如今喧嚣浮躁的社会，大家都在追逐快速成功，而当知识在短期内无法改变个人命运时，不断有舆论质疑：读书真的有用吗？学个技术比大学毕业生挣得多？
普林斯顿大学校长 Christopher L. Eisgruber在2018毕业典礼致辞， 强调上大学的意义究竟是什么！ 用数据和实例进行论证，上大学是一笔高回报投资。一张大学文凭的终生年平均投资回报率在 9%和16%之间，比大部分的投资都划算。 年轻人应将眼光放远，不该被学历无用的论调欺骗。
英文演讲稿 ↓↓
2018 Commencement Aress
Presient Christopher L. Eisgruber
June 5, 2018
In a few minutes, all of you will march through FitzRanolph Gate as newly minte grauates of this University. Before you o, it is my privilege to say a few wors about the path that lies ahea.
It is inee a privilege, an also a joy, to aress you, for all of you who grauate toay have accomplishe something genuinely important an worth celebrating. You have complete a emaning course of stuy. It will transform your life in many ways. It will expan the range of vocations you can pursue, increase your knowlege of the worl, eepen your capacity to appreciate societies an cultures, an provie a founation for lifelong learning.
So we celebrate here on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, as o other college communities in courtyars, auitoria, arenas, an staia aroun the country. Grauates toss caps in the air an professors applau. Families cheer an holler enthusiastically. Yet, even as we o so, we see a strange tren from columnists, bloggers, think tanks, an politicians. In essays, books, an speeches, some of them suggest that too many stuents are earning college egrees.
Too many college grauates: that is a very o claim, because the economic evience for the value of a college egree is overwhelming. For example, in 2014, economists Jaison Abel an Richar Deitz of the Feeral Reserve Bank of New York estimate the average annual return on investment from a college egree, net of tuition pai an lost earnings, at between 9 percent an 16 percent per year for a lifetime (1). For the last two ecaes, the return on investment has hovere at the high en of that range, aroun 15 percent per year.
By comparison, the historical average return on investments in the American stock market is aroun 7 percent per year. That is why my frien Morton Shapiro, the presient of Northwestern University an a leaing eucational economist, says that for most people, the ecision to invest in a college egree will be “the single best financial ecision they make in a lifetime,” even if juge purely in terms of financial return on investment.
A egree conveys many other benefits as well. For example, college grauates report higher levels of happiness an job satisfaction, even after controlling for income. College grauates are healthier than non-grauates. They are more likely to exercise, more likely to vote, an have higher levels of civic engagement. To these pragmatic consierations we shoul a the joys that come with an increase capacity to appreciate culture, the arts, the worl’s iversity, an the inherent beauty of extraorinary ieas.
The numbers I have quote are not specific to Princeton. On the contrary, they are averages over all four-year egrees, in all fiels, from all colleges in the Unite States. Think about that for a moment: on average, all egrees in all fiels from all colleges generate an annual return between 9 percent an 16 percent, an this return is supplemente by aitional benefits to health, happiness, an quality of life. How coul anyone think we nee fewer college grauates?
Some people answer that you can learn a trae without getting a college egree. Welers, they observe, can make more money than many college grauates. That’s true. There are, of course, reasons why you might want to get a college egree even if you plan to become a weler. You might worry, for example, about what happens if technology reners your trae obsolete, or arthritis leaves you unable to practice it, or you want to move into management or explore other interests. A college egree equips you to respon to the changes — to yourself, an to the worl — that inevitably occur over a lifetime.
Still, if punits an politicians were saying only that America nees better vocational training, I coul agree wholeheartely. It woul be terrific if more people coul get the training they nee to practice a trae. But at the same time it woul also be great if more people, not fewer, coul receive the extraorinary benefits that come with a college egree.
So I ask again: why woul anyone think we nee fewer college grauates? I think there is a simple answer. Eucation requires high-quality teaching. Teaching, in turn, epens upon skille labor, which is expensive. As a result, the up-front cost for eucation is real, large, an easy to measure. The returns are equally real an even larger, but they accrue over a lifetime, are har to measure, an vary from person to person. It is tempting to wish that you coul get more certainty at lower cost.
