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I need help creating a thesis and an outline on , the higher education systems in the United States of America and Western Europe present just few similarities and many differe. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required. Higher Education: USA or Europe Higher Education is the gateway to successful career. Acquiring Graduate and Post graduate degrees from reputed universities is key to better pay packages. Always students will be in dilemma to choose between plethora of universities available in USA and Western European countries. Here is an effort to compare the Higher Education system of these two regions. Challenges in USA: The Higher Education in USA emerged under totally different circumstances than in western European countries. Generally speaking three major methods of education system can be found in USA. (Viz. Elite Higher Education Universities, Mass Higher Education Universities and Universal Access Universities) Elite Higher Education Universities are conventional brick and mortar colleges whose accessibility is to students who have undergone training in systematic secondary education schools. Also fees structure of these colleges will be high in comparison to other two forms of colleges. In addition Elite institutes demand a good student-teacher ratio with highly qualified teaching fraternity. Duration of courses will be usually four years. Mass Higher Educational institutes are usually funded by Governments and are established with the goal of Education for all classes of the society. These colleges are popularly referred to as Community colleges(www.usa-vs-uk.com). Usual duration of community colleges is two years. One more type of colleges under this category is commonly referred as four year college whose courses come in handy for all the sections of the society. Universal Access Institutes (Martin Trow 2000) are the direct impact of Information technology (IT) revolution that swept the globe. These institutes offer online courses and distant learning facilities to their wards. Flexibility is the key factor here as students can learn from their office or home without the hassles of attending colleges physically. The motto of these Universal colleges is to provide continuous learning environment as it has been realized that learning cannot be stopped and is a continuous process irrespective of age factor. One can say Information Technology has liberated education system from constraints of time and space. USA has gracefully embraced this development to its own benefits. Most important feature of educational system of USA is Credit system and flexibility of transferring credits from one university to another. This credit system helps students to pursue their education by taking breaks during their education. Challenges in European Countries: Fundamental difference between Higher education in Europe and USA is: In Europe higher education is highly regulated industry whereas it is less in USA. USA is predominantly market driven while European system is under bureaucracy. Even if European system borrows modular course structure and credit transfer system from US it is difficult to reproduce cluster of cultural and structural features. This clearly gives advantage to USA. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 2011,chronicle.com), The British Government in its new budget has cut-down the funding to higher education as a measure to accelerate the move away from a predominantly publicly supported system to a private system. This is a clear indication of embracing American Higher education policy. Conclusion: The US policy of private and market driven Higher education system has gained momentum in Western European countries and they too are adapting to US style. The Bologna Declaration of 1999 for European Education came up with three Cycle system in imparting Higher education (viz. Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees). The initiation of Bologna declaration has come a long way up to Leuven Communique 2009. (April 2011, ec.europa.eu) In which a various priorities have been identified by the ministers. Prominent among them are: Lifelong learning, enhancing employability, student-centered learning, emphasis for research and innovation, Opening universities to international students, mobility friendly system, funding and use of multi-dimensional transparency tools. In one sentence we can conclude that both US higher education and European higher education are trying to achieve the motto of “lifelong learning” in higher education as it is the need of the hour. References Martin Trow, (Spring 2000). FROM MASS HIGHER EDUCATION TO UNIVERSAL ACCESS:The American Advantage (2005). USA vs UK Comparing Education in Schools, colleges and Universities. Retrieved from http://www.usa-vs-uk.com/ (5 April 2011) Across the pond: A comparison of Key data about Britsish US and Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/section/Home/ European Commission Education & Training The Bologna Process-Towards The European Higher Education. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/education/higher- education/doc1290_en.