America’s elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
To keep its competitive edge the Ivy League will have to change
![An illustration of a mortarboard with ivy growing over it that is half withered and brown.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240309_IRD001.jpg)
THE STRUGGLE over America’s elite universities—who controls them and how they are run—continues to rage, with lasting consequences for them and the country. Harvard faces a congressional investigation into antisemitism; Columbia has just been hit with a lawsuit alleging “endemic” hostility towards Jews. Top colleges are under mounting pressure to reintroduce rigorous test-based admissions policies, after years of backsliding on meritocracy. And it is likely that the cosy tax breaks these gilded institutions enjoy will soon attract greater scrutiny. Behind all this lies a big question. Can American universities, flabby with cash and blighted by groupthink, keep their competitive edge?
Explore more
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Poisoned Ivy”
More from International
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240907_IRD001.jpg)
How encrypted messaging apps conquered the world
And why governments want to wrest back control
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240831_IRP001.jpg)
The poisonous global politics of water
Polarisation makes it harder to adapt to climate change
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240824_IRP001.jpg)
Indian tourists are conquering the world
A booming middle class, budget flights and Bollywood
Can Donald Trump’s Iron Dome plan keep America safe?
In a dangerous world, cutting-edge missile defence is all the rage
Why the war on childhood obesity is failing
Sugar taxes and obesity drugs will not be enough
Paris could change how cities host the Olympics for good
The games will test the success of new solutions to old bugbears