How to Make College Cheaper

怎樣才能讓大學(xué)更便宜一些

Better management would allow American universities to do more with less

改善下管理就能讓美國(guó)大學(xué)少花錢多辦事

　　Derek Bok, a former president of Harvard, once observed that “universities share one characteristic with compulsive gamblers and exiled royalty: there is never enough money to satisfy their desires.” This is a bit hard on compulsive gamblers and exiled royals. America’s universities have raised their fees five times as fast as inflation over the past 30 years. Student debt in America exceeds credit-card debt. Yet still the universities keep sending begging letters to alumni and philanthropists.

　　哈佛前校長(zhǎng)德里克·博克曾經(jīng)注意到，“大學(xué)與病態(tài)性賭徒和流亡皇族們有一個(gè)共同特征：永遠(yuǎn)沒有足夠的錢來滿足他們的欲望�！边@對(duì)于病態(tài)性賭徒和流亡皇族們未免有些刻薄。在過去30年中，美國(guó)大學(xué)提高費(fèi)用的速度是通貨膨脹速度的5倍。在美國(guó)的學(xué)生債務(wù)超過信用卡債務(wù)。然而，大學(xué)依然向校友們和慈善家們發(fā)募捐信。

　　This insatiable appetite for money was bad enough during the boom years. It is truly irritating now that middle-class incomes are stagnant and students are struggling to find good jobs. Hence a flurry of new thinking about higher education. Are universities inevitably expensive? Vance Fried, of Oklahoma State University, recently conducted a fascinating thought experiment, backed up by detailed calculations. Is it possible to provide a first-class undergraduate education for $6,700 a year rather than the $25,900 charged by public research universities or the $51,500 charged by their private peers? He concluded that it is.

　　在經(jīng)濟(jì)景氣的年份，這種對(duì)金錢貪得無厭的胃口讓人厭煩。而在目前中產(chǎn)階級(jí)收入縮水、學(xué)生為找一份好工作絞盡腦汁之際，這種胃口簡(jiǎn)直是讓人憤怒。因此也就有了一陣對(duì)高等教育的重新思考。大學(xué)是不是非要如此昂貴呢?最近，俄克拉荷馬州立大學(xué)的Vance Fried完成了一個(gè)迷人的思維實(shí)驗(yàn)(有詳細(xì)計(jì)算支持)。提供第一流的本科教育僅花費(fèi)6700美元，而非公立研究型大學(xué)收取的25900美元或私立研究型大學(xué)收取的51500美元，這是否可能?Vance Fried認(rèn)為答案是肯定的。

　　Mr Fried shunned easy solutions. He insisted that students should live in residential colleges, just as they do at Harvard and Yale. He did not suggest getting rid of football stadiums (which usually pay for themselves) or scrimping on bed-and-board.

　　Vance Fried回避了簡(jiǎn)單的解決方案。他認(rèn)為學(xué)生應(yīng)當(dāng)在寄宿制大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)生活——正如哈佛和耶魯現(xiàn)在那樣。他并沒有建議去掉足球場(chǎng)(足球場(chǎng)可以自給自足)或者節(jié)省膳宿費(fèi)用。

　　His cost-cutting strategies were as follows. First, separate the funding of teaching and research. Research is a public good, he reasoned, but there is no reason why undergraduates should pay for it. Second, increase the student-teacher ratio. Business and law schools achieve good results with big classes. Why not other colleges? Mr Fried thinks that universities will be able to mix some small classes with big ones even if they have fewer teachers. Third, eliminate or consolidate programmes that attract few students. Fourth, puncture administrative bloat. The cost of administration per student soared by 61% in real terms between 1993 and 2007. Private research universities spend $7,000 a year per student on “administrative support”: not only deans and department heads but also psychologists, counsellors, human-resources implementation managers and so on. That is more than the entire cost of educating a student under Mr Fried’s scheme.

