Students enrolling in American universities have access to thousands of private and public institutions from the Atlantic to the Pacific. While public universities like the University of Wisconsin and UC-Berkeley receive state and federal aid, students need to pay tuition and fees for public education. Private colleges like Harvard, Yale and Stanford charge higher tuition rates to account for the absence of public funding.By contrast, European universities are largely public and require low tuition payments from students. The reason why public universities are held in higher esteem than private institutions is their commitment to higher education as an inalienable right. While some universities are funded through income taxes, schools in France and Germany have adopted student fees in the last five years to account for budget shortfalls.
