最新：本评论已经被发表在华尔街日报中文版，编辑给取了个标题，《我看中国大学的教育现状》请点击查看：http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20090501/LET122605.asp

并且被推荐到读者来信专栏置顶 http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/let.asp

如下是George Wang的评论：

我觉得华尔街的记者还是抓住了中国高等教育的核心问题的。政府投入不足，高等教育差钱差得很，自然质量也难以保证，虽然扩建了N多大学城，但是实际 教育质量确实每下愈况，学生因为缺乏实践能力得不到市场认可，办学盲目追求利益，与社会需求脱节严重。而且，在教育投资中腐败暗流汹涌。如此等等。

大学教育产业化，平民化，最终是变成了愚民化。当一个医科院校的校长为了自己成为综合性大学校长而沾沾自喜的时候，他的毕业生却因为找不到工作而抑郁苦闷。此情此景，确实值得此时此刻那些向“国际化综合性研究型大学”大跃进的大学校长们深思了。

职业教育的缺乏，大学教育的盲目扩张，确实是当前大学生就业难的重要原因，却仍然只是表面原因。更加深层次的原因在于经济的畸形增长。何谓畸形增长，过度依赖房地产，过度依赖出口而且是低水平低附加值的出口，第三产业也就是服务业 发展缓慢，才是导致现在中国大学生就业难，大学教育与需求脱节的深层次原因。房地产业作为支柱产业，拖动的是建筑业和钢铁这样的重工业，这些产业容纳的劳 动力都有限，即使是劳动力需求相对密集的建筑业，也以农民工为主，对大学大学生毕业生需求有限；低附加值的出口，诸如服装制造，电子产品组装（注意，是组 装，核心技术全部都牢牢掌控在跨国巨头手中，IPod在中国组装，看似为中国带来巨大出口额，但是在中国的劳动力附加值只有其总值的5%不到）这样的劳动 力密集型，也是以农民工和普通技工为主吧。而所谓发展服务业， 什么中国的产业调整，第三产业要要占到GDP多少多少的口号，也是提了N多年了吧。记得以前课本上说我国第三产业到某某年要达到GPD的60%（差不多这 个数吧），但是现实如何呢？连初中生都被教育第三产业可以容纳最多的人就业，但是呢，第三产业发展缓慢，如蜗牛般缓慢，才导致不能容纳那么多劳动力，特别 是大学毕业生。

更深一层将，经济畸形发展仍然只是中层原因，更加深层次原因是分配制度的不公和社会保障制度的不完善而引致的国内消费需求水平长期低下。生产、分 配、交换、消费，四个环节中。我们国家是消费严重不足，这从高储蓄率可以表现出来。分配严重不均，这个不用说也清楚。所以在中国只有两种类型的消费，少数 人维持极高的奢侈型消费，大多数人只能低消费或者不消费。产能我们有，但是我国劳动人民的生产劳动支持了外国消费者的超前消费（因为出口占GDP达 40%，而且不还是低附加值的出口么）。所以我们的国内生产是注定不可持续，消费不持续嘛，但是由于以前有了国外消费者的大力购买，生产还是可以循环下 去。但是我们国内大部分民众，依然是不敢买，不敢消费，对不对。不存钱，谁管你生老病死和读书？而且，你还得有钱才能存呀，工资那么低，租房子都不够，怎 么存？房价那么高，三代人的收入买一代人的婚房，你还敢消费？现在，连国外消费者特别是美国的消费者，也不敢消费了，所以，导致了出口的急剧萎缩，出口型 企业的大规模倒闭，失业率不断攀升，大学生毕业生就业自然更加困难。

不过再说回来，教育的高速扩张更加给这种不可持续的消费雪上加霜，大学学费的暴增，让多少低收入家庭望而兴叹呢？大学录取通知书成为多少父母的夺命 书？为了培养一个找不到工作的大学生，一个低收入家庭得节衣缩食多少年？大学教育，也成了最不可持续的消费。这也难怪说某些地区的农村高中毕业生不愿意报 名参加高考。既然读不读大学都是做民工，那何必浪费那几万块学费呢？如果读书是为了做养猪专业户，何必读大学呢？实际上，即使是现今的当所谓“大学生村官 ”，又何尝不是无奈的不得已选择呢？

如下是华尔街日报中文网站的英文版本全文

原文地址：http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20090428/chw131556.asp?camp=china

Zhang Weidong has been making the rounds at this city’s weekend talent fair for more than a month now and can’t understand why he hasn’t landed a job.

