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University challenge

高等学府面临挑战

Slim down, focus and embrace technology: American universities need to be more businelike 缩减成本，精攻所长，利用科技：美国大学需更有效

BARACK OBAMA invited a puzzling group of people into the White House on December 5th: university presidents.What should one make of these strange creatures? Are they chief executives or labour leaders? Heads of pre-industrial guilds or champions of one of America’s most succeful industries? Defenders of civilisation or mercile rack-renters?

12月5日，奥巴马在白宫约见一群令人费解的人士—大学校长。我们该怎样理解这样一群奇怪的人类？他们是各州州长还是劳工领袖？是行业协会会长还是美国某些最成功的企业大亨？文明的捍卫者还是无情的吸金者？

Whatever they might be, they are at the heart of a political firestorm.Anger about the cost of college extends from the preppiest of parents to the grungiest of Occupiers.Mr Obama is trying to channel the anger, to avoid being sideswiped by it.The White House invitation complained that costs have trebled in the past three decades.Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, has urged universities to addre costs with “much greater urgency”.不管是谁，他们已经处于一场政治风暴的中心。对大学费用的愤怒从最为光鲜的家长扩散到最为寒酸的草根。奥巴马先生一直在努力地疏导这股愤怒以免被它淹没。在白宫的会谈中，有人抱怨在过去三十年里，大学费用已上涨到原来的三倍。教育部长Arne Duncan催促各大学“应更加紧急”地处理大学费用问题。

A sense of urgency is justified: ex-students have debts approaching $1 trillion.But calm reflection is needed too.America’s universities suffer from many maladies besides cost.And rising costs are often symptoms of much deeper problems: problems that were irritating during the years of affluence but which are cancerous in an age of austerity.要求有紧急意识不是没有道理的：往届学生所欠贷款已接近一万亿。但是冷静地反省也是必需的，除了费用问题，美国大学还存在其他的弊病。不断上涨的费用通常是更深层次问题的表象。在顺风顺水的日子里这些问题只是让人稍感不适，而一旦时局艰难，这些问题则是致命的。

The first problem is the inability to say “no”.For decades American universities have been offering more of everything—more courses for undergraduates, more research students for profeors and more rock walls for everybody—on the merry aumption that there would always be more money to pay for it all.The second is Ivy League envy.The vast majority of American universities are obseed by rising up the academic hierarchy, becoming a bit le like Yokel-U and a bit more like Yale.第一个问题就是无法说“不”。几十年以来，美国大学总是提供更多的条件：给本科生提供更多的课程，给教授安排更多的研究生，给每个学生提供更多的体育设施，并且总是乐呵呵地设想会有更多的钱来支付这些开销。第二个问题是常春藤迷恋心理。美国绝大部分院校都喜欢做一些事情提高院校等级，让学校变得更有耶鲁的味道，而不是一所名不经传的乡巴佬大学，并且乐此不疲。

Ivy League envy leads to an obseion with research.This can be a problem even in the best universities: students feel short-changed by profeors fixated on crawling along the frontiers of knowledge with a magnifying gla.At lower-level universities it causes dysfunction.American profeors of literature crank out 70,000 scholarly publications a year, compared with 13,757 in 1959.Most of these simply moulder: Mark Bauerlein of Emory University points out that, of the 16 research papers produced in 2004 by the University of Vermont’s literature department, a fairly representative institution, 11 have since received between zero and two citations.The time wasted writing articles that will never be read cannot be spent teaching.In “Academically Adrift” Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa argue that over a third of America’s students show no improvement in critical thinking or analytical reasoning after four years in college.常春藤迷恋心理带来的后果就是对研究的迷恋，甚至最好的大学里也有这个问题：教授们手拿放大镜专注地在知识领域的边缘上踱来踱去，让学生们颇有受骗的感觉。在等级较低的院校里，这个问题导致院校功能混乱。1959年美国文学教授一年发表13757份学术资料，现在他们一年能够捣鼓70000份，而这里面绝大部分都是陈词滥调。艾莫利大学Mark Bauerlein指出，佛蒙特大学文学部是一个很有代表性的学院，它2004年发表的16份研究论文中到现在有11份已被引用过一至二次。教师们把教学时间浪费在写那些没人会去看的文章上。Richard Arum和Josipa Roksa在他们的著作《学术漂浮》里说，超过三分之一的美国学生经过四年的大学生活后，批判性思维和分析推理能力并没无提高。

