A precarious position at the top

AMERICAN HIGHER education is accurately said to be the envy of the world. A recent Times of London recent study ranks the top five universities in the world as Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, and Stanford. Indeed, seven of the top ten, and ten of the top 20, are US public or private universities. I give little credence to detailed rankings, but this pattern of American excellence represents a real combination of reputation, resources, and results.

University quality can be evaluated from many perspectives ranging from utopian to utilitarian. Most academics assess university excellence by scholarly output combined with educational success and societal impact. Quality can also be considered within differing regional contexts and educational missions.

In any event, I believe that the excellence of US higher education relative to that in other countries is facilitated by:

-A broad diversity of institutions ranging from small liberal arts colleges to Ivy League schools, to land grant universities, and to somewhat more focused institutions like MIT or Caltech.

-Freedom of young faculty to choose what they teach and the topics of research and scholarship in which they engage.

-Effective interweaving of teaching and research.

-Attraction of students, scholars, and faculty from other countries to our nation and campuses.

-An implicit national science and technology policy that recognizes financial support of basic research in our universities as an important responsibility of the federal government.

-Individual philanthropy, encouraged by tax policy, by which our alumni and others who believe in excellent education support our colleges and universities.

-Institutional competition for faculty and students.

Unfortunately, forces from both outside and inside the academy threaten many of these factors that enable university excellence.

Obsessive attention to rankings, including those of US News and World Report and London's Times, tends to suppress diversity of departmental and institutional mission and intellectual framework.

Federal overreaction in pursuit of increased security following the heinous attacks of Sept. 11 resulted in cumbersome visa policy and export control regimes that pulled away our national welcome mat from foreign students and scholars, who have been a source of excellence for many decades.

Federal investment in physical science, engineering, computer science, and mathematics research in universities has not increased in real terms since the 1970s. This stagnant support - exacerbated by Congressional earmarking to bypass merit review as well as increasing risk-aversion in awarding grants - suppresses freshness, innovation, and excellence in frontier research.

Generous giving by individuals who care about quality and scope of higher education and its accessibility to low-income students remains a bright spot. But the growing dependence of public universities on such support may not be sustainable, and could threaten their social contracts with their states and regions. Furthermore, many worthwhile causes, including primary and secondary education, increasingly compete with colleges for the same philanthropic resources.

The ability of even the best public universities to compete effectively with each other, and with private schools, for faculty and students is threatened by the precipitous erosion of state support. This erosion is damaging educational and research infrastructure, affordability, and salaries.

Excellence can erode from within as well as succumb to external forces. In ''Our Underacheiving Colleges," Derek Bok argues forcefully that those of us within the academy can do a much better job of educating our undergraduates, widening their vistas, and preparing them to succeed in life.

Yet as we contemplate enhancing and sustaining excellence, an even deeper crisis looms in the perverse correlation between demographic change and educational success. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, in 2000, ''Whites ages 25 to 64 were twice as likely to have a bachelor's degree as African-Americans, and almost three times as likely as Hispanics/Latinos." Worse still, this gap is growing.

Our nation can have the best education in the world. We can be great, innovative, and competitive in the 21st century, and our children can have the good jobs of the emerging global knowledge economy. But it is not a birthright. It requires national will, investment, and commitment from our President to our local school boards.

The right starting point is for Congress and the administration to implement the recommendations of ''Rising Above the Gathering Storm," a report prepared by the National Academies of Science and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine at the request of a bipartisan group of senators. Its recommendations - developed by twenty leaders from industry, academia, and foundations -- would vastly improve K-12 science and mathematics education; strengthen federal commitment to long-term basic research; and make the U.S. the most attractive setting in the world for education, research, and innovation.

Complacency is our enemy and must be conquered. The time for talking is past.

Charles M. Vest is a former president of MIT.