TED演讲 | 你试过“花钱买文凭”吗？这个大学学位，成本超低！

欢迎光临【漂泊者联盟】第1号公众号红渡中学22班微信公众号英语学习频道

今天的日签看着每个单词都很熟悉，但翻译起来还是有点难度的，期待你们的留言~~~我们应该都有听过“花钱买文凭”这种荒唐的事情，只要给点钱，就能省下去教室签到以及日常赶作业的烦恼，轻轻松松就能拿到一纸证书，多好！

不过今天说的“花钱买文凭”并不是那种“见不得光”的方式。人民大学创始人沙伊雷谢夫解释道，通过互联网，任何拥有高中文凭的人都可以报名参加工商管理或计算机科学的课程，而不需要标准的学费（尽管考试要花钱）。他希望，高等教育正在“从少数人的特权转变为所有人都能负担得起的基本权利”。

演讲者：Shai Reshef

演讲题目：An ultra-low-cost college degree

 中英文对照翻译

I would like to share with you a new model of higher education, a model that, once expanded, can enhance the collective intelligence of millions of creative and motivated individuals that otherwise would be left behind. Look at the world. Pick a place and focus on it. You will find humans chasing higher education. Let's meet some of them.

我想和大家分享一种新的高等教育模式，这种模式一旦发展起来，可以大大提高数以百万计有创造力和积极性的人群的集体智慧，而那些没有参与这种模式的人可能就会被甩在后面。看看这个世界。任选一个地方并聚焦于此。你会发现人类正在追求高等教育。让我们见见他们中的一些人。

Patrick. Patrick was born in Liberia to a family of 20 children. During the civil war, he and his family were forced to flee to Nigeria. There, in spite of his situation, he graduated high school with nearly perfect grades.

帕特里克。帕特里克出生在利比里亚，家里有20个孩子。内战期间，他和家人被迫逃到尼日利亚。在那里，尽管他的情况如此糟糕，他还是以近乎完美的成绩高中毕业。

He wanted to continue to higher education, but due to his family living on the poverty line, he was soon sent to South Africa to work and send back money to feed his family. Patrick never gave up his dream of higher education. Late at night, after work, he surfed the net, looking for ways to study.

他想继续接受高等教育，但由于家庭生活在贫困线，他很快就被派到南非工作并寄回钱养家。帕特里克从未放弃过高等教育的梦想。深夜，下班后，他上网，寻找学习的方法。

Meet Debbie. Debbie is from Florida. Her parents didn't go to college, and neither did any of her siblings. Debbie has worked all her life, pays taxes, supports herself month to month, proud of the American dream, a dream that just won't be complete without higher education.

再来看看黛比。黛比来自佛罗里达。她的父母没有上大学，她的兄弟姐妹也没有。黛比一辈子都在工作，纳税，每个月都在养活自己，为美国梦感到骄傲，但没有高等教育这个梦想是不可能实现的。

But Debbie doesn't have the savings for higher education. She can't pay the tuition. Neither could she leave work.

可黛比没有高等教育的积蓄。她付不起学费。她也不能没有工作。

Meet Wael. Wael is from Syria. He's experiencing firsthand the misery, fear and failure imposed on his country. He's a big believer in education. He knew that if he could find an opportunity for higher education, an opportunity to get ahead of the rest, he has a better chance to survive in a world turned upside down.

还有威尔。威尔来自叙利亚。他亲身经历了外界强加给他的国家的苦难、恐惧和失败。他非常相信教育。他知道，如果他能找到一个接受高等教育的机会，一个超越其他人的机会，他将有可能在这个翻天覆地的世界中生存下去。

The higher education system failed Patrick, Debbie and Wael, exactly as it is failing millions of potential students -- millions that graduate high school, millions that are qualified for higher education, millions that want to study yet cannot access it for various reasons.

但传统的高等教育体系让帕特里克、黛比和沃尔失望，正如它让数百万潜在的学生失望一样——数百万高中毕业生、数百万有资格接受高等教育的人、数百万想学习却因各种原因无法获得高等教育的人。

First: financial. Universities are expensive; we all know it. In large parts of the world, higher education is unattainable for an average citizen. This is probably the biggest problem facing our society. Higher education stopped being a right for all and became a privilege for the few.

