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 Our country is fast slipping in the college completion global ranking among young adults. A recently released report says that other nations around the world have stronger higher education ambitions as compared to our country which is why they are progressing at a quicker pace.

It is two years since our president announced his goal to lead by 2020 by stimulating our nation’s competitive spirit. Logically, this announcement should have been followed up with measures that would have helped us gain ground. However we have fallen from twelve to sixteen in ranking among degree holding adults between 25 and 34. This report shows that we are far behind other global leaders such as Canada, South Korea and Japan.

This stagnant condition in one of the benchmark fields could be due to two trends. There has been a rise in college attendance in Europe and Asia. In those nations, there is more emphasis on one and two year professional credentials as compared to our country that is stuck with four year degrees. 

According to Lumina Foundation chief executive, Jamie Merisotis, we are the ones stuck while most other countries are fast moving ahead. Our society that has always been at the top of world education system was challenged by our President. In its share of adults with bachelor’s degree between ages 25 and 64, we rank second after Norway. Foreign students flock in huge numbers to our top universities.

In order to ensure that our nation is in a strong position to compete for global economy, it is essential to have as many young adults with college degrees as possible says the US officials. United States was ranked 12th among 36 developing nations in young adults with college degrees when Obama announced his goal in July 2009.

Based on a report published in 2009, our country’s attainment rate is 41% as compared to countries like Japan and Canada whose rate exceeds 56%. South Korea tops the list with 63%. We are far behind countries like Norway, Ireland, Russia, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Israel, Sweden, France, United Kingdom and Luxembourg.

Head of Paris based OECD’s Indicators and Analysis Division Andreas Schleicher says that there is no particular evidence that the situation is worsening in the United States. The fact is that most countries around the world are catching up applying a great deal of dynamism in their approach.
It was in the seventies that our country was a leader in the field of college attainment. Though the numbers are against it, there is widespread optimism that our nation could indeed lead again by 2020.

Young American college degree attainment rose by 5% from 1998 to 2009 while other countries like Japan showed an increase of 11 percent and Canada a rise of 10 percent. If we allow this to continue, we will not only be left behind by others. They will pull away and leave us nowhere in sight.