This report provides an overview of the US higher education system. It gives readers introductory information about the size, scope and governance model of US higher education.

Perhaps the simplest way to describe US higher education is by what it is not. The US has no national university, no national agency overseeing all of higher education, and no national policy on what professors can or cannot teach. There are no national price controls establishing how much tuition institutions can charge. There is also no national admissions policy sorting students into institutions.

This paper describes some of these issues. It certainly does not capture everything; rather, its aim is to introduce readers to some of the major policy conversations taking place in the US and whether there could be lessons learned from the US context applied to other national settings. The paper describes the diversity of institutional types in the US, then it provides an overview of the roles states and the federal government play in higher education.

This is followed by a brief overview of student access, admissions and enrolment to show who participates in higher education. Next is an overview of the student financial aid system with an emphasis on student loan debt and repayment. The paper concludes with a brief summary of the accreditation system and academic affairs to help contextualise how the US goes about quality control and review of its higher education systems.