America’s superpower status in the field of higher education is steadily slipping as the efforts of other countries to improve their universities pay dividends. The most recent rankings report shows that, as the grip of U.S. domination weakens, institutions in Asian countries such as Japan and China are gaining ground.

Since 2004, Times Higher Education has published a yearly report of the world’s top 200 universities, the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. The ranking weights are based on peer reviews, recruiter reviews, evaluations of research and teaching practices, and faculty and student surveys.

The United States had 63 institutions ranked in the top 200 when the report was first published in 2004. Over the last five years, that number has fallen to 54. While the U.S. still has more schools in the top 200 than any other nation, the steady shift supports the analyses of some higher education experts who believe America will lose its international ascendancy.

Robert M. Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities, said: “The United States has to be concerned about this. We know that other nations are investing substantial amounts in building research universities, while the U.S. has been disinvesting.”

Amelia Newcomb of the Christian Science Monitor said the U.S. had “better look over its shoulder—both east and west.”

But the U.S. is not the only Western nation to be losing its educational edge, according to the rankings. Since 2004, Australia has gone from having 14 universities in the top 200 to having only nine at present. And the UK lost one school, dropping from 30 top-200 schools down to 29.

The other half of this story emerges from a look at which institutions are replacing the American, Australian and British universities on the vaunted list.

Between 2004 and 2009, Japan went from having six schools in the top 200 up to 11. China went from five to six, South Korea went from three to four, and Hong Kong went from four to five.

Philip Altbach of Boston University attributes the Asian gains to several factors. “These countries have invested heavily in higher education in recent years, and this is reflected in the improved quality in their top institutions. They have also attempted to internationalize their universities by hiring more faculty from overseas … this helps to improve their visibility globally,” he said.

Although not all of the Commonwealth nations are slipping—Canada and South Africa have both advanced on the list—the rankings suggest that most are.

At present, the U.S. still has the best universities on the planet, which attract the brightest students from around the world. Many foreign students stay in the U.S. to work after graduation, which contributes to the nation’s economic growth. However, Ben Sowter, head of research at QS, says that the fallout from America’s recession could result in U.S. institutions slipping even further in subsequent rankings. A continued decline in the quality of U.S. universities will persuade many ambitious students from around the world to seek education in other nations, rather than in the U.S.

An attitude of entitlement inspires an increasing number of American students to believe they deserve an A for mediocre work. As more university students fall into this mindset, the universities are lowering standards. They create worthless majors, scrap difficult classes, and give artificially high grades for average work. For several years, some American universities have had 100 graduate students enrolled in engineering programs without a single U.S. citizen among them. Rather than major in one of the hard sciences, many Americans opt for specialization in something less demanding like philosophy, psychology, or art history.

Contemplations on the decline of America and the rise of Asia are becoming more common. Titles of recently written books tell the story: The Post American World, When China Rules the World, The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World, Freefall.

As ambition in American education gives way to lethargy and the corrosive entitlement mentality, Asian powers are becoming more determined than ever before. As the trends persist, this shift in the tides of global power will pick up speed.

“Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process,” said Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman in a New York Times column last year.

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