Professors on the Berkeley campus have received a surprising number of job offers from European institutions in recent months….The push is part of an effort by European governments to improve higher education on the continent, seen as a key to economic success over the next few decades.

One education expert said European leaders understand that they will need to improve their universities to keep up with rising economies such as India and China.  “Higher education has become a political tool for a lot of countries around the world,'’ said Lloyd Armstrong, the former provost of the University of Southern California. “They see it as a key to their economic success.’

What amazes me is that such a phenomenon can be reported, not only without any mentioned concern about the relation between education and national economy, but more importantly that it can be written without even having to explain that there is one.  We’ve now accepted this state of affairs as given.