College rankings: Which countries have the best education systems?

The United States was ranked the “best” country for higher education by Universitas 21, which may come as little surprise given the numerous worldwide-university rankings published each year that highlight US institutions. Take the Times Higher Education, for example, which featured seven US universities in the top 10  on this year’s list.
The US ranked in the top five for three of the four components taken into consideration for the overall ranking: fourth in terms of resources, third for environment, first for output, and a somewhat surprising 36th for connectivity. The low connectivity ranking (which only counted for 10 percent of the overall ranking) may reflect a relatively small reliance on international student enrollment in US institutions, or the existence of a large population of researchers in the US who rely less critically on collaboration with the international research community, according to the Universitas 21 report.
The implications of the US’s connectivity ranking may be changing however, as higher education in the US has developed into a top service-sector export over the past few years.