原文標(biāo)題：
Universities
Higher expectations
Students are veering away from dodgy degrees. Governments should help them
大學(xué)
更高的期望

政府應(yīng)該幫助學(xué)生遠(yuǎn)離劣質(zhì)學(xué)位

[Paragraph 1]

IT IS FASHIONABLE to be gloomy about the costs and benefits of a degree.

現(xiàn)在，對(duì)于大學(xué)學(xué)位的成本和收益持悲觀態(tài)度似乎是一種時(shí)尚。

In America a majority of people now tell pollsters that they think going to university is not worth it.

如今在美國(guó)，大多數(shù)人告訴民意調(diào)查員，他們認(rèn)為大學(xué)不值得上。

For the average undergraduate that is far from the truth. In rich countries people who hold a bachelor’s degree earn over 40% more than those who do not.

對(duì)于普通本科生來(lái)說(shuō)，這不真實(shí)。在發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家，擁有學(xué)士學(xué)位的人比沒有學(xué)士學(xué)位的人收入高40%以上。

This premium has remained lofty, even as the number of university-goers has soared: some 33m people are studying undergraduate degrees across the rich world today.

即使大學(xué)生人數(shù)激增，這種學(xué)歷溢價(jià)仍然很高：如今，約有3300萬(wàn)人正在發(fā)達(dá)地區(qū)攻讀本科學(xué)位。

[Paragraph 2]
Yet those average figures hide queasily large differences. For a shocking share of students, the returns from attending university are puny.
然而，這些平均數(shù)字掩蓋了巨大的差異，事實(shí)令人不安。對(duì)于一部分學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō)，上大學(xué)的回報(bào)微不足道，這令人震驚。

About 25% of men and 15% of women graduates in England would have been better off financially had they not bothered.
在英格蘭，約25%的男性和15%的女性畢業(yè)生如果沒有上大學(xué)，他們的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況會(huì)更好。

In total, student debt has reached $1.6trn in America, 60% more than is owed on credit cards.
總體而言，美國(guó)的學(xué)生貸款已達(dá)1.6萬(wàn)億美元，比信用卡欠款多60%。

Low earnings help explain why about a fifth of America’s student borrowers were in default before the pandemic.
收入低是美國(guó)約1/5的學(xué)生借款人在疫情前貸款違約的原因之一。

[Paragraph 3]
Those who do worst out of higher education attend shoddy institutions, are badly prepared, give up, or choose subjects that lead to low wages.
那些在高等教育中學(xué)習(xí)差的學(xué)生上了垃圾學(xué)校，由于準(zhǔn)備不足輟學(xué)，或選擇了就業(yè)工資低的學(xué)科。

Many who do complete their courses are loaded with debt and equipped with a degree of peripheral relevance that has been taught badly. They are being ripped off, not prepared for a better life.
許多完成學(xué)業(yè)的人債臺(tái)高筑，獲得卻是一種邊緣學(xué)位，且教學(xué)質(zhì)量差。他們被欺騙了，沒有為美好生活做好準(zhǔn)備。

[Paragraph 4]
The good news is that young people are voting with their feet. A dramatic shift is taking place as students switch to subjects that are linked to better earnings.
好消息是年輕人正在用腳投票。隨著越來(lái)越多的學(xué)生選擇更高收入相關(guān)的學(xué)科，一場(chǎng)巨大變革正在發(fā)生。

In America, for example, the numbers enrolled in computer science have more than doubled in a decade.
例如，在美國(guó)，計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)專業(yè)的入學(xué)人數(shù)在十年內(nèi)增加了一倍多。

Those studying English and history, subjects that are less likely to raise wages, have fallen by about a quarter. Some universities have begun to cull courses.
而英語(yǔ)和歷史等就業(yè)工資不高的學(xué)科的學(xué)生人數(shù)下降了約1/4。一些大學(xué)已經(jīng)開始裁減課程。

[Paragraph 5]
Governments should seek to accelerate this adjustment in the higher-education marketplace. But all too often their instinct is to throw money at the problem.
政府應(yīng)該努力加速高等教育市場(chǎng)的調(diào)整。但往往他們的本能反應(yīng)是向教育相關(guān)問(wèn)題投錢。

President Joe Biden wants America’s Supreme Court to approve his plan to forgive a large chunk of the country’s student debts, as a one-off.
喬·拜登總統(tǒng)希望美國(guó)最高法院批準(zhǔn)他的計(jì)劃，一次性豁免美國(guó)大部分學(xué)生貸款。

He also hopes to tweak the rules on repayment, which will make the federal loan system a bit more generous. Together these changes could cost hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.
他還希望調(diào)整還款規(guī)則，這將使聯(lián)邦貸款系統(tǒng)失血更多。這些變革加起來(lái)可能會(huì)在未來(lái)十年花費(fèi)數(shù)千億美元。

The danger is that they will make America’s students less discerning about how much they borrow and what they use the money for.
危險(xiǎn)在于，這會(huì)讓美國(guó)學(xué)生對(duì)他們的借錢數(shù)量以及借錢用途不夠敏銳。

Without a disciplining mechanism, pricey universities will be even more inclined to raise their fees.
沒有約束機(jī)制，昂貴的大學(xué)將更傾向于提高學(xué)費(fèi)。

[Paragraph 6]
A better alternative would be for governments to invest in giving students the information they need to make sensible choices.
更好的選擇是，政府應(yīng)該投資于為學(xué)生提供他們需要做出明智選擇的信息。

Britain has pulled together detailed data about how much graduates from thousands of courses at hundreds of institutions go on to earn, but it does a poor job of supplying this to all applicants.
英國(guó)已經(jīng)匯總了關(guān)于數(shù)千個(gè)課程、數(shù)百個(gè)學(xué)校的畢業(yè)生收入情況的詳細(xì)數(shù)據(jù)，但它在向所有申請(qǐng)人提供這些數(shù)據(jù)方面做得很差。

