经济学人下载:怎样让大学更便宜一些

There are plenty of questions about Mr Reshef’s project. Can you really build a university on volunteerism and goodwill? Can students really be relied upon to do most of the teaching themselves? Will free courseware remain free? (Newspapers that used to give away content online are now putting up pay barriers.)

关于Shai Reshef的项目有诸多疑问。大学能真正地建立在志愿者服务和善意上吗？学生们是否真正能够自己完成那些教学？免费的课件会一直免费吗？（过去其内容在网上免费派送的报纸现在纷纷设置支付障碍）

Mr Reshef’s university has yet to win accreditation, which could take years. But he can take comfort from Clayton Christensen’s classic book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. Mr Christensen points out that innovators often start by offering products that are cheaper, but markedly inferior. Quickly, however, they learn how to improve their offerings. Even if Mr Reshef fails, there are plenty of other disruptive innovators around. In America, one tertiary student in ten already studies exclusively online. One in four does so at least some of the time, and a growing number of bodies, including elite universities, think-tanks, governments and international organisations, are putting first-rate material online.

Shai Reshef的大学目前还在资格鉴定中，这可能会耗时数年。不过，他能够从克莱顿·克里斯坦森的经典大作《创新者的窘境》中获取慰藉。克里斯坦森指出，创新者经常从提供价廉物不美的产品起步。不过，很快他们就学会改进他们的产品。即便Shai Reshef失败了，依然存在许多有破坏性的创新者。在美国，十分之一的受高等教育学生已经完全通过网络学习。四分之一的学生至少在某段时间通过网络学习。不断增加的实体，如精英大学、智囊、政府和国际组织将一流的资料放到网上。

The coming campus rumpus
即将到来的大学争吵

Sometimes when academics grouse that there is “never enough money”, they are justified—big science costs big bucks. But higher education is nevertheless marred by inefficiencies and skewed incentives. Students pay to be taught, but their professors are rewarded almost entirely for research. Mr Fried’s calculations suggest that one can slash costs without sacrificing much that students value. Mr Reshef’s experiment may fail, but there is no doubt that universities need more experimenters. The cost of tuition cannot forever rise faster than students’ ability to pay. Industries that cease to offer value for money sooner or later get shaken up. American universities are ripe for shaking.

有些时候，当一些学者抱怨说“钱总是不够”时，他们是情有可原的——科学研究耗资巨大。然而，高等教育还是陷入了低效率和刺激不当的泥淖。学生们为受教育而掏腰包，而他们的教授却几乎完全从科研中得到回报。Fried的计算表明，可以削减成本，同时不牺牲学生所珍视的那些东西。Reshef的实验或许会失败，不过大学毫无疑问需要更多的实验者。学费的增长不能一直超过学生的支付能力。不再能为（消费者花的）钱提供价值的行业一定迟早面临巨变。——美国大学作出改变的时机已经成熟。