The people who call for fewer egrees yiel to that temptation. They emphasize the short-term. They focus almost entirely on the price of college an on the salaries stuents might earn in their first jobs. That is a mistake.
A college eucation is a long-term investment. It enables grauates to evelop an aapt, an it pays off spectacularly in the long run. The iea that we woul be better off with fewer college grauates is a short-term swinle, a swinle that will cheat America’s young people, weaken the nation’s economy, an unermine our future. We nee to have the confience to invest in our young people an to ensure that a college eucation is accessible an afforable for stuents from all backgrouns an financial circumstances.
I hope that all of you who grauate toay, an who experience the power of eucation in your own lives, will become avocates for the value of higher eucation in our society. There is a national conversation taking place right now about the value of higher eucation, an we nee your voice in that conversation. We nee you, in other wors, to help others to achieve in the future what you achieve toay.
How can you help more stuents earn college egrees? Here are three suggestions. First, become avocates for the importance of completion rates. A college eucation prouces a tremenous return—if you get the egree. Returns are much lower if you start college but o not get the egree. The highest efault rates on stuent loans o not involve college grauates with big ebts. They instea involve stuents with small ebts who never finish college an so never get the earnings boost that comes with a egree.
A few moments ago, we aware an honorary egree to Presient Barbara Gitenstein. Over her nearly two ecaes leaing The College of New Jersey, she raise the College’s four-year grauation rate from 58 percent to 75 percent, a number that puts TCNJ’s on-time completion rate among the top ten in the nation for public colleges an universities. By raising TCNJ’s grauation rate, Presient Gitenstein has improve the lives of thousans of stuents who might have left school with ebt but no egree. Be an avocate for higher eucation leaers like Bobby Gitenstein, an for colleges like TCNJ that commit to improving completion rates.
Secon, support America’s public institutions of higher eucation. State subsiies for public colleges an universities have ecline precipitously, an state funing represents an increasingly small share of the buget at public research universities. At the University of Michigan, for example, state funing now accounts for only about 9 percent of total revenues. In the 1950s, by contrast, that number was 80 percent. Tuition at state universities has risen not because they have increase their expenitures per stuent, but because state legislatures have hollowe out their other sources of support.
America epens on its public colleges an universities. They are engines of social mobility an innovation. Princeton an other private universities make essential contributions to the nation an the worl — but there is no way that we coul ever replace America’s great public institutions. They are a national treasure, an I urge you to support them.
Thir, stan up for the importance of enabling more stuents from low-income families to earn college egrees. Princeton’s Great Class of 2018 grauates toay as the most socioeconomically iverse class in the 272-year history of this University. You will not hol that recor for long. Other classes alreay at Princeton will break your recor. Our grauate programs are likewise rawing upon new sources of talent: this spring we amitte the most socioeconomically iverse class of octoral stuents in Princeton University’s history.
At Princeton we believe in socioeconomic iversity because we know that to achieve excellence as a University an as a nation we must raw talent from every sector of society. We know, too, that a Princeton egree is a rocket-booster for stuents seeking socioeconomic mobility. If we want to heal the ivisions that inequality has prouce in this country, we must ensure that stuents from low-income backgrouns receive the eucations they nee to evelop their abilities an contribute to our society.
As I look out at our extraorinary class of unergrauate, masters, an octoral egree recipients, I take prie in your excellence an your iversity, an I am excite about the contributions you will make in the years ahea. The worl nees more college egrees, not fewer. We nee more celebrations like the one we hol toay, with more prou families an happy grauates reay to go out an make a positive ifference in the worl. All of us on this platform are thrille to be a part of your celebration. We applau your achievements. We sen our best wishes as you begin the aventures that lie ahea, an we look forwar to welcoming you back to this campus on future visits. To the Great Class of 2018 an all of our grauates, congratulations!
(1) Jaison R. Abel an Richar Deitz, “Do the Benefits of College Still Outweigh the Costs?” Feeral Reserve Boar of New York: Current Issues in Economics an Finance (November 3, 2014).