Popular anger about universities’ costs is rising just as technology is shaking colleges to their foundations.The internet is changing the rules.Star academics can lecture to millions online rather than the chosen few in person.Testing and marking can be automated.And for-profit companies such as the University of Phoenix are stripping out costs by concentrating on a handful of popular courses as well as making full use of the internet.The Sloan Foundation reports that online enrolments grew by 10% in 2010, against 2% for the sector as a whole.正当公众对大学高收费的愤怒愈演愈烈时，科技正动摇着大学的根基。互联网正在改变规则，明星院校可以通过网络给成千上万人授课，而不再是教师亲临讲台面授那些少数的天之骄子。测试和评分也可以自动化。一些盈利性的企业，如凤凰城大学通过全方位利用互联网重点教授一些受欢迎的课程逐步减少开支。斯隆基金会的一份报告指出，2010年网上注册的学生上升了10%，相对而言学生总体数量仅增长了2%。

Many universities’ first instinct will be to batten down the hatches and wait for this storm to pa.But the storm is not going to pa.The higher-education industry faces a stark choice: either adapt to a rapidly changing world or face a future of cheeseparing.It is surely better to rethink the career structure of your employees than to see it wither(the proportion of profeors at four-year universities who are on track to win tenure fell from 50% in 1997 to 39% ten years later).And it is surely better to reform yourself than to have hostile politicians take you into receivership.很多学院的第一反应就是关起门来等这场暴风雨过去，但是暴风雨不会过去。高等教育产业面临一个残酷的选择：即调整适应快速发展的社会或者步入举步维艰的未来。重新思量自己员工的职业模式当然好过看着它枯萎（四年制大学的教授能够获得长期聘用的比例从1997年的50%下降到10年后的39%）。所以，各学院主动改革当然比眼睁睁看着被虎视眈眈的政客接管更为明智了。

A growing number of universities are beginning to recognise this.They understand that the beginning of wisdom in academia, as in busine in general, is choosing what not to do.They are in recovery from their Ivy League envy.They are also striking up relations with private-sector organisations.And a growing number of foundations, such as the Kauffman Foundation, are doing their best to spread the gospel of reform and renewal.越来越多的院校开始意识到这点。他们明白，在学术界，要明智起来，做法大体和企业一样，那就是放弃不该做的事情。他们正从常春藤迷恋心理中缓过神来，开始和各私人企业建立联系。而且越来越多如考夫曼一样的基金会，也正不予余力地宣传革新的教义。

Seats of learning

学习的座位

Western Governors University(WGU)in Salt Lake City was founded in 1996 by 19 state governors who saw the crisis coming.To squeeze costs, it does all of its teaching online.It also separates lots of things that are bundled together in traditional universities.Profeors decide what they want students to know and design tests to see whether they have learned it.But they buy teaching materials from independent publishers and employ “mentors” to guide students.It is notable that the head of WGU was one of the nine university boes invited to the White House.1996年19位富有远见的州长创立了位于盐湖城的西部州长大学（WGU）。为了尽量压缩成本，这所大学里所有的教学都在网上完成，同时许多在传统院校里捆绑一起的东西也被分离开来。教授们决定教学内容并设计试题测试学生是否掌握所学知识，并需自己从校外出版社买教学资料，聘请“辅导员”指导学生。值得注意的是，WGU的校长也在白宫此次约见的九位大学领导人之列。

BYU-Idaho has decided that focusing on teaching undergraduates is the way forward.It has got rid of expensive encrustations such as the athletics and PhD programmes and introduced year-round courses.Cornell teaches 10,000 students online every year, most of them working adults.Southern New Hampshire University has five satellite colleges that make it easier for students to live at home while studying.The University of Southern California’s Roier School of Education has formed a partnership with a private company, 2tor, to design courses for students in 45 states and 13 countries.爱达荷州杨百翰大学已经决定将本科教学作为未来发展重点。它已经摆脱昂贵的表面工作，如体育运动设施和博士学位项目，并且引进全年课程。Cornell每年在网上教的学生达10000名，其中大部分人都是参加工作的成年人。新罕布什尔南方大学设有五个卫星学校，这为学生待在家里学习创造了更为便利的条件。南加州教育学院的老师已经和一家叫2tor的私人企业建立合作关系，为45个州及13个国家的学生设计课程。

Nearly 100 years ago American universities faced similar worries about rising costs and detachment from the rest of society.Lawrence Lowell, the president of Harvard, argued that “institutions are rarely murdered;they meet their end by suicide…They die because they have outlived their usefulne, or fail to do the work that the world wants done.” America’s universities quickly began “the work that the world wants done” and started a century of American dominance of higher education.They need to repeat the trick if that century is not to end in failure.大约100年前，美国各大学已经面临相似的忧虑：那就是攀升的费用以及学校和社会的脱离。哈佛大学校长Lawrence Lowell指出“很少有院校是被扼杀的，它们通常是自取其亡„„它们之所以死亡是因为本身已经没有价值，或者不能完成世界期望的工作。”那时，美国的大

学迅速地开展“世界期望的工作”并且开始了一个美国主宰高等教育的世纪。现在他们得重走当年路线才能在这个世纪成功地延续。