higher Education.