‘These companies are looking for employees, and I have a degree,’ says the 22-year-old computer major, clutching a plastic organizer stuffed with resumes, business cards and company information. ‘I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.’

Unemployed university graduates used to be rare in China. But now their ranks are ballooning to critical levels just as the country suffers its worst economic slump in two decades. Up to one-third of last year’s 5.6 million university graduates are still looking for work, and this year will see another 6.1 million hit the labor market. Finding jobs for graduates is suddenly a national priority: Earlier this month, the central government ordered local governments and state enterprises to hire more graduates to maintain China’s ‘general stability.’

China is suffering from a higher-education equivalent of the global credit bubble. On government orders, China’s universities — most of which are state-controlled — boosted enrollment by up to 30% a year, year after year for most of this decade, and built vast new campuses. Financing was considered a cinch: New students would mean more tuition to pay off the loans that funded the expansion. But those plans were wildly optimistic, leaving hundreds of universities across China crippled by debt.

More serious for China’s long-term prospects is that the expansion was so fast, and the pressures to pay off the debts so intense, that many of the schools turned into diploma mills, churning out poorly qualified students. Mr. Zhang got his degree from a school of traditional Chinese medicine with no history of teaching computer sciences. He looks back ruefully, recalling overcrowded classrooms and a lack of materials: ‘I wonder if this education was of any value?’

Many experts are posing the same question, as China’s slowdown highlights problems masked earlier this decade. Back then, when the country’s economy was expanding at a double-digit clip, getting a job was easy. Now, companies are pickier and many are refusing to hire some of the products of China’s higher-education system.

‘There is a misalignment between the university system and the needs of the economy,’ says Robert Ubell, who heads a New York University program in China to train young Chinese employees of foreign companies. ‘Chinese graduates often have few practical skills.’

The problem lies in the middle layer of China’s educational system. The country’s basic education ensures that most Chinese are literate, which means that even poor farmers heading to the country’s coastal factory boomtowns can easily be trained to operate a machine. At the system’s peak are 75 elite universities lavishly funded by China’s central government. Because these schools’ expansion has been controlled by Beijing, they have been largely exempt from financial problems.

Beneath the elite universities are 2,100 others where the vast majority of Chinese undergraduates study. Almost all are saddled with virtually unserviceable debts, say official sources and independent researchers. In impoverished Anhui province, 50 universities owe $1.2 billion to banks, according to Zhao Han, who is vice president of the Hefei University of Technology in Anhui. Mr. Zhao, who is a government adviser with access to the financial figures, says some schools have debt payments that equal half of their tuition revenues. ‘It is a heavy expenditure affecting the schools’ normal operation,’ he says.

Local governments with financial muscle are already organizing bailouts. Last year, wealthy Guangdong province ordered banks — almost all of which are state-controlled — to restructure their loans to universities. The province also spent $30 million this year to prevent a string of universities from defaulting. Officials at China’s Ministry of Education refused to be interviewed for the article, but have said in speeches that university debts are a top priority.

‘Objectively there was a need to expand education,’ says Yang Dongping, head of a nongovernmental organization dedicated to education reform. ‘But we’ve just experienced an educational disaster.’

Some see the trend more optimistically. Hu Angang, a prominent economist at Tsinghua University, says China is paralleling the expansion of universities in the U.S. after World War II. Back then, the G.I. Bill allowed returning soldiers to attend college, opening higher education to broad reaches of society and supporting America’s long-term economic rise. The current problems, he says, will work themselves out in the long run.

