The U.S. also pioneered innovations in university education, land ownership, home ownership and individual rights.

FORBES: Is The U.S. Really Losing Its Innovative Edge?

Mauritius, the second-highest-ranked Sub-Saharan economy, also scores poorly on university education and labour markets.

ECONOMIST: Outstripped

The British government should cease paying for the university education of able students from poor families.

ECONOMIST: Letters

Second, some governments can readily cut the cost of university education without harming quality.

ECONOMIST: A little learning

As Britain crawls out of recession and jobs remain scarce, demand for university education has been soaring.

ECONOMIST: University finances

Someday the university education system will simply price itself out of business and save us all a lot of grief.

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Germany has the added attraction of dispensing university education free to foreigners as well as to domestic students.

ECONOMIST: Wandering scholars

The problem, according to the Education for Employment Foundation (EFE), is that university education does not match employment needs.

ECONOMIST: News from the schools, September 2006

In Madagascar, only 9% of the school population goes on to university education.

UNESCO: World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

Many more qualified people than I have espoused the virtues of starting a company over pursuing a traditional university education.

FORBES: 3. Emotions are magnified — the good and the bad.

Their pampered predecessors, thanks to the then rarity of a university education, had been sailing effortlessly into prestigious, well-paid positions.

ECONOMIST: Students are struggling to cover their loans

And we want all of it at a far cheaper price than what currently passes for reasonably priced university education.

FORBES: The $10,000 Diploma

One sum went to pay for a colleague's eye surgery, and another to help out with a nephew's university education.

ECONOMIST: Joseph Wolfson

Then there is university education, where courses on entrepreneurship are offered, and opportunities for students to develop and commercialize technology are emerging.

FORBES: Turkey - An Emerging Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

Since the 1980s the price of university education in America has risen by 440% and the cost of medical care by 250%.

ECONOMIST: Free exchange

But despite a successful career in the police, Mr Borkenstein felt he had missed out by not having had a university education.

ECONOMIST: Robert Borkenstein

Earlier this week, Times Higher Education ran a big story on the apparent decline in the relative economic returns to university education.

FORBES: Declining Prospects for Higher Ed in the UK?