American Institutions of Higher Education

Higher education in the United States is an optional final stage of formal learning following secondary education. Higher education, also referred to as post-secondary education, third stage, third level, or tertiary education occurs most commonly at one of the 4,627 Title IV degree-granting institutions, either colleges or universities in the country. These may be public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, or for-profit colleges.

High visibility issues include greater use of the Internet and massive open online courses, competency-based education, sexual assault, cutbacks in state and local spending, rapidly rising tuition and increasing student loan debt, the adjunctification of academic labor, and student poverty and hunger.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse, US college enrollment has declined for six consecutive years and is projected to continue declining for the next two decades. This decline, partially attributed to falling birth rates, amounts to a 2.6 million loss in enrollment from the peak year of 2010–11.

Strong research and funding have helped make America's elite colleges and universities among the world's most prestigious, making them particularly attractive to international students, professors and researchers in the pursuit of academic excellence. Other countries, however, are now offering incentives to take away researchers as funding is threatened.

The United States higher education system has also been blighted by fly-by-night schools, diploma mills, and predatory for-profit colleges.

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