Universities provide the strong and steady pillars of the country for they are the ones to educate the citizenry. With an educated populace, it is likely to have a strong country for it is with intelligence and knowledge that the people, together with the leaders, will make smart moves together toward the progress and development of the country. An ignorant person can contribute to the slowing down of a country's progress. It is along with quality education that good country decision-makers will be molded with character, values, and intelligence.
In the United States where there are many universities abound, it is quite difficult to determine which would be the top universities. This was so because it was difficult to come up with a widely acceptable and fixed set of criteria. Judging how good a university is coming more from the standpoint of the employees working for it. These are the administrators, faculty, and staff. This is because it is not enough to judge from the salaries that these universities give but the non-financial advantages they have should be given more consideration. There was a survey conducted in 2008 by the agency of higher education in the US together with a human resources company. There were 15,000 respondents who answered the survey questions online. These respondents were once again those employees of the universities.
These universities which were ranked in the overall top 5 universities were those which ranked the top 5 of the categories developed by the surveying organizations. These top-ranking universities in the United States include Stanford University, the University of Michigan at Ann Harbor, George Mason University, Emory University, and the University of Kansas.
Stanford University topped fifth in the following categories: supervisor relationship; healthy relationship between faculty and administrators; fair treatment as perceived by the respondents; balance in work and life outside work; good workplace conditions; appreciation and respect for the employees; engagement index; communications within the university; collaborative governance; job satisfaction; scholarship grants on the conduction of research and career development; loyalty; tuition reimbursement; quality of facilities used and security; policies implemented, efficiency, and resources; and trust in the leadership of the university.
Emory University also topped these categories: healthy relationship between faculty and administrators; fair treatment as perceived by the respondents; loyalty; good workplace conditions; balance between work and life outside work; supervisor relationship; job satisfaction; trust in the leadership of the university; appreciation and respect for the employees; communications within the university; engagement index; and quality of facilities used and security.