　　他削減開支的策略如下。第一，將教學(xué)和學(xué)術(shù)研究的資金分離開來。他認(rèn)為，學(xué)術(shù)研究是一種公益，不過大學(xué)生就應(yīng)當(dāng)為此買單毫無道理可言。第二，增加學(xué)生與老師人數(shù)的比率。商學(xué)院和法學(xué)院上的是大課，但是收效更佳。其他學(xué)院為什么就不能呢?Vance Fried認(rèn)為，即便學(xué)校的老師再少一些，大學(xué)也能夠?qū)⒃S多小班跟大班混在一起。第三，剔除或者加強(qiáng)那些不能很好吸引學(xué)生的課程。第四，削弱行政膨脹。實(shí)際上，行政管理的費(fèi)用在1993年至2007年之間上漲了61%。私立研究型大學(xué)一年在每位學(xué)生“行政支持”上要花掉7000美元。所謂行政支持，對(duì)象不僅有院長(zhǎng)、系主任，還有心理學(xué)家、輔導(dǎo)員、人事科的執(zhí)行人員等等。這比Vance Fried方案下培養(yǎng)一位學(xué)生的全部費(fèi)用都要多。

　　Veteran university-watchers may dismiss Mr Fried’s ideas as pie in the sky. (“The only part of college not mired in tradition is the price,” grumbles Ben Wildavsky, a co-editor of “Reinventing Higher Education”.) Yet some universities are beginning to squeeze costs. The University of Minnesota’s new campus in Rochester has defined teaching as “job one”. The Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has abolished tenure and merged academic departments. Regents at the University of Texas are talking about a $10,000 undergraduate degree.

　　資深大學(xué)觀察家或許會(huì)對(duì)Vance Fried的主意不屑一顧，認(rèn)為那是天方夜譚。(《重塑高等教育》的合著者Ben Wildavsky批評(píng)說，大學(xué)價(jià)錢飆升，其余的東西保持傳統(tǒng)，改革阻力很大)。不過，一些大學(xué)正在開始擠壓成本。明尼蘇達(dá)州大學(xué)在羅切斯特市的新校區(qū)已經(jīng)將教學(xué)定義為“第一工作”。哈里斯堡科技大學(xué)已經(jīng)廢除了終身職位并合并了學(xué)術(shù)部門。德克薩斯大學(xué)的校董們開始談?wù)?0000美元的本科學(xué)位。

　　Mr Fried fails to mention an obvious source of savings. Americans could complete their undergraduate degrees in three years (as is normal elsewhere), instead of four. In practice, most American students take even longer than four years, not least because so many work to pay their tuition. Surprisingly, America’s future chainsaw-wielding corporate titans take a leisurely two years to complete their MBAs; most Europeans need only one.

　　Vance Fried忘了提及一種顯而易見的節(jié)省開支的渠道。美國(guó)人可以用3年取得本科學(xué)位，而不是4年。(在其他國(guó)家也很正常)。實(shí)際上，許多美國(guó)人取得學(xué)位的時(shí)間都要超過4年——尤其是因?yàn)橐�做許多工作來支付學(xué)費(fèi)。奇怪的是，美國(guó)未來的企業(yè)巨頭需兩年，方可從容完成MBA學(xué)位，大多數(shù)歐洲人只需要1年。

　　Shai Reshef, an educational entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist, is pioneering an even more radical idea. His University of the People offers free higher education (not counting the few hundred dollars it costs to process applications and mark exams), pitching itself to poor people in America and the rest of the world. The university does this by exploiting three resources: the goodwill of academic volunteers who want to help the poor, the availability of free “courseware” on the internet and the power of social networking. Some 2,000 academic volunteers have designed the courses and given the university some credibility. Tutors direct the students, who so far number 1,000 or so and hail from around the world, to the online courses. They also help to organise them into study groups, and then supervise from afar, dropping in on discussions and marking tests. Mr Reshef pays for incidental expenses with $2m of his own money and donations.

