The Social Construction of University Reputation

Philip Ebels argues that one of the reasons that European universities lag behind the rest of the world is a result of "the difficulties one might encounter explaining one’s academic credentials at a European cocktail party." In other words, since the name of a degree conferred by the university system of one country is so different from the others there is a decline in quality. This argument makes little sense to me. American universities are not superior to European ones because a BA means the same thing in Montana as it does in Iowa. Rather the real reason that European universities lag behind American ones is reputation. It's a social construction based on self-fulfilling prophecy.