Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy, Public Scientific-technological University)
“Politecnico di Milano is committed to achieving excellence in research.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, USA, Private Land-grant Research University)
“The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.”

The two universities I chose are the top polytechnics in their country. It can be seen from the mission statement that these two top polytechnics are concerned with scientific and technological research and less about the talent development of the students themselves.

I had a master’s degree at the Politecnico di Milano, and I could feel it was a diverse university, but it had a limited field of study. Politecnico di Milano is a public scientific-technological university which trains engineers, architects and industrial designers. This has a lot to do with the size of the academy, because Politecnico di Milano is not a comprehensive university, because the discipline setting affects tasks and goals big reason. The University has always focused on the quality and innovation of its teaching and research, developing a fruitful relationship with business and productive world by means of experimental research and technological transfer.

My understanding of MIT is that it is a top engineering college but a larger comprehensive university. In contrast, the private and public nature of the two schools does not seem to affect their mission for scientific research. But what puzzles me is why MIT came up with a 21st century period. What was it like before the 21st century? After the 21st century? Perhaps its mission has changed with the times.