‘China’s expansion was correct,’ says Prof. Hu. ‘It was part of a new deal launched to spread education beyond the elites.’

For much of Chinese history, higher education had been the purview of the country’s Confucian elite. The communist revolution in 1949 did little to change this, with university education reserved for a tiny fraction of the population. Periodic student protests reinforced government suspicion of this class.

Then came 1998. In the midst of the Asian financial crisis, the country’s hard-charging premier, Zhu Rongji, decided China needed bold measures. He ordered universities to open their doors. A more skilled Chinese work force, he reasoned, would jump-start domestic consumption, helping to wean China’s economy off exports.

In 1998, 3.4 million Chinese attended university. By last year, the number was 21.5 million. To handle the surging enrollment, schools spent nearly $100 billion, according to estimates by Chinese researchers, on vast university ‘cities’ of spacious campuses and impressive buildings.

But the government was tightfisted. Schools were told to borrow what they needed. Banks, which are also state-controlled, obliged. With little tradition of alumni giving in China, universities had two ways to free up funds to pay off this debt — slashing costs and luring more students. Teachers’ salaries were capped or cut, equipment purchases were put on hold and classroom sizes on average doubled across China, according to government statistics.

While experts say the country needs midlevel technical staff, many of these universities have tended to lure tuition-paying students with programs such as English, tourism, government, journalism and law. These are cheap — no large outlays for equipment are necessary — and appeal to Chinese sensibilities, which see education as a path to a government or other white-collar position, and not as training for a technical job.

The legacy of a decade of haphazard expansion is on display at the school where Mr. Zhang studied computers, the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine.

In the 1990s, the school was a vibrant center of learning that instructed 1,500 students in traditional healing arts. Even though China has relatively few hospitals of Chinese medicine, its graduates almost always found jobs. From the 1950s onward, they had gone on to run prestigious hospitals and research institutes across the country.

That tradition ended with the government’s expansion order in 1998. The next year, the student body increased by a third. The tiny campus in downtown Nanjing was bursting, with students housed in hotels and taught in cafeterias. The next year, the school began to build.

It borrowed $200 million from a consortium of banks — school officials won’t say which, but members of the university’s administrative committee say the country’s four biggest banks were involved. All four refused to comment.

University administrators embraced growth. In a published interview a few years ago, the school’s former president, Xiang Ping, said expansion was a chance to boost prestige. When traveling to conferences, foreign educators hadn’t treated him seriously because his school was so small. By the time of the 2006 interview, he said, they saw him as head of a large, comprehensive university. ‘It is huge progress,’ he said.

The school moved to Nanjing’s Xianlin University City, a 42-square-mile campus it shares with 11 other universities on the outskirts of town. The front gate is adorned with a fountain and a giant rare stone from a nearby mountain.

Construction was plagued by corruption. In 2004, government auditors found that only half the University City area was used for education, with the rest used for commercial projects such as a golf course. Arrests followed, with a top official at the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine convicted of bribery.

Some teachers are outraged. One prominent critic is Ji Wenhui, a scholar of classical medical texts and former head of the library. He watched as the library’s holdings increased by one-half while the number of students rose 11-fold, to 17,000. The university has 1,200 faculty and staff, only 20% more than when it was many times smaller. The new library has a leaky roof and lacks many basic electronic tools, such as academic databases.

‘The reason for expanding had nothing to do with society’s needs,’ Mr. Ji says. ‘The educational system was pursuing economic benefit.’

A faculty member of the school’s administrative council, Mr. Ji says internal reports showed that the school at one point was committed to $60 million a year in interest payments versus total annual revenues of $30 million. In 2006, the provincial government stepped in and restructured the loans. The school currently spends one-quarter of its budget on debt repayment and has cut teachers’ salaries by a quarter, Mr. Ji says.

