Public Universities

Public university is an university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or regional government. In places such as Australia, Canada, Germany, Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe, most significant universities are public, while in the United States and Japan, both public and private universities are common and generally regarded as having similar academic standards. Many major public universities around the world were formerly private or religious institutions.

Worldwide, some public institutions like the University of Cambridge, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Melbourne, the University of Oxford, Peking University, National University of Singapore, the University of Tokyo, the University of Toronto, Trinity College Dublin, and ETH Zurich are held in particularly high esteem. In fact, in a recent worldwide university study by Shanghai Jiaotong University, three of the top 10 universities were public, with Cambridge 2nd, UC Berkeley 4th and Oxford 10th. World rankings by "The Times Higher Education Supplement" came up with similar findings with UC Berkeley 2nd, Cambridge and Oxford 5th and 6th, and ETH Zurich rounding out the top 10.

In the United States, most public universities are state universities founded and operated by state government entities. Every U.S. state has at least one public university to its name, and the largest states have more than a dozen. This is a direct result of the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Acts, which gave each eligible state 30,000 acres (120 km²) of federal land upon which to establish educational institutions. States generally charge higher tuition to out-of-state students, a practice which the United States Supreme Court has deemed constitutional because the state is acting as a market participant providing a service, rather than protecting a fundamental right. It has never been determined whether the U.S. Constitution would allow the federal government to establish a federal university system; the only federally chartered universities that currently exist are those under the auspices of the U.S. military, such as West Point, the Naval Academy and the United States Air Force Academy.

Historically, the most prestigious universities in the United States have been private. However, public universities like the University of California, Berkeley, Pennsylvania State University, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Washington, Seattle are highly prestigious as well. In fact, many of these universities are referred to as Public Ivies in an influential book by Richard Moll.

In Canada, education is the responsibility of the individual provinces. Universities are regulated by provincial governments but enjoy relative autonomy. Most tuition and governing decisions are made at the individual university level and therefore vary across the provinces and country. However, quality of education remains high across the provinces. In particular, the University of Toronto and McGill University are the only non-US members of the prestigious Association of American Universities. In the August 2006 Newsweek ranking of the 'Top 100 Global Universities', the University of Toronto ranks # 1 in Canada, # 9 among all public universities in the world, and # 18 among all universities in the world.