斯坦福大学校长谈大学教育

    约翰•汉尼斯在2000年成为斯坦福大学（Stanford University）第十任校长，这时的硅谷正处于互联网泡沫的鼎盛时期。10多年后，互联网已经发展成熟，一大批新的互联网企业正在推动又一场投资盛宴。在最近的采访中，汉尼斯探讨了繁荣与泡沫问题，并谈到了学生贷款危机，培养复合型人才的不同之处，以及斯坦福大学在硅谷的未来中所扮演的更加宽广的角色。以下是采访的内容（略有编辑）。

    亚当•拉辛斯基：我想从学校费用谈起。听说精英学校每年的收费为6万美元左右。我不知道这是斯坦福大学的收费还是平均数字。

    约翰•汉尼斯：我们是5.5万美元，所有都包括在内，比如书本费、学费和食宿。这个收费很合理。

    亚当•拉辛斯基：你曾说，首先，教育费用高于那个数字，至少斯坦福大学是如此。

    约翰•汉尼斯：是的。

    亚当•拉辛斯基：其次，如果收入低于某个水平，就能够获得最高100%的折扣。

    因此，我首先想问你的是，为什么教育费用会高于那个数字？

    约翰•汉尼斯：工资成本推高了教育费用。教职人员受过良好教育，收入很高，是合理的高收入人群。在大多数人都拥有研究生学位的其他地方也会发现这一点。

    我认为，逐步改善教育质量的措施确实增加了成本：更小的班级，更多的实际操作，为学生提供更好的安全网。那么，如果某位学生遇到了困难，就会有人帮助他们摆脱困境，对吧？我认为所有这些都逐渐推高了成本。但实际生产力并没有显著提高。

    亚当•拉辛斯基：你是说现在的高等教育质量普遍高于一两代人之前。我认为这个问题包含两个部分。首先，公平地说，作为斯坦福大学的校长，你是否认为斯坦福的教育质量提高了？其次，美国各地的教育质量是否普遍提高了？

    约翰•汉尼斯：斯坦福的教育质量确实提高了，这主要是受益于我们采取的措施。

    比如，我们成立了新生研讨班。这是很小的研讨班，每位新生都可以参加。每个班有15名学生和一位老师。这是非常有吸引力的知识体验。你可以和老师近距离接触，你会发现他们也是真实的人，不是什么怪物。你会喜欢这些东西的。这显然要花更多的钱。现在，我们已经筹集到了大部分资金来支持这个项目，但这会增加成本。

    我认为，总的来说，对本科教育的关注度不够。大概是在1990年，研究型教育机构开始重新重视高质量的本科教育。因此，情况有所改善。

    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.