In a faxed response to questions, school administrators declined to address specifics such as student-faculty ratios and spending on materials and supplies. It said the provincial government had been helping the school. ‘The debt risk is completely under the school’s control,’ the statement read.

A statement posted on the university’s Web site says the school faces a ‘complicated situation’ and that ‘the huge debts for new campus construction have caused serious shortages of funds for school management, restricting development of the school.’

Few feel these limitations as acutely as the students, even those who came to study Chinese medicine. Sitting in the university’s giant cafeteria one rainy afternoon, Chen Sanxing said the education didn’t live up to the school’s great history. Classes are overcrowded, he said, and there are too many students for the limited interning opportunities at area hospitals.

‘A lot of the students are here so the school can make money,’ Mr. Chen said. ‘That’s why they opened all those hot majors.’

The school’s new offerings include international economics and trade, applied psychology and English. Students in these departments say they’ve been shorted, too.

Mr. Zhang, the jobless computer major, says that while his degree sounds useful enough, the training has been sketchy. Like other students here, he said his formally four-year program lasted three years. Students are meant to spend their fourth year looking for work, as he is now doing. Mr. Zhang says computer labs at the school are plentiful, but his classes had more than 100 students and there was no tutoring, little interaction with teachers and a shortage of computer texts.

Although this year marks the 20th anniversary of the student-led Tiananmen Square protests, few seem ready to take to the streets. Instead, a sense of gloom is pervasive. Jane Yang, a 21-year-old English major here, nicknames herself ‘Cheer-up Jane’ because she’s so pessimistic about the future.

‘There are no job prospects for someone like me,’ she said during a quick meal at the school’s giant cafeteria. ‘I think I’ll just go to grad school.’

如下是华尔街日报中文网站的中文译文

一

个多月以来，张卫东（音）每个周末都在南京举办的人才招聘会上转悠，不明白自己为什么还没找着工作。

张卫东今年22岁，专业是计算机，他手里抓着一个塑料文件夹，里面塞满了简历、名片和公司介绍。他说，这些公司要招人，而我也有相应的学历，我不知道自己哪儿没做好。

大 学生没工作的情况以前在中国很少见。但现在随着中国遭受20年来最严重的经济滑坡，失业大学生的人数急剧膨胀，已经到了十分严重的程度。去年的560万毕 业生中至多有三分之一仍在找工作，而今年又将有610万应届毕业生进入劳动力市场。给大学毕业生找工作突然之间成了一项全国性的工作重点：本月早些时候， 中央政府下令地方政府和国有企业接收更多的大学生就业，以维持中国的全面稳定。

中国正经历一场“高等教育泡沫”，其程度与全球信贷泡沫相 当。在政府要求之下，中国的大学（绝大多数为公立性质）这10年来的招生人数以每年高达30%的速度递增，并兴建了大量新校区。资金问题不足为虑：招收更 多新生就意味着能收来更多的学费，用以偿还为扩招提供资金的贷款。但这样的计划其实是太过乐观了，中国数百所大学背上了沉重的债务负担。

对 中国远期前景来说更严重的后果是，扩招速度太快，同时偿还债务的压力太大，使得许多学校简直成了文凭工厂，教出来的学生素质低下。张卫东的计算机专业学历 是在一所中医药类的大学获得的，那所学校以前根本没有开设过计算机课程。他满面愁容地回想起大学时代人满为患的教室和学习资料缺乏的情况，他说，我不知道 这样的教育到底有没有价值？

随着中国经济放缓，早年间被掩盖住的一些问题也暴露出来，许多专家因此提出了跟张卫东一样的问题。前几年，中国经济一直以两位数的幅度增长，找工作很容易。现在，各家公司都变得挑剔起来，许多公司拒绝雇用中国高等教育体制培养出来的某些“产品”。

纽约大学(New York University)在中国有一个为外国公司培训年轻中国员工的项目，该项目负责人Robert Ubell说，大学的教育体制与经济的实际需求之间存在偏差，中国大学生常常缺乏实践经验。