America has been working on something similar, but laws that limit federal data-crunching are getting in the way.
美國(guó)一直在研究類似的事情，但限制聯(lián)邦數(shù)據(jù)分析的法律阻礙了這一進(jìn)程。

Some youngsters, often the better-off ones, are already making good use of data.
一些年輕人，通常是富裕階層，已經(jīng)充分利用了這些數(shù)據(jù)。

Supplying it to everyone else should be a priority.
向其他所有人提供這些數(shù)據(jù)應(yīng)該是政府要做的首要事項(xiàng)。

Modest spending on career counselling in secondary schools could help reduce the billions spent on writing off student loans down the line.
在中學(xué)職業(yè)咨詢方面進(jìn)行適度的支出可以幫助減少未來(lái)數(shù)十億美元的學(xué)生貸款。

[Paragraph 7]
Governments should also be fussier about which courses their cash helps pay for.
政府還應(yīng)該對(duì)資金用途更加吹毛求疵，如選擇哪些課程可以獲得他們的資金支持。

Programmes at all levels that wish to benefit from state funds should have to clear a basic quality hurdle—for example, that a majority of the students who enroll in them eventually end up earning more than high-school graduates.
希望獲得國(guó)家資金的各個(gè)課程都應(yīng)該通過(guò)一個(gè)基本的質(zhì)量關(guān)卡——例如，報(bào)名參加這些課程的大多數(shù)大學(xué)畢業(yè)生收入最終都能比高中畢業(yè)生多。

Mr Biden would like a limited rule of this kind to come to America. But a decade has passed since such talk began.
拜登希望這種限制規(guī)則能夠在美國(guó)實(shí)現(xiàn)。但是這類話題已經(jīng)討論了十多年，依然沒有結(jié)果。

[Paragraph 8]
Some universities and colleges resist these kinds of safeguards.
一些大學(xué)和學(xué)院抵制這些措施。

They argue that trying to weed out poor-value courses and to focus government lending will compromise the pursuit of knowledge and penalise poor families and minorities by limiting what they can study.
他們認(rèn)為，試圖淘汰低價(jià)值的課程并專注于政府資助的課程將損害學(xué)生的求知樂趣，限制他們的學(xué)習(xí)內(nèi)容對(duì)貧困家庭和少數(shù)族裔不利。

However, the real problem is that the status quo is leading too many people to pursue shoddy but expensive degrees.
然而，真正的問(wèn)題是目前的現(xiàn)狀導(dǎo)致太多人追求劣質(zhì)但昂貴的學(xué)位。

The goal should be an education system that steadily adapts to the shifting preferences of society and the demands of the labour market—and one that has a low tolerance for degree courses that fail young people.
目標(biāo)是擁有一個(gè)更完善的教育體系，它應(yīng)該不斷適應(yīng)社會(huì)不斷變化的偏好和勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)需求，它應(yīng)該不容許有禍害年輕人的學(xué)位課程出現(xiàn)。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語(yǔ)詞匯量727左右）
原文出自：2023年4月8日《The Economist》Leaders版塊。

精讀筆記來(lái)源于：自由英語(yǔ)之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene

本文編輯校對(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來(lái)自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
約束機(jī)制Disciplining mechanism是指用于規(guī)范和約束行為的一種機(jī)制，以確保其符合特定的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)或規(guī)則。這種機(jī)制可以在不同的領(lǐng)域中使用，例如教育、法律、文學(xué)等等。在教育領(lǐng)域，學(xué)?？梢允褂谩凹o(jì)律機(jī)制”來(lái)懲罰違反規(guī)定的學(xué)生，以確保學(xué)生遵守規(guī)則和紀(jì)律。在法律領(lǐng)域，司法機(jī)構(gòu)可以使用“約束機(jī)制”來(lái)懲罰違反法律的人，以確保公民遵守法律。在文學(xué)領(lǐng)域，作家可以使用“權(quán)力的約束機(jī)制”來(lái)探討權(quán)力如何影響人們的行為和思想。

限制聯(lián)邦數(shù)據(jù)分析的法律有：1974年的《隱私法》，這是一項(xiàng)適用于聯(lián)邦政府及其機(jī)構(gòu)處理美國(guó)公民數(shù)據(jù)的方式。隱私法允許公民訪問(wèn)和更正政府維護(hù)的有關(guān)自己的記錄?！稊?shù)據(jù)法案》，它代表了首次嘗試統(tǒng)一聯(lián)邦支出報(bào)告要求的三個(gè)廣泛類別。《開放數(shù)據(jù)法》要求聯(lián)邦政府首先將標(biāo)準(zhǔn)數(shù)據(jù)元素和政府范圍的數(shù)據(jù)格式（或模式）應(yīng)用于所有聯(lián)邦支出，其次將這些標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化數(shù)據(jù)作為統(tǒng)一開放數(shù)據(jù)發(fā)布 。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個(gè)）
The good news is that young people are voting with their feet. A dramatic shift is taking place as students switch to subjects that are linked to better earnings.
好消息是年輕人正在用腳投票。隨著越來(lái)越多的學(xué)生選擇更高收入相關(guān)的學(xué)科，一場(chǎng)巨大變革正在發(fā)生。

A better alternative would be for governments to invest in giving students the information they need to make sensible choices.
更好的選擇是，政府應(yīng)該投資于為學(xué)生提供他們需要做出明智選擇的信息。

However, the real problem is that the status quo is leading too many people to pursue shoddy but expensive degrees.
然而，真正的問(wèn)題是目前的現(xiàn)狀導(dǎo)致太多人追求劣質(zhì)但昂貴的學(xué)位。