第一：财务。大学很贵，我们都知道。在世界大部分地区，普通公民无法获得高等教育。这可能是我们社会面临的最大问题。高等教育不再是所有人的权利，而是少数人的特权。

Second: cultural. Students who are qualified for higher education can afford -- want to study -- cannot, because it is not decent, it is not a place for a woman. This is the story of countless women in Africa, for example, prevented from higher education because of cultural barriers.

第二：文化。有资格，能负担得起学费的人，却无法接受高等教育，因为它不体面，不是女人应该待的地方。例如，非洲有无数妇女因为文化障碍而无法接受高等教育。

And here comes the third reason: UNESCO stated that in 2025, 100 million students will be deprived of higher education, simply because there will not be enough seats to accommodate them, to meet the demand. They will take a placement test, they will pass it, but they still won't have access, because there are no places available.

第三个原因是：联合国教科文组织表示，到2025年，将有1亿学生被剥夺接受高等教育的权利，原因仅仅是没有足够的座位容纳他们，无法满足需求。他们将参加一个程度测试，即使他们将通过，却仍然无法得到教育，因为没有足够的位置。

These are the reasons I founded University of the People, a nonprofit, tuition-free, degree-granting university to give an alternative, to create an alternative, to those who have no other; an alternative that will be affordable and scalable, an alternative that will disrupt the current education system,

这就是我创办人民大学的原因，这是一所非营利性的、免学费的、授予学位的大学，为那些没有其他选择的人提供一种选择，创造一种选择；一种负担得起、可扩展的选择，甚至将成为一种会颠覆当前教育体系的选择，

and open the gates to higher education for every qualified student regardless of what they earn, where they live, or what society says about them. Patrick, Debbie and Wael are only three examples out of the 1,700 accepted students from 143 countries. Thank you.

它为每一个合格的学生打开接受高等教育的大门，不管他们的收入、生活地点或社会对他们的评价如何。在143个国家的1700名被录取的学生中，帕特里克、黛比和沃尔仅仅是三个例子。谢谢你们。

We didn't need to reinvent the wheel. We just looked at what wasn't working and used the amazing power of the Internet to get around it. We set out to build a model that will cut down almost entirely the cost of higher education. And that's how we did it. First, bricks and mortar cost money. Universities have expenses that virtual universities don't. We don't need to pass these expenses on to our students.

我们不需要重新发明轮子。我们只是看到那些有问题的地方，然后利用互联网的惊人力量绕过这些问题。我们着手建立一种模式，它将削减掉高等教育的绝大部分成本。我们是这样做的。首先，学校大楼需要花钱。大学有很多开支是虚拟大学所没有的，我们不需要把这些开支转嫁给学生。

They don't exist. We also don't need to worry about capacity. There are no limits of seats in virtual university. Actually, nobody needs to stand at the back of the lecture hall. Textbooks are also something our students don't need to buy. By using open educational resources and the generosity of professors who are putting their material up free and accessible, we don't need to send our students to buy textbooks. All of our materials come free.

他们不存在。我们也不需要担心座位问题。虚拟大学没有座位限制。实际上，没人需要站在讲堂后面。课本也是我们学生不需要买的东西。通过使用开放的教育资源和教授们的慷慨捐赠，我们不需要让学生去买课本。我们所有的材料都是免费的。

Even professors, the most expensive line in any university balance sheet, come free to our students. Over 3,000 of them, including presidents, vice chancellors, professors and academic advisers from top universities such as NYU, Yale, Berkeley and Oxford, came on board to help our students.

即使是大学资产负债表上最贵的教授，对我们的学生也是免费的。其中包括纽约大学、耶鲁大学、伯克利大学和牛津大学等顶尖大学的校长、副校长、教授和学术顾问在内的3000多人前来帮助我们的学生。

Finally, is our belief in peer-to-peer learning. We use this sound pedagogical model to encourage our students from all over the world to interact and study together, and also to reduce the time our professors need to labor over class assignments.

最后，是我们对于同伴学习的信念。我们使用这种合理的教学模式，鼓励来自世界各地的学生一起互动和学习，同时也减少了教授们在课堂作业上所需的劳动时间。

If the Internet has made us a global village, this model can develop its future leadership. Look how we do it. We only offer two programs: business administration and computer science, the two programs most in demand worldwide, the two programs that are likeliest to help our students find a job. When our students are accepted, they are placed in a small classroom of 20 to 30 students, to ensure that those who need personalized attention get it.

