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<p>After reading this whole thread, this is almost exactly what I thought. In the US, we have a system of government that is different from most countries. While it is not a perfect comparison, asking for a truly national university in the US is like asking for a university operated by the European Union. The population and size of the “nation”, not to mention regional politics, would make it a nightmare trying to create a national, comprehensive university. In my view, the US is made up of 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and other political entities. Each one of these has the power to create their own university systems, and most have. Yes, some of these systems aren’t the best and cannot compare to HYP on many levels, but they still are institutions which educate a lot of the population. According to the US Constitution and its amendments, the powers not granted to the US Federal Government, which include many retained by other governments, are given to either the individual state governments or the people themselves.</p>
<p>RML, not all the states have the best university systems, we know that. But not all nations have the best university systems either. For use as examples, you picked the universities of North Dakota and Alabama. Yes, they are not top-20 schools, but they represent the interests of their state governments, as they are state-run and primarily state-supported institutions. Notice that if the US Federal Government ran the institutions, they could be called federally-ran/supported or state-ran/supported as the word state can refer to a nation, but is not always used in the US due to confusion with the individual states. </p>
<p>It is obviously possible for a student to attend school in a state where they are nonresidents and still receive federal funding, but the state reserves the right to restrict enrollment, just like countries reserve the right to restrict international enrollment by limiting acceptances, student visas, etc. In short, a national comprehensive university is not needed at this time. If a special type of education benefiting the nation as a whole is needed, then one may have a case. But don’t expect that university to become #1 overnight, things take time.</p>