经济学人社论 || 缺席的大学生

原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU1MDQwNTgzMg==&mid=2247491332&idx=1&sn=92a840a48cd0d4d78f7eb187d91076da&chksm=fba04ca3ccd7c5b5c4137a2a6a925556a58c687df18be38eb41e8539031a90c65059e27ed751#rd

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导读


感谢思维导图作者

April,女,金融小白崽,边追经济学人边追星


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The absent student

 缺席的大学生

英文部分选自经济学人20200808Leaders版块

Universities

 大学


The absent student

 缺席的大学生


Covid-19 will be painful for universities, but it will also bring long-needed change

新冠疫情给大学带来痛苦,但也会带来长期需要的变革


In the normal run of things, late summer sees airports in the emerging world fill with nervous 18-year-olds, jetting off to begin a new life in the rich world’s universities. The annual trek of more than 5m students is a triumph of globalisation. Students see the world; universities get a fresh batch of high-paying customers. Yet with flights grounded and borders closed, this migration is about to become the pandemic’s latest victim.


正常情况下,夏末时分,新兴国家的机场挤满紧张不安的18岁青年。他们随即登机,前往发达国家的大学展开新征程。每年,超过500万学生历此跋涉,这是全球化的成果。学生得以感受世界,大学则能从中获得一笔不菲收入。然而,由于航班停飞,边境封锁,国际学生就要成为疫情的最新受害者。


For students, covid-19 is making life difficult. Many must choose between inconveniently timed seminars streamed into their parents’ living rooms and inconveniently deferring their studies until life is more normal. For universities, it is disastrous. They will not only lose huge chunks of revenue from foreign students but, because campus life spreads infection, they will have to transform the way they operate.


对学生而言,新冠疫情正让生活变得艰难。许多学生要么克服时差,在父母的客厅上网课,要么就只能推迟学业,直至生活趋于正轨。对大学而言,这是一场灾难。它们不光会损失大笔来自留学生的收入,并且,由于校园生活会加重疫情扩散,大学不得不转变其运行方式。


Yet the disaster may have an upside. For many years government subsidies and booming demand have allowed universities to resist changes that could benefit both students and society. They may not be able to do so for much longer.


不过,这场灾难也可能有好的一面。多年来,政府的补贴和旺盛的需求使得大学固步自封,抵制对学生和社会都有好处的变革。而现在,它们也许坚持不了多久了。


Higher education has been thriving. Since 1995, as the notion spread from the rich world to the emerging one that a degree from a good institution was essential, the number of young people enrolling in higher education rose from 16% of the relevant age group to 38%. The results have been visible on swanky campuses throughout the Anglosphere, whose better universities have been the principal beneficiaries of the emerging world’s aspirations.


高等教育一向发展迅速。1995年以来,一种观念从发达国家蔓延到了新兴国家,即名校学位必不可少,因此,接受高等教育的年轻人在相关年龄组别中的比例从16%上升到了38%。英语世界的名校对此感受最明显,它们是新兴世界莘莘学子海外求学的主要受益者。


Yet troubles are piling up. China has been a source of high-paying foreign students for Western universities, but relations between the West and China are souring. Students with ties to the army are to be banned from America.


然而,麻烦也层出不穷。支付高昂学费的中国留学生一直是西方大学的收入来源,但西方和中国之间的关系却在恶化。与军队有牵连的学生即将禁止入境美国。


Governments have been turning against universities, too. In an age when politics divides along educational lines, universities struggle to persuade some politicians of their merit. President Donald Trump attacks them for “Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education”. Some 59% of Republican voters have a negative view of colleges; just 18% of Democrats do. In Britain universities’ noisy opposition to Brexit has not helped. Given that the state pays for between a quarter and a half of tertiary education in America, Australia and Britain, through student loans and grants, the government’s enthusiasm matters.


政府也站在了大学的对立面。现如今,教育方面的政治分化愈演愈烈(政客们对教育的看法大相径庭),大学很难说服一些政客相信它们的优点。唐纳德·特朗普总统抨击它们进行的是激进的左翼思想灌输,而不是教育。大约59%的共和党选民对大学持负面看法,而只有18%的民主党人持相同看法。在英国,大学对脱欧的强烈反对让情况更糟。鉴于美国、澳大利亚和英国四分之一到一半的高等教育资金是由国家通过发放学生贷款和助学金支付的,因此政府的热情十分重要。


注:Doesn’t help means  “makes the situation worse”


Scepticism among politicians is not born only of spite. Governments invest in higher education to boost productivity by increasing human capital. But even as universities have boomed, productivity growth in the rich-country economies has fallen. Many politicians suspect that universities are not teaching the right subjects, and are producing more graduates than labour markets need. Small wonder that the state is beginning to pull back. In America government spending on universities has been flat in recent years; in Australia, even as the price of humanities degrees doubles, so it will fall for subjects the government deems good for growth.