这 个问题存在于中国教育体系的中间层。中国的基础教育确保了大多数中国人都识字，也就是说，去沿海新兴工业城市打工的农民也很容易经过训练学会操作机器。这 个教育体系的顶层是得到中央政府慷慨资助的75所精锐高校。因为这些学校的扩招由中央政府控制，它们基本上不存在资金方面的问题。

排在这 些顶尖高校之下的是另外2,100家高校，中国在校大学生绝大多数都在这些学校就读。教育界的官方渠道和独立研究人士都说，这些高校几乎全都背负着实际上 已经难以承受的债务。安徽省合肥工业大学副校长赵韩说，贫困的安徽省的50所高校总计欠银行12亿美元。赵韩由于担任政府顾问而得以接触这些财务数据，他 说，有的学校学费收入的一半用于偿还债务，这是一笔极大的开支，影响到学校的正常运营。

有财力的地方政府已经展开了对高校的救助。去年，富裕的广东省下令银行（基本上也全都是国有的）调整对大学的贷款。广东今年已拨款3,000万美元防止众多高校出现贷款违约。中国教育部官员拒绝就本文接受采访，但此前曾说过解决大学债务是工作重点之一。

一个致力于教育改革的非政府组织负责人杨东平说，客观上我们需要扩大教育。但我们却经历了一场教育灾难。

一 些人士则对这一趋势持较为乐观的看法。清华大学知名经济学家胡鞍钢认为，中国现在的状况类似于美国二战后的大学扩张潮。当时，美国通过了《美国退伍军人权 利法案》(G.I. Bill)，允许退伍军人进入大学，向广泛的社会阶层提供了高等教育，进而支撑了美国经济的长期增长。胡鞍钢说，中国眼下所面临的问题以后会慢慢得到解 决。

胡鞍钢说，中国大学扩招是对的。这是一项新政策的一部分，意在向精英阶层以外的社会阶层传播教育。

回顾中国历史，大部分时候高等教育都仅限于中国儒家精英阶层。1949年中国共产党执政也没有带来明显变化，大学教育只属于中国的一小部分人口。不时发生的学生抗议加大了政府对这一阶层的猜疑。

大学“城”

1998年情况出现了变化。在亚洲金融危机当中，时任中国总理的朱镕基认为中国需要采取大胆的举措。他下令中国的大学打开大门。朱镕基认为，一支更熟练的劳动力大军能够提振国内消费，有助于降低中国经济对出口的依赖。

1998年中国有340万在校大学生。到去年的时候，这个数字是2,150万人。据中国研究人员估计，为了容纳数量剧增的新生，中国各院校共投资了将近1,000亿美元建设拥有宽敞校园和令人印象深刻建筑的庞大大学城。

但 中国政府却捂紧钱包。学校被告知它们所需资金要靠借贷获得。同样是国家掌控的银行提供了贷款。由于中国少有毕业生捐赠母校的传统，因此大学只有两条途径筹 得资金偿还贷款──削减成本和招收更多学生。政府统计显示，教师遭遇了工资封顶或降薪，设备添置计划被搁置，中国各地的教室规模平均扩大了一倍。

尽 管专家们表示中国需要中级技术工人，但许多高校倾向于提供英语、旅游、行政、新闻和法律等专业课程项目来吸引自费学生。这些课程成本较低，不需要大举投入 添置必要设备，又迎合了中国人的心理。中国人将教育视为踏上仕途或通向其他白领职位的途径，而不是接受培训从事技术工作的手段。

在张卫东学习计算机专业的南京中医药大学，中国大学这十年的任意扩张所带来的影响如今正在显现。

在上世纪九十年代，南京中医药大学还是一所充满活力的求学中心，当时有1,500名学生学习传统中医。即便是中国的中医院相对较少，但这所大学的毕业生几乎总能找到工作。自上世纪五十年代以来，该校的毕业生还在全国经营多家享有盛誉的医院和研究机构。

