How are North American universities, as a whole, unique when compared to European or Asian counterparts?

Question

$$$ is the obvious difference, but what about design?

Answer 1

North American universities tend to have a more structured approach to teaching and course management and may seem more like schools to Europeans, who are used to a high degree of independence and an open-ended study duration. In North American universities, you amass credits by either fulltime- or part time attendance of classes often requiring physical attendance and regular class exercises.
Both settings usually foresee a certain timeframe of completion of your studies - say, 4 years for fulltime and up to 7 for part time.
In Europe, people have the freedom to study for decades if they so wish, passing exam after exam year by year if they so choose in any unprescribed order. Whatever they've done in the end either qualifies them for a degree or it does not - in which case more and further studying is necessary to acquire it.