政客们对大学的质疑并非只是为了泄愤。政府之所以投资高等教育是为了通过增加人力资本来提高生产力。但是,即便高等教育蓬勃发展,富裕国家的生产力增长还是在下降。许多政客怀疑,大学并没有教授正确的科目,而且培养的毕业生数量超过了劳动力市场的需求。因此难怪政府开始从高等教育领域抽身。近年来,美国政府在大学方面的支出一直保持在同一水平;在澳大利亚,人文学科学费翻了一番,而那些政府认为有利于(经济)增长的学科学费将有所下降。


There are questions about the benefits to students, too. The graduate premium is healthy enough, on average, for a degree to be financially worthwhile, but not for everybody. In Britain the Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs) has calculated that a fifth of graduates would be better off if they had never gone to university. In America four in ten students still do not graduate six years after starting their degree—and, for those who do, the wage premium is shrinking. Across the world as a whole, student enrolment continues to grow, but in America it declined by 8% in 2010-18.


学生能从高等教育中获益多少也存在疑问。平均而言,大学毕业生身份带来的工资溢价使得上大学有着足够的经济回报,但并非对每个人都是如此。据英国财政研究所(IFS)计算,五分之一的大学毕业生如果当年不上大学现在可以过得更好。在美国,有十分之四的学生大学读了六年还没有毕业;而且,对于剩下十分之六顺利毕业的大学生来说,他们的工资溢价正呈现下降趋势。全世界的大学入学人数都在持续增长,但在美国,20102018年间大学入学人数下降了8%


注:

graduate premiumThe graduate or professional premium is a term used to describe the increase in average wages that university graduates can expect having achieved a degree.

(详见https://www.futurefinance.com/blog/the-graduate-premium/


Then came covid-19. Although recessions tend to boost demand for higher education, as poor job prospects spur people to seek qualifications, revenues may nevertheless fall. Government rules will combine with student nerves to keep numbers down. Last month the Trump administration said new foreign students would not be allowed to enter the country if their classes had moved online. Sydney, Melbourne, unsw and Monash, four of Australia’s leading universities, rely on foreign students for a third of their income. The ifs expects losses at English universities to amount to over a quarter of one year’s revenues.


接着是新冠肺炎所引发的问题。尽管经济衰退往往会刺激社会对高等教育的需求(因为糟糕的就业前景会促使人们寻求高学历),但高校收入可能仍会下降。政府的严格规定和学生的紧张情绪将导致入学人数下降。特朗普政府于上月表示,如果大学实行线上教学,将不允许外国新生进入美国。澳大利亚的四所顶尖院校——悉尼大学、墨尔本大学、新南威尔士大学和莫纳什大学,三分之一的收入来自外国学生。IFS预计英国大学的亏损将超过年收入的四分之一。


The damage from covid-19 means that, in the short term at least, universities will be more dependent on governments than ever. The ifs reckons that 13 universities in Britain risk going bust. Governments ought to help colleges, but should favour institutions that provide good teaching and research or benefit their community. Those that satisfy none of those criteria should be allowed to go to the wall.


新冠疫情带来的打击,意味着至少在短期内大学将前所未有地依赖政府支持。IFS认为,英国13所大学可能因资金短缺而关闭。政府理应为大学提供支持,但应该偏向那些教育质量高、研究能力强、社会影响力大的学校。而一条都不符合的学校,就算因资金缺乏而倒闭,也在情理之中。


注:Go to the wall: to fail because of lack of money(因资金缺少)走投无路,失败,破产


Those that survive must learn from the pandemic. Until now most of them, especially the ones at the top of the market, have resisted putting undergraduate courses online. That is not because remote teaching is necessarily bad—a third of graduate students were studying fully online last year—but because a three- or four-year degree on campus was universities’ and students’ idea of what an undergraduate education should look like. Demand for the services of universities was so intense that they had no need to change.


度过难关的学校应从疫情中学到一课。其中大部分学校,尤其是一些排名靠前的,一直都拒绝将本科生课程改为网课。这并不是因为远程教学一定不好——毕竟去年三分之一的研究生都在网上学习——而是因为大学和学生认为本科教育就应该是三到四年的校园实体课。之前人们对大学的需求如此旺盛,以至于大学并不需要改变。


Now change is being forced upon them. The College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College says that less than a quarter of American universities are likely to teach mostly or wholly in person next term. If that persists, it will reduce the demand. Many students buy the university experience not just to boost their earning capacity, but also to get away from their parents, make friends and find partners. But it should also cut costs, by giving students the option of living at home while studying.


