According to the statistics published in The Economist, American universities have gathered 70% Nobel Prize winners in the world. About 30% of the scientific and engineering papers in the world and 44% of the frequently cited papers come from American universities. In the United States, the proportion of people with higher education background is higher than that of all other countries in the world. This paper introduces the reasons for the rapid development of American higher education, and holds that the main reasons for the development of American higher education are the wealth of the country, the attention of China people, the promotion of the system and the pragmatic academic tradition. First of all, the affluence of the United States makes the average education cost of American students much higher than that of other western countries. The data shows that in 200 1 year, the average expenditure of American students was $22,000, while that of OECD countries was10,000. Secondly, China people attach importance to and donate to education, which makes education funds sufficient. In France and Germany, university teachers enjoy the treatment of civil servants. In the United States, some alumni and philanthropists in the society constantly donate huge amounts of money to universities. Universities have a wide range of donors, from state governments to social groups, from self-funded students to generous philanthropists. Rich donors such as Ezra Kornel, cornelius vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins and john rockefeller have had a profound impact on the development of American higher education. However, the trend of charitable assistance still exists today. In fiscal year 2004, American private donations to universities reached $24.4 billion. Thirdly, as far as the education system is concerned, in the United States, the state does not have a master plan aimed at guiding the development of university education, and the federal government mainly intervenes in promoting the development of higher education from the aspects of policies and regulations. From 65438 to 0862, the land-grant law of Moreel promulgated by the government established land-grant colleges all over the country. 1946 The Veterans Law made it possible for everyone to go to college. The federal government also provides a lot of money for science and research. The development of American higher education also benefits from the system of equal competition. The competition mechanism is embodied in all aspects of universities, from students and professors to basketball players. Professors compete for federal research funds, and students compete for grants or scholarships. This means that successful schools cannot be complacent. Finally, pragmatism advocated by Americans combines education with industry, and academic achievements can be effectively transformed into practical technology and bring economic benefits. Henry Steele Comagger, an American historian in the 20th century, once said that for ordinary Americans in the19th century, "education is faith"-provided that it is "practical and brings dividends". In America, universities have never been considered as ivory towers. Philosopher Russell once expressed shock at the common affairs he met at the University of Wisconsin: "Any farmer who has problems with his radish will send a professor to do scientific investigation." The United States has created a tradition of linking academia with industry, and universities receive more than 10 billion dollars in royalties and royalties every year. 170 many universities have some form of "business incubator", and dozens of universities are also running their own venture funds. The United States took the lead in introducing a market-oriented higher education model. Compared with the public enterprise model, the market-oriented higher education model has four advantages: it combines the principle of fairness and the principle of merit-based admission; Formed a diversified education system including Ivy League schools and community colleges; The sustainability of market model is higher than that of public enterprise model; Compared with serving only one customer, serving multiple customers increases the control of the university to control its own destiny. According to an article in The Economist, it is not easy to develop higher education and transform into a highly market-oriented system. All countries are faced with a series of problems, such as uneven social distribution, establishing student loan mechanism, preventing academic "commons" from being occupied, unifying domestic education standards, and preventing diploma fraud. For universities, the threats brought by these problems are far from the long-term "starvation" caused by relying on public funds.