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Current Challenges Confronting U.S. Higher Education
当前美国高等教育面临的挑战
Good morning, everyone. In our last lecture, we discussed challenges that face universities and colleges worldwide.
大家早上好。 在上一讲中，我们讨论了世界各地大学面临的挑战。
Today we'll take a special look at U.S. higher education and see what challenges U.S. higher education is facing.
今天我们将特别关注美国高等教育，看看美国高等教育面临着什么挑战。
OK, let's get started.
好的，我们开始吧。
The first challenge we are examining in today's lecture is the force of the marketplace on higher education.
今天我们要讨论的第一个挑战是市场对高等教育的影响。
Many people believe that the marketplace has overtaken state government as the dominant external force shaping and reshaping American higher education, even for public colleges and universities.
许多人认为，市场已经取代州政府，成为塑造和重塑美国高等教育的主要外部力量，甚至对公立学院和大学也是如此。
You may ask, why is it so?
你可能会问，为什么会这样?
Well, as is always the case, government support is not keeping pace with educational expenditures.
嗯，一如既往，政府的资助跟不上教育支出的步伐。
So in many ways, the market is having more bearing on higher education than government.
因此，在很多方面，市场比政府对高等教育的影响更大。
In order to create more flexibility, many public colleges and universities are now asking for less government regulation and supervision.
为了创造更多的灵活性，许多公立学院和大学现在要求政府减少监管和监督。
In some instances, they are even asking for less state money in return for more autonomy.
在某些情况下，他们甚至要求更少的政府资金以换取更多的自治权。
And their argument is that the current structures and accountability requirements have hindered their capacity to be effective and efficient.
他们的论点是，当前的结构和问责要求阻碍了他们发挥效力和效率的能力。
The ability to set their own tuition fees and secure freedom from state policies and regulations in areas such as purchasing and building represent just some of the additional autonomy that public institutions are seeking.
自行设定学费的能力，以及在购买和建造房屋等领域不受国家政策和法规的限制，只是公共学院寻求的额外自主权的一部分。
And many are pressing for new legislation to provide this freedom through a range of innovations, including public corporations, charter colleges, state enterprise status, and performance contracts.
许多大学机构正迫切要求新的立法，通过一系列创新提供这种自由，包括公共公司、特许大学、国有企业地位和绩效合同。
So what is the result of these efforts?
那么，这些努力的结果是什么?
Well, the result is that activities and research in certain fields and disciplines, for example, engineering, applied natural science, and agricultural science, become higher institutional priorities because they have stronger market value than other programs such as humanities do.
其结果是，某些领域和学科的活动和研究，例如工程、应用自然科学和农业科学，成为更高的大学机构优先考虑的项目，因为它们比其他项目(如人文学科)具有更强的市场价值。
So what has happened is that institutions create new programs, alter academic calendars, and pursue different financial aid policies to capture more and better students—in particular those who can afford to pay high tuition.
所以，现在的情况是，学校创造了新的项目，改变了校历，追求不同的财政援助政策，以吸引更多更好的学生——尤其是那些付得起高额学费的学生。
For instance, executive MBA programs are increasingly popular.
例如，高级工商管理硕士课程越来越受欢迎。
Also, institutions seek contracts and partnership agreements, and enhance research programs with practical applications that have large financial payouts.
此外，研究机构寻求合同和合作协议，并加强研究项目的实际应用，有大量的财政支出。
In order to do so, they are changing their institutional structures.
为此，它们正在改变其体制结构。