但现在它们不得不做出改变。戴维森学院的大学危机倡议指出,下学期可能只有不到四分之一的美国院校会选择面授课。如果这种情况持续下去,入学需求便会下降。许多学生交学费上大学,并不只是为了提升自己的职业技能,他们可能还想跟父母分开一阵子,交些新朋友,寻找自己的伴侣。但同时,学校提供学生在家上课的选项有助于降低成本。


注:

1. Back to the mortarboard回到学位问题

2. mortarboard: a black hat with a stiff square top, worn by some university teachers and students at special ceremonies学位帽,方顶帽


Covid-19 is catalysing innovation, too. The Big Ten Academic Alliance, a group of midwestern universities, is offering many of its 600,000 students the opportunity to take online courses at other universities in the group. There is huge scope for using digital technology to improve education. Poor in-person lectures could be replaced by online ones from the best in the world, freeing up time for the small-group teaching which students value most.


疫情也催生了创新。十大学术联盟(The Big Ten Academic Alliance)由美国中西部十几所大学组成,现正为其多达60余万学生提供联盟内其他高校的网课。用科技提升教育,还有很大的发展空间。教室里不乏低质量的课程,而全球范围内的高质量线上课程可以取代它们,为学生最喜欢的小组教学腾出时间。


Universities are rightly proud of their centuries-old traditions, but their ancient pedigrees have too often been used as an excuse for resisting change. If covid-19 shakes them out of their complacency, some good may yet come from this disaster.


毫无疑问,大学有理由为其传承数百年的传统感到自豪,但悠久的历史往往都被当作拒不求变的借口。如果疫情能让它们摆脱自满情绪,灾难过后,它们会从中受益


翻译组:

Sylvia,女,爱健身的小翻译,经济学人粉儿

 Miranda,女,翻译在读,爱哭又爱笑的00

Jessie, 女 ,旅游业转行口译,喜欢教书与读书


校对组:

Neil,  男,外贸民工,经济学人铁粉

Yo,女,种下过流星,立志不做大鸵鸟

Hannah,女,英语教书匠,经济学人粉丝

Cecilia,女,一口一笔,无可救药的乐观主义者


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观点|评论|思考


本次感想

Samantha,女,不吃米饭,邓伦未婚妻

    距离感不是一件很难做到的事。家里老人说过一句话,没有受不了的罪,只有享不了的福。今年开年到现在,朋友们的最大变化就是越来越淡定。新闻里一会一变的感染数字,突发状况,应对措施,和一系列强制规定,让大家迅速做足了对疫情常态化的心理预备。人的适应能力之强有时令自己都惊讶。线上相聚频繁,一回到真正的面对面讲话,反而觉得有点不自在:你习惯了在摄像头以外放飞自我四仰八叉,我也一样。

    距离感也许能激发新的生活艺术。文中有句话挺同意,读书不仅是为了知识,还为了离开父母,认识朋友,获得伙伴。吴宗宪有一次在《综艺玩很大》里调侃,如今的年轻人在家靠父母,出门靠父母的朋友。我们这代母胎solo的社恐患者经常自嘲没朋友,其实心里都知道,总有一个人可以让你放心倾诉。而且更有趣的是,疫情以来,那些经常在线上互动、或者干脆就是从网络中认识的人,沟通成本往往比想象得要低很多。大家都孤独,我无心骗你,你也并没武装起太多防备。你我都是期待在特殊时期也能互相陪伴的陌生人。

    距离感唯一需要警醒的地方是。作为群体动物如果失去感受周围环境的意识,自己难免失去活得像样的动力。懒得洗脸,懒得化妆,懒得做饭,因为反正摄像头能美颜,没人真正看到这人过的怎么样。这让人想起几个月前的一条热搜,安徽一所中职学校的一名体育生为了保持竞技状态,从1月到4月,利用家里的车轱辘和空心砖,就地取材坚持训练,考上了梦想中的大学。说起来像鸡汤,但细想想这位学生在隔离时期做到了一件改变自己人生的事,真挺酷的。强大的意志力并不是天赋,只要足够在乎自己的人生,并对未来抱有一点点不甘心、一点点期待,那不管教育是在线上还是线下,眼下的距离感只会成为帮你拾级而上,手摘星辰的一把云梯。


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