導讀：本文為普林斯頓大學(Princeton University)校長伊斯格魯布(Christopher L. Eisgruber)在2018年畢業典禮上發表演講。

普林斯頓大學校長伊斯格魯布在演講中反復強調，上大學是一筆高回報的投資，尤其從長遠來看。年輕人應將眼光放遠，不該被學歷無用的論調欺騙，這種論調會破壞年輕人的前途和國家的未來。

01 演講稿中文翻譯

幾分鐘后，作為這所大學新一批的畢業生，你們都會走出校門。

在這之前，我有幸能夠和你們聊一聊你們過去幾年和未來幾年的生活，當然，請允許我站在臺上而不是跳到你們中間。在我的演講過程中，這種舉動看似很有趣，但沒有防護頭盔的話，我是不會這么干的。

不管是不是站在這個臺上，我感到非常榮幸也非常高興能夠站在你們面前致辭，所有今天畢業的同學們，你們完成了一件非常重要且值得慶祝的事情，你們完成了學科課程的要求，這將在很多方面改變你的生活，它將擴大的你的擇業范圍，增加你對世界的認知，加深你理解社會文化的能力，并為終身學習提供基礎。

因此我們聚集在這里，在拿騷樓（普林斯頓大學最古老的建筑）前的草坪上慶祝。其他大學也都在他們的庭院、禮堂、舞臺和體育場內舉行慶祝活動，畢業生們將帽子拋向天空，教授們在鼓掌，家人們在熱情歡呼，盡管我們都是這么做的，但我們仍發現，社會上有一股奇怪的風氣，這種風氣來自一些專欄作家、博客作者、智庫專家和政客，他們中的一些人在文章書籍和演講里，宣稱很多人其實不用上大學、大學生太多了。

多么奇怪的觀點呀！因為已經有經濟學數據充分證明了讀大學的好處。例如，據2014年紐約聯邦儲備銀行的經濟學家Jaison Abel和Richard Deits的統計，投資一個大學學位的平均年回報率扣除學費和收入損失后大約在9%-16%之間，尤其在過去二十年間，投資回報率一直在該范圍內的高位，大約為每年15%。

相比之下，歷史上美國股票市場的年平均投資回報率為7%，這就是為什么我的朋友西北大學校長、教育經濟學家莫頓·夏皮羅(Morton Schapiro)說：“對于大多數人來說，投資大學學位將是他們一生中做過的最英明的經濟決策，即使單從經濟回報的角度來說。”

一個大學學位還能帶來很多其他好處，比如，有報告顯示大學畢業生們即使在收入不多的情況下，也擁有更高的幸福感和工作滿意度。同時，大學畢業的人群要比非大學畢業的人群更健康，他們會更多的進行體育鍛煉，更積極的參與投票，有更高層次的公民參與度。

如果從實用角度考量的話，我們還應該加上那些由于對文化、藝術、世界多樣性、內在美和卓越觀點的理解能力增強而帶來的樂趣。

我舉例的這些數據不只適用于普林斯頓，相反，它反映了所有接受過美國大學四年制教育后的人會達到的平均水平。想想看，在任何專業領域，讀完大學的年平均回報率都有9%-16%，還要再加上健康、幸福指數和生活質量等方面的額外收益，怎么會有人覺得應該少些人上大學呢？

有些人的回答是，因為你在沒有大學學位的情況下，也能學會一門手藝，他們說電焊工有時比很多大學生都賺得多，這沒錯。當然也有理由解釋為什么即使你打算成為電焊工也要先讀個大學，比如你可能擔心隨著技術發展，你的手藝會被淘汰，或者傷病會讓你無法勝任這份工作，又或者你想進入管理層，探索其他方面的愛好，大學學歷能讓你擁有應對更多變化的能力，無論是在你自身還是在全球發生的變化，而這些都是難以避免的。

不過，如果那些專家政客只是說：“我們需要更好的職業培訓”，我完全贊同。如果更多人能夠在就職前獲得職業培訓機會的話，那當然非常好。

但與此同時，如果更多人而不是更少的人能從讀大學這件事上有更深遠的獲益會更好。所以我再次發問：“為什么會有人認為我們需要更少的大學生？”

我認為答案其實很簡單，高等教育意味著高質量的教學，教學則依賴于資深的教職員工們，而這些是非常昂貴的，因此，顯而易見，根據量化統計教育的前期成本是非常高昂的。而教育的回報也同樣是顯而易見的，甚至回報還會比投入更多，但這種回報是難以量化統計并且因人而異的。

企圖以低成本博取更具確定性的收益的想法當然是誘人的，那些想少讀書的人當然會屈服于這種誘惑，他們強調短期的把注意力完全集中在對大學學費和第一份工作的薪水的比較上，這是錯誤的。大學教育是一項長期投資，它讓畢業生不斷發展自己和適應世界，從長遠來看，收益更加驚人。

“減少大學生會讓這個國家更好”的想法是非常短視的騙局，欺騙美國年輕人的騙局。它會削弱國家經濟，破壞我們的未來。我們要有信心投資我們的年輕人，并確保大學教育對于各種背景和經濟狀況的學生來說都是可以獲得且負擔得起的。

