斯坦福大學校長談大學教育

????約翰?漢尼斯在2000年成為斯坦福大學（Stanford University）第十任校長，這時的硅谷正處于互聯網泡沫的鼎盛時期。10多年后，互聯網已經發展成熟，一大批新的互聯網企業正在推動又一場投資盛宴。在最近的采訪中，漢尼斯探討了繁榮與泡沫問題，并談到了學生貸款危機，培養復合型人才的不同之處，以及斯坦福大學在硅谷的未來中所扮演的更加寬廣的角色。以下是采訪的內容（略有編輯）。

????亞當?拉辛斯基：我想從學校費用談起。聽說精英學校每年的收費為6萬美元左右。我不知道這是斯坦福大學的收費還是平均數字。

????約翰?漢尼斯：我們是5.5萬美元，所有都包括在內，比如書本費、學費和食宿。這個收費很合理。

????亞當?拉辛斯基：你曾說，首先，教育費用高于那個數字，至少斯坦福大學是如此。

????約翰?漢尼斯：是的。

????亞當?拉辛斯基：其次，如果收入低于某個水平，就能夠獲得最高100%的折扣。

????因此，我首先想問你的是，為什么教育費用會高于那個數字？

????約翰?漢尼斯：工資成本推高了教育費用。教職人員受過良好教育，收入很高，是合理的高收入人群。在大多數人都擁有研究生學位的其他地方也會發現這一點。

????我認為，逐步改善教育質量的措施確實增加了成本：更小的班級，更多的實際操作，為學生提供更好的安全網。那么，如果某位學生遇到了困難，就會有人幫助他們擺脫困境，對吧？我認為所有這些都逐漸推高了成本。但實際生產力并沒有顯著提高。

????亞當?拉辛斯基：你是說現在的高等教育質量普遍高于一兩代人之前。我認為這個問題包含兩個部分。首先，公平地說，作為斯坦福大學的校長，你是否認為斯坦福的教育質量提高了？其次，美國各地的教育質量是否普遍提高了？

????約翰?漢尼斯：斯坦福的教育質量確實提高了，這主要是受益于我們采取的措施。

????比如，我們成立了新生研討班。這是很小的研討班，每位新生都可以參加。每個班有15名學生和一位老師。這是非常有吸引力的知識體驗。你可以和老師近距離接觸，你會發現他們也是真實的人，不是什么怪物。你會喜歡這些東西的。這顯然要花更多的錢?，F在，我們已經籌集到了大部分資金來支持這個項目，但這會增加成本。

????我認為，總的來說，對本科教育的關注度不夠。大概是在1990年，研究型教育機構開始重新重視高質量的本科教育。因此，情況有所改善。

????When John Hennessy became the tenth president of Stanford University in 2000, Silicon Valley was at the height of the dot-com bubble. More than a decade later, the Internet has matured and a new crop of companies built on top of it are fueling another investment boom. In a recent interview, Hennessy discussed the boom-versus-bubble question. He also addressed the student-loan crisis, the nuance of educating a generation of multitaskers, and the broader role that Stanford will play in the future of Silicon Valley. A lightly edited transcript follows.

????ADAM LASHINSKY: So, I want to start on the subject of costs. And so I've heard the number that an elite school charges about $60,000 a year. I don't know if that's a Stanford number or an average number.

????JOHN HENNESSY: I'd say 55,000, all in, books, tuition, room and board. Yeah, that's a kind of reasonable number.

????ADAM LASHINSKY: And you've said that the education, at least at Stanford, number one, costs more than that --

????JOHN HENNESSY: Yes.

????ADAM LASHINSKY: -- and number two, that if your income is below a certain level, then you're going to get a discount all the way up to 100 percent.

????So, I want to ask you, first of all, why does an education cost more than that?

????JOHN HENNESSY: It's driven by wage costs. Faculty members are well-educated, high income, reasonably high income earning people, as you would find in other places where people have largely graduate degrees.

????I think steps to improve quality over time have actually increased costs: smaller classes, more hands-on, more safety net for the students, so if a student is struggling there's somebody to help them out, right? All these things I think have added costs over time. And we haven't had any significant real productivity increases.

????ADAM LASHINSKY: Your comment would suggest that the quality of higher education is generally higher now than it was a generation or two generations ago, and I suppose it's a two-part question. To be fair to you as the president of Stanford, first part, is the quality higher at Stanford? Secondly, is the quality higher generally across the United States?

????JOHN HENNESSY: I'd say the quality -- the quality is higher at Stanford, primarily because of things we introduced.

????So, for example, we introduced a set of freshmen seminars. There's a small seminar. Every single freshman can enroll in one, 15 students and a faculty member, and it's really meant to be an engaging intellectual experience. You meet a faculty member up close, you get to see they're real people, not monsters, you know, all the kinds of things you like. That obviously costs more money. Now, we raise most of the money to support that, but it adds to the cost.

????I think in general there was a lack of attention on undergraduate education, and that starting in about 1990 began to see a return to the roots of high quality undergraduate education in the research institutions. So, that's gotten better.