　　一位受過教育的企業(yè)家出身的慈善家Shai Reshef提出了更為激進(jìn)的觀點(diǎn)。他的人民大學(xué)提供免費(fèi)高等教育(過程應(yīng)用和改卷子的數(shù)百美元不算在內(nèi))，向美國(guó)和世界其他地方的窮人推銷自己的學(xué)校。這所大學(xué)利用三種資源來運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)：想要幫助窮人的學(xué)術(shù)志愿者的善意、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上可獲得的免費(fèi)“課件”和社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。約2000個(gè)學(xué)術(shù)志愿者設(shè)計(jì)了課程，使大學(xué)有了一些信譽(yù)。指導(dǎo)老師們將那些迄今已有1000左右來自世界各地的學(xué)生帶到網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程。老師們同樣幫助學(xué)生組織學(xué)習(xí)小組，在遠(yuǎn)方監(jiān)督他們，不時(shí)加入探討、進(jìn)行考試。Shai Reshef額外支付200萬的花費(fèi)，這些錢來自自己的腰包或者募捐。

　　There are plenty of questions about Mr Reshef’s project. Can you really build a university on volunteerism and goodwill? Can students really be relied upon to do most of the teaching themselves? Will free courseware remain free? (Newspapers that used to give away content online are now putting up pay barriers.)

　　關(guān)于Shai Reshef的項(xiàng)目有諸多疑問。大學(xué)能真正地建立在志愿者服務(wù)和善意上嗎?學(xué)生們是否真正能夠自己完成那些教學(xué)?免費(fèi)的課件會(huì)一直免費(fèi)嗎?(過去其內(nèi)容在網(wǎng)上免費(fèi)派送的報(bào)紙現(xiàn)在紛紛設(shè)置支付障礙)

　　Mr Reshef’s university has yet to win accreditation, which could take years. But he can take comfort from Clayton Christensen’s classic book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. Mr Christensen points out that innovators often start by offering products that are cheaper, but markedly inferior. Quickly, however, they learn how to improve their offerings. Even if Mr Reshef fails, there are plenty of other disruptive innovators around. In America, one tertiary student in ten already studies exclusively online. One in four does so at least some of the time, and a growing number of bodies, including elite universities, think-tanks, governments and international organisations, are putting first-rate material online.

　　Shai Reshef的大學(xué)目前還在資格鑒定中，這可能會(huì)耗時(shí)數(shù)年。不過，他能夠從克萊頓·克里斯坦森的經(jīng)典大作《創(chuàng)新者的窘境》中獲取慰藉�？死锼固股�指出，創(chuàng)新者經(jīng)常從提供價(jià)廉物不美的產(chǎn)品起步。不過，很快他們就學(xué)會(huì)改進(jìn)他們的產(chǎn)品。即便Shai Reshef失敗了，依然存在許多有破壞性的創(chuàng)新者。在美國(guó)，十分之一的受高等教育學(xué)生已經(jīng)完全通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)學(xué)習(xí)。四分之一的學(xué)生至少在某段時(shí)間通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)學(xué)習(xí)。不斷增加的實(shí)體，如精英大學(xué)、智囊、政府和國(guó)際組織將一流的資料放到網(wǎng)上。

　　The coming campus rumpus

　　即將到來的大學(xué)爭(zhēng)吵

　　Sometimes when academics grouse that there is “never enough money”, they are justified – big science costs big bucks. But higher education is nevertheless marred by inefficiencies and skewed incentives. Students pay to be taught, but their professors are rewarded almost entirely for research. Mr Fried’s calculations suggest that one can slash costs without sacrificing much that students value. Mr Reshef’s experiment may fail, but there is no doubt that universities need more experimenters. The cost of tuition cannot forever rise faster than students’ ability to pay. Industries that cease to offer value for money sooner or later get shaken up. American universities are ripe for shaking.

　　有些時(shí)候，當(dāng)一些學(xué)者抱怨說“錢總是不夠”時(shí)，他們是情有可原的——科學(xué)研究耗資巨大。然而，高等教育還是陷入了低效率和刺激不當(dāng)?shù)哪嗄住�學(xué)生們?yōu)槭芙逃�而掏腰包，而他們的教授卻幾乎完全從科研中得到回報(bào)。Fried的計(jì)算表明，可以削減成本，同時(shí)不犧牲學(xué)生所珍視的那些東西。Reshef的實(shí)驗(yàn)或許會(huì)失敗，不過大學(xué)毫無疑問需要更多的實(shí)驗(yàn)者。學(xué)費(fèi)的增長(zhǎng)不能一直超過學(xué)生的支付能力。不再能為(消費(fèi)者花的)錢提供價(jià)值的行業(yè)一定遲早面臨巨變。美國(guó)大學(xué)作出改變的時(shí)機(jī)已經(jīng)成熟。

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