我希望，我希望今天所有畢業的同學，以及所有在生活中體會過教育力量的人們都能成為高等教育的倡導者。目前關于高等教育的價值有一場全國性的討論，我們需要聽到你們的聲音。換句話說，我們需要你將來幫助他人取得你們今日所取得的成就。

關于如何幫助更多學生獲得大學學位，這里有三點建議：

首先，成為學業完成率的重要性的倡導者。

如果能取得學位的話，高等教育帶來的收益是巨大的。如果你讀了大學最終卻沒能取得學位，回報率會低得多。學生貸款違約率最高的那批人，不是負債最多的那些畢業生，而是沒能讀完大學的那些小額債務人。由于沒能讀完大學，他們也未能享受到高校學位帶給他們的收入增長。

不久之前，我們授予了新澤西學院校長Barbara Gitenstein榮譽學位，在她領導新澤西學院近二十年的時間里，她將學校的四年制畢業率從58%提高到了75%，這個數字在全國公立高校排名前5%。通過提高學生的畢業率，Gitenstein校長改變了成千上萬可能背負著債務輟學的學生的人生。支持更多像Gitenstein校長這樣的高等教育領袖以及那些像新澤西學院一樣致力于提高畢業率的院校吧。

其次，支持美國的公立高校。

美國各個州對公立高校的補助急劇下降，公立研究性大學的教育撥款在州財政預算中占比越來越小。例如，在密歇根大學，州的資助僅占總收入的9%。相比之下，在20世紀50年代，這個數字是80%。

州立大學的學費上漲并不是因為他們增加了每個學生的花銷，而是因為州立法機關挖空了其他的經濟來源。美國依靠其公立學校而強大，他們是社會發展創新的引擎。

普林斯頓和其他私立大學為這個國家和世界做出了顯著的貢獻，但我們無法取代美國偉大的公立機構，它們是國寶，我希望你們支持它們。

第三，倡導幫助更多低收入家庭學生獲得大學學位。

普林斯頓2018屆優秀畢業生是這所大學272年歷史上社會經濟背景最多元化的，珍惜這點特別之處吧，因為你們不會保持這個記錄太久了，普林斯頓的其他學生將打破這個記錄。

我們的研究生項目同樣吸引了各種背景的人才，今年春天，我們錄取了普林斯頓歷史上背景最具社會經濟多樣性的博士生。在普林斯頓，我們相信這種多樣性的積極意義，因為我們知道，不管是大學還是國家想要向前發展必須從社會各階層吸收人才。

我們也知道，普林斯頓的學位是學生尋求社會經濟階層流動的助推器。如果我們想要解決這個國家由于不公平而導致的割裂，我們必須確保來自低收入全體的學生得到他們需要的教育，從而發展能力并為社會做出貢獻。

當看到我們的本科、碩士和博士畢業生時，我真心為你們的優秀和多元感到驕傲，并未你們將會在未來幾年做出的貢獻而感到興奮。

這個世界需要更多的大學生，而不是更少！我們需要更多像今天這樣的慶祝活動，需要更多自信快樂的畢業生和為他們驕傲的家人走出去，為世界帶來積極的變化。

在臺上的所有人都為能參與到你們的慶祝活動中感到振奮，我們為你們的成就鼓掌，為你們即將開始的前方的冒險送上最美好的祝福，同時，我們歡迎你們將來多回母校看看。

2018屆的優秀畢業生們，祝賀你們，也祝福你們。

02 演講稿英文原文

In a few minutes, all of you will march through FitzRandolph Gate as newly minted graduates of this University. Before you do, it is my privilege to say a few words about the path that lies ahead. It is indeed a privilege, and also a joy, to address you, for all of you who graduate today have accomplished something genuinely important and worth celebrating.

You have completed a demanding course of study. It will transform your life in many ways. It will expand the range of vocations you can pursue, increase your knowledge of the world, deepen your capacity to appreciate societies and cultures, and provide a foundation for lifelong learning.

So we celebrate here on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, as do other college communities in courtyards, auditoria, arenas, and stadia around the country. Graduates toss caps in the air and professors applaud. Families cheer and holler enthusiastically. Yet, even as we do so, we see a strange trend from columnists, bloggers, think tanks, and politicians. In essays, books, and speeches, some of them suggest that too many students are earning college degrees.

Too many college graduates: that is a very odd claim, because the economic evidence for the value of a college degree is overwhelming. For example, in 2014, economists Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated the average annual return on investment from a college degree, net of tuition paid and lost earnings, at between 9 percent and 16 percent per year for a lifetime (1). For the last two decades, the return on investment has hovered at the high end of that range, around 15 percent per year.

By comparison, the historical average return on investments in the American stock market is around 7 percent per year. That is why my friend Morton Shapiro, the president of Northwestern University and a leading educational economist, says that for most people, the decision to invest in a college degree will be “the single best financial decision they make in a lifetime,” even if judged purely in terms of financial return on investment.

