大学毕业生越来越多,找工作越来越难——这是何其熟悉的一幕。谁知道,这一幕并不仅仅出现在中国,在大洋彼岸高等教育与科技都高度发达的美国,也同样存在着这种情况。
美式发音 适合泛听
Host: Walk into a local 1)eatery or retail store and you may find some 2)debt-ridden college graduates behind the counter riding out the recession with minimum wage paychecks. There’s one thing that’s clear about this recession: a college education does not guarantee a high paying job. So is it really worth it to go to college during an economic downturn?
Professor Watkins, let me start me with you. This 3)heretical question: is a high school graduate who is heading to a four-year college right now making an investment or a mistake?
主持人:走进当地的小餐馆或者小店,你可能会发现站在柜台后面的是一些负债累累的大学毕业生,他们以最低工资的收入来应对当前的经济危机。在此次经济危机中,有一点再清楚不过了,那就是大学教育并不是高薪工作的保证。那么随之而来的问题是,在经济不景气期间,还值得上大学吗?
我先来问一下沃特金斯教授。我有一个大逆不道的问题,正在打算上大学的高中毕业生究竟是在进行一次投资呢,还是在犯一个错误?
Prof. Boyce Watkins(Syracuse University): Well, it’s certainly an investment. The question is whether or not you get your return on that investment in actual financial capital or some sort of human capital or emotional capital or social capital. The truth of the matter is that this blanket notion that going to college will guarantee you a better economic future is not always true. When you have students who are going to college for economic advancement and they chose majors that don’t fit that particular objective and then take a lot of debt on in the process, then, you know, you have to ask them, “Well, did you plan it all the way through when you ended up with an outcome that you didn’t quite expect?” So I think that going to college is certainly important. But I think that we have to be very intelligent about what we expect to get out of our education.
博伊斯·沃特金斯教授(雪城大学):呃,当然是一项投资了。问题是你能否从这项投资得到回报,这包括对实实在在的资金投入的回报,或者对某种形式的人力资本、感情资本、社会资本的回报。事情的关键是关于上大学能给你一个更佳的经济未来这种笼统的说法并不总是准确的。如果学生以提高经济地位为目的上大学,但却选择了与这个目标不对应的专业,并在求学期间背上了债,那你就得问一问他们:你得到了这样一个与自己预期相差甚远的结果,那你之前是不是自始至终都给你自己的学业做好了规划呢?因此,我认为上大学确实是很重要的,但我想我们要非常明智地看待大学教育带来的结果。
Host: Professor Vedder, what’s your view? 主持人:维德教授,你的看法是什么?
Prof. Richard Vedder(Ohio University): Well, I agree with most of what the previous speaker said. There are a lot of people who are going to college these days that are unfulfilled at the end of their experience.
理查德·维德教授(俄亥俄大学):嗯,我同意前面嘉宾讲的大部分内容。如今,许多上大学的人到头来感觉自己的期望未能得到满足。
Host: What do you mean unfulfilled? 主持人:这个“未能得到满足”你指的是什么?
Prof. Vedder: Forty-five percent of people who go to college, four-year colleges, don’t get a bachelors degree within six years. Those people often have met with disappointment and their investment isn’t particularly good, necessarily. Another group of people graduate from college and then have trouble getting jobs and end up taking jobs for which a college education is not really a 4)prerequisite. Twelve percent of the male carriers in the United States today have college degrees. And I have nothing against male carriers with college degrees, but I don’t think it’s an absolute necessity to have a college degree to deliver the mail.
维德教授:在上四年制大学的人群当中,有45%的人不能在六年内获得学士学位。这些人常常会感到失望,而他们在这方面的投资也必然是不太成功的。另一群人在大学毕业后找工作有困难,结果他们只能从事一些并不需要大学教育的工作。比如说在美国,有12%的男性邮递员是有大学学位的。我对有大学学位的邮递员没有什么成见,但我认为大学文凭并不是派发邮件的先决条件。
Host: Professor Vedder, a college debt is a real burden, so are we making a mistake to tell young people to pursue college no matter what?
主持人:维德教授,大学生债务是一个很现实的负担,那么,我们对年轻人说无论如何也要接受大学教育是不是一个错误的做法呢?
Prof. Vedder: I think some kids are going to college that probably shouldn’t go to college. While I 5)applaud the principle behind President Obama’s objective of getting everyone some post-secondary education, in reality there are a lot of jobs out there that are being created or that exists that are not jobs that require college education. And the mix between the supply of college graduates and the jobs available is moving increasingly in the direction of having fewer and fewer jobs available that really require a college education in, relative to the number of kids that are available or a number of students that are graduating. We are starting to graduate, I don’t want to say too many students, but it’s becoming more and more difficult for new college graduates to get jobs, independent of the recession.
维德教授:我认为一些打算上大学的孩子可能并没有必要这么做。虽然我赞成奥巴马总统要让所有人都在完成中等教育后接受更多教育这个目标背后的理念,但在现实当中,有很多业已存在或者正在被创造的工作岗位并不需要大学教育。目前,与劳动就业市场上求职的孩子或目前准备毕业的学生数量相比,大学毕业生的数量与工作岗位需求之间的比例正朝着要求有大学文凭的工作岗位越来越少的方向发展。现在从大学出来的毕业生——我并不是说大学生太多——但现在新的毕业生要找工作越来越困难,而这种趋势与经济危机无关。
翻译:旭文