如果互联网使我们成为一个地球村，这种模式可以发展其未来的领导能力。看看我们是怎么做到的。我们只提供两个项目：工商管理和计算机科学，这两个项目是全世界最受欢迎的，这两个项目最有可能帮助我们的学生找到工作。当我们的学生被录取时，他们被安排在一个有20到30名学生的小教室里，以确保那些需要个性化关注的人得到关注。

Moreover, for every nine-week course, they meet a new peer, a whole new set of students from all over the world. Every week, when they go into the classroom, they find the lecture notes of the week, the reading assignment, the homework assignment, and the discussion question, which is the core of our studies. Every week, every student must contribute to the class discussion, and also must comment on the contribution of others.

此外，每九周的课程，他们都会遇到一位新同学，一批来自世界各地的新学生。每周，当他们走进教室时，他们都会收到本周的课堂讲稿、阅读作业、家庭作业和讨论问题，这是我们学习的核心。每个星期，每个学生都必须参与课堂讨论，也必须评论其他人的贡献。

This way, we open our students' minds, we develop a positive shift in attitude toward different cultures. By the end of each week, the students take a quiz, hand in their homework, which are assessed by their peers under the supervision of the instructors, get a grade, move to the next week. By the end of the course, they take the final exam, get a grade, and follow to the next course.

这样，我们就打开了学生的思维，我们对不同文化的态度也有了积极的转变。每周末前，学生们参加一个小测验，交上作业，在导师的指导下由同龄人评估，最后将得到一个分数，然后进入下周的学习。课程结束时，他们参加期末考试，取得一个分数，然后再继续下一个课程。

We open the gates for higher education for every qualified student. Every student with a high school diploma, sufficient English and Internet connection can study with us. We don't use audio, we don't use video. Broadband is not necessary. Any student from any part of the world with any Internet connection can study with us.

我们为每一个合格的学生打开了接受高等教育的大门。每一个拥有高中文凭、英语和网络连接良好的学生都可以和我们一起学习。我们不使用音频，也不使用视频。不需要宽带。任何一个来自世界任何地方的学生，只要有网络连接，都可以和我们一起学习。

We are tuition free. All we ask our students to cover is the cost of their exams, 100 dollars per exam. A full-time bachelor's degree student taking 40 courses will pay 1,000 dollars a year, 4,000 dollars for the entire degree. And for those who cannot afford even this, we offer them a variety of scholarships. It is our mission that nobody will be left behind for financial reasons. With 5,000 students in 2016, this model is financially sustainable.

我们是免学费的。我们只要求学生支付考试费用，每次考试100美元。全日制本科学生修40门课程，一年要交1000美元，整个学位要交4000美元。对于那些连这个都买不起的人，我们提供给他们各种各样的奖学金。我们的使命是不让任何人因为经济原因而落后。2016年我们有5000名学生，这种模式在经济上是可持续的。

Five years ago, it was a vision. Today, it is a reality. Last month, we got the ultimate academic endorsement to our model. University of the People is now fully accredited.

五年前，这是一个愿景。今天，这是一个现实。上个月，我们的模型得到了最终的学术认可。人民大学现已获得完全认证。

Thank you.

谢谢。

With this accreditation, it's our time now to scale up. We have demonstrated that our model works. I invite universities and, even more important, developing countries' governments, to replicate this model to ensure that the gates of higher education will open widely.

有了这个认证，现在是我们扩张的时候了。我们已经证明了我们的模型是有效的。我邀请大学，甚至更重要的是发展中国家的ZF，来复制这种模式，以确保高等教育的大门将一直敞开。

A new era is coming -- an era that will witness the disruption of the higher education model as we know it today, from being a privilege for the few to becoming a basic right, affordable and accessible for all. Thank you.

一个新的时代即将到来，一个见证着我们今天所熟知的高等教育模式将被颠覆的时代，从少数人的特权变成所有人都可以承担、可以获得的基本权力。谢谢大家。

Remark：一切权益归TED所有，更多TED相关信息可至官网www.ted.com查询！

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