A degree conveys many other benefits as well. For example, college graduates report higher levels of happiness and job satisfaction, even after controlling for income. College graduates are healthier than non-graduates. They are more likely to exercise, more likely to vote, and have higher levels of civic engagement. To these pragmatic considerations we should add the joys that come with an increased capacity to appreciate culture, the arts, the world’s diversity, and the inherent beauty of extraordinary ideas.

The numbers I have quoted are not specific to Princeton. On the contrary, they are averages over all four-year degrees, in all fields, from all colleges in the United States. Think about that for a moment: on average, all degrees in all fields from all colleges generate an annual return between 9 percent and 16 percent, and this return is supplemented by additional benefits to health, happiness, and quality of life. How could anyone think we need fewer college graduates?

Some people answer that you can learn a trade without getting a college degree. Welders, they observe, can make more money than many college graduates. That’s true. There are, of course, reasons why you might want to get a college degree even if you plan to become a welder. You might worry, for example, about what happens if technology renders your trade obsolete, or arthritis leaves you unable to practice it, or you want to move into management or explore other interests. A college degree equips you to respond to the changes — to yourself, and to the world — that inevitably occur over a lifetime.

Still, if pundits and politicians were saying only that America needs better vocational training, I could agree wholeheartedly. It would be terrific if more people could get the training they need to practice a trade. But at the same time it would also be great if more people, not fewer, could receive the extraordinary benefits that come with a college degree.

So I ask again: why would anyone think we need fewer college graduates? I think there is a simple answer. Education requires high-quality teaching. Teaching, in turn, depends upon skilled labor, which is expensive. As a result, the up-front cost for education is real, large, and easy to measure. The returns are equally real and even larger, but they accrue over a lifetime, are hard to measure, and vary from person to person. It is tempting to wish that you could get more certainty at lower cost.

The people who call for fewer degrees yield to that temptation. They emphasize the short-term. They focus almost entirely on the price of college and on the salaries students might earn in their first jobs. That is a mistake.

A college education is a long-term investment. It enables graduates to develop and adapt, and it pays off spectacularly in the long run. The idea that we would be better off with fewer college graduates is a short-term swindle, a swindle that will cheat America’s young people, weaken the nation’s economy, and undermine our future. We need to have the confidence to invest in our young people and to ensure that a college education is accessible and affordable for students from all backgrounds and financial circumstances.

I hope that all of you who graduate today, and who experience the power of education in your own lives, will become advocates for the value of higher education in our society. There is a national conversation taking place right now about the value of higher education, and we need your voice in that conversation. We need you, in other words, to help others to achieve in the future what you achieve today.

How can you help more students earn college degrees? Here are three suggestions. First, become advocates for the importance of completion rates. A college education produces a tremendous return—if you get the degree. Returns are much lower if you start college but do not get the degree. The highest default rates on student loans do not involve college graduates with big debts. They instead involve students with small debts who never finish college and so never get the earnings boost that comes with a degree.

A few moments ago, we awarded an honorary degree to President Barbara Gitenstein. Over her nearly two decades leading The College of New Jersey, she raised the College’s four-year graduation 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 and universities. By raising TCNJ’s graduation rate, President Gitenstein has improved the lives of thousands of students who might have left school with debt but no degree. Be an advocate for higher education leaders like Bobby Gitenstein, and for colleges like TCNJ that commit to improving completion rates.

Second, support America’s public institutions of higher education. State subsidies for public colleges and universities have declined precipitously, and state funding represents an increasingly small share of the budget at public research universities. At the University of Michigan, for example, state funding 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 increased their expenditures per student, but because state legislatures have hollowed out their other sources of support.

America depends on its public colleges and universities. They are engines of social mobility and innovation. Princeton and other private universities make essential contributions to the nation and the world — but there is no way that we could ever replace America’s great public institutions. They are a national treasure, and I urge you to support them.

Third, stand up for the importance of enabling more students from low-income families to earn college degrees. Princeton’s Great Class of 2018 graduates today as the most socioeconomically diverse class in the 272-year history of this University. You will not hold that record for long. Other classes already at Princeton will break your record. Our graduate programs are likewise drawing upon new sources of talent: this spring we admitted the most socioeconomically diverse class of doctoral students in Princeton University’s history.

At Princeton we believe in socioeconomic diversity because we know that to achieve excellence as a University and as a nation we must draw talent from every sector of society. We know, too, that a Princeton degree is a rocket-booster for students seeking socioeconomic mobility. If we want to heal the divisions that inequality has produced in this country, we must ensure that students from low-income backgrounds receive the educations they need to develop their abilities and contribute to our society.

As I look out at our extraordinary class of undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degree recipients, I take pride in your excellence and your diversity, and I am excited about the contributions you will make in the years ahead. The world needs more college degrees, not fewer. We need more celebrations like the one we hold today, with more proud families and happy graduates ready to go out and make a positive difference in the world. All of us on this platform are thrilled to be a part of your celebration. We applaud your achievements. We send our best wishes as you begin the adventures that lie ahead, and we look forward to welcoming you back to this campus on future visits. To the Great Class of 2018 and all of our graduates, congratulations!

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