经济学人下载:学生贷款的经济效益 分级教育

Finance and Economics
财经

Student Loans: Grading Education
学生贷款：分级教育

A fintech startup treats student loans a serious investments.
一家新兴金融科技公司把学生贷款作为正经投资。

IN AN old factory building in lower Manhattan a fintech startup is seeking answers to a question that has tormented teachers and students for decades: what is the value of a given course, teacher or institution?
在下曼哈顿区的一幢老旧厂房里，一家金融科技新秀正试图解答一个困扰着教师和学生们数十载的问题：一门课程、一名教师或是一间学府，它/他们的价值是什么？

Climb Credit, with just two dozen employees, provides student loans.
Climb Credit 依靠着仅仅二十四名员工，开展学生贷款业务。

The programmes it finances bring returns far higher than can be expected from even highly rated universities.
其财政项目回报远高于那些高评级大学期待。

Climb does not claim to nurture billionaires, nor to care much about any of the intangible benefits of education.
Climb公司并没有声称要去培养亿万富豪，也没有特别关心教育所带来的无形好处。

Rather, it focuses on sharp, quantifiable increases in earnings.
相反，它关注的是快速的、可计量的营收增长。

The average size of its loans is $10,000 and it normally finances programmes of less than a year.
平均贷款额度是10,000美金，且一般资助低于一年的项目。

The subjects range from coding to web design, from underwater welding to programming robots for carmakers (which has the highest rate of return).
其中涉及的学科从编程到网站设计，从水下焊接到为汽车制造商编写机器人程序（这是最高回报率的学科）。

Some students have scant formal education; others advanced degrees.
一些学生缺乏正规的教育，而另一些拥有高等学历。

The rate of return they get is calculated as the uplift in earnings after the course of study, minus its cost (which includes that of servicing the loan, and takes account of the absence of earnings during the course).
他们所得到的回报率是根据学习结束后的收入增长减去课程花费所得到的（其中课程花费包括贷款的花费以及考虑了课程期间没有收入来源这一因素）。

Climb’s results so far are hardly conclusive.
目前为止，Climb Credit 的成果尚未有定论。

It has released only the number of loan applications: just 10,000 since its founding in 2014.
它仅仅发布了贷款申请数：自2014年成立起，才收到一万份。

Many institutions it works with do not offer the four-year and two-year courses eligible for federal funding, which account for 19m students.
与之合作的许多院校不提供符合联邦基金条件的四年制与两年制课程，而这些课程涵盖一千九百万名学生。

Instead, its market for now is among the 5m studying in more focused programmes.
相反，Climb Credit 的市场到目前只处于接受更为专门化培养教育的五百万学生中。

Past efforts to rank education providers based on the financial return they offer have struggled.
过去那些基于财富回报而为教育提供者排名的努力还在挣扎。

The data are often drawn from patchy surveys.
数据往往来自东拼西凑的调查。

It is hard to compare different courses over different time spans.
很难在不同的时间跨度上比较不同的课程。

Climb tracks every loan it makes, along with data such as subject area, teacher, institution, job offers and salaries.
Climb 跟踪调查了他们发放的每一笔贷款，连同调查了诸如学科领域、教师院校、就职机会与薪酬的数据。

Its interest rates average 9% a year, roughly double the government rate, and can be as high as 15%.
贷款年收益率平均为9%，约为政府利率的两倍，最高可达15%。

It shuns some fields, such as acting or modelling, altogether, if there is no evidence that a course delivers a return.
如果在某些领域中，没有证据表明是培训课程带来的回报，公司也完全会回避这些专业领域，比如表演与模特。

So far, the firm’s approach has worked: its default rates are in the low single digits.
迄今为止，公司的运作模式已经奏效：违约率在不高的个位数。

Climb’s credit offering covers 70 institutions; another 150 are being vetted.
Climb Credit 提供的信贷业务已经覆盖七十家教育机构；另有一百五十家正在审查中。

As many as 3,000 may eventually qualify.
最终可能有多达三千家机构获得审批。

Climb’s attraction is obvious: an expanded student base.
Climb Credit的魅力显而易见：扩张后的学生基数很大。

But many will balk at the tough provisions Climb imposes.
但是许多人将畏于接受Climb Credit 强加的强硬条款。

Students must be given a drop-out period, when they can leave without any loan obligation. (A review of data on conventional student loans suggested that those most likely to default had begun classes, taken on debt and then quit the course before they had acquired any new skills.）
学生们必须获得一段退学期，期间他们可以退出而不必有任何债务负担。（在对传统学生贷款数据进行梳理之后，发现最有可能出现违约的情况是学生去上学，进行贷款，然后在学到任何新技能之前就退学了。）

If a student does default, the school is usually responsible for more than 20% of the unpaid debt.
如果有学生确实存在违约行为，学校通常会承担未偿债务的20%以上。

That gives it an incentive to pick students carefully and train them well.
这样学校就有动力去认真挑选学员，提高教学质量。

In conventional student loans, interest and principal accumulate silently.
在传统的学生贷款中，利息与本金是悄悄积累的。

On graduation, the monthly repayment bill comes as a shock.
在学生毕业时，月度支付账单会吓人一跳。

Climb students start making tiny payments as soon as they take out a loan (refunded if they drop out fast).
Climb Credit放贷的学生一获得贷款就开始小额地偿还债务（如果他们不久就退学，会退回这笔钱）。

Climb hopes to make its success-rate data public, to help both students and lenders.
Climb Credit 希望可以公开它的成功率数据，这样既有助于学生们，也有助于放贷人。

It already makes good use of its network of education providers: it has hired three former students from institutions within it.
公司已经充分利用了它的教育提供方网络：Credit Credit 现已从中雇佣了之前在教育机构的三名学员。