ABSTRACT
The ten or so most eminent American private universities of the present century are very unusual in the world of contemporary higher education. Their unique ness resides in their private character and in the distinction of their intellectual accomplishment. No other national higher educational system possesses any thing like them. There are some private universities in a few other countries, but none occupies the position of eminence in their respective national system such as is possessed by those of the United States. There are also great universities outside the United States and within it which are more or less in the same class as the leading American private universities but they are public or state universities. The continent of Europe has or has had a few private universities. The Universite libre de Bruxelles was a private university, so is the Bocconi University in Milan. In Japan and the Philippines there are numer ous private universities, but none has the place in its own national system or in the larger world of learning which is occupied by the leading American ones. There are numerous private colleges in India, but they are parts of public universities and, in any case, none of them, even the best, is on the level of intellectual distinction of the leading American private universities.