中国政府1998年下达扩招令后，南京中医药大学的这一传统也随之终结。次年，南京中医药大学的学生规模增加了三分之一，在南京市区的狭小校园已经接近饱和，学生不得不在旅馆住宿，在餐厅上课。第二年，南京中医药大学便开始建设校区。

南京中医药大学从数家银行组成的一个财团贷款2亿美元；学校管理人士没有透露银行名称，但该校行政委员会的成员透露中国四大国有银行均有介入。四家银行均拒绝置评。

学 校的管理人士对增长表示欢迎。在数年前发表的一份采访中，南京中医药大学的前校长项平表示，扩张是一个提高威望的机遇。项平说，自己出国参加会议时，由于 学校规模太小，外国教育人士没有把他当回事。在2006年接受采访的时候，项平说，他们已经将他视为是一所大规模综合性大学的校长。他表示，这是很大的进 步。

南京中医药大学迁到了南京郊外的仙林大学城。这处大学城占地42平方英里，除中医药大学外还有11所其他大学。学校大门口装饰着喷泉，还有一块从附近山上采集来的巨大的奇石。

大学城的建设深受腐败侵扰。2004年，政府审计部门发现，大学城只有半数土地用于教育，其余都被用来建设高尔夫球场等商业项目。随后，一些人因此而被捕，其中一名南京中医药大学的主要负责人承认收受贿赂。

一 些教师非常愤怒。古典中医理论方面的学者、前校图书馆馆长吉文辉就是其中一位主要批评人士。他看到图书馆藏书增加了一半，而在校学生人数增加了11倍，达 到17,000人。这所大学有1,200名教师，仅仅比扩招之前增加了20%。新图书馆屋顶漏水，缺乏许多基本的电子工具，比如学术资料库。

吉文辉说，扩招的理由跟社会需求毫无关系。教育系统是在追求经济效益。

吉文辉是该校管理委员会中的教师代表。他说，从内部报告上看，学校一度每年要支付6,000万美元的利息，而其一年的全部收入为3,000万美元。2006年，省政府出面对贷款进行重组。学校现在有四分之一的预算用于偿付债务，而教师的薪水被下调了四分之一。

学校管委会在回复记者提问的传真中拒绝给出学生－教师比例、教学材料和经费开支等具体数字。传真说，省政府一直在帮助学校。债务风险完全处于学校的控制之下。

该校网站上登载的一份声明称，学校面临着复杂的情况，新校区建设带来的巨大债务造成学校管理资金严重短缺，限制了学校的发展。

3年学习＋1年找工作＝大学4年

对这些限制感受最深的莫过于学生了，甚至包括那些来这里学习中医药的学生。一个雨天的下午，在该校巨大的餐厅里，陈三省说，这里的教育与其优秀历史不相称。他说，教室全都挤得满满当当，学校有那么多学生，而在地区医院的实习机会却很有限。

陈三省说，这里有很多学生，这样学校就可以赚钱了。正因为这个他们才开设了所有那些热门专业。

该校开设的新课程包括国际经济贸易、应用心理学和英语。这些系科的学生说，他们的教学条件也不好。

没 找到工作的计算机专业学生张卫东说，尽管他的学位听起来很有用，实际上得到的培训很肤浅。跟这里的其他学生一样，他说，规定应该上4年的课程只上了3年。 学校的安排是让学生用大四的时间找工作，就像他现在这样。张卫东说，学校的电脑实验室倒是很大，但他们上课时有100多名学生，没有什么辅导，跟教师也没 有互动，电脑教材也不足。

今年是中国那场震惊世界的学生运动20周年，但看起来学校没人打算上街游行。相反，到处都弥漫着低落的情绪。该校21岁的英语专业学生Jane Yang给自己起了个”加油Jane”的别名，因为她对未来是那么悲观。

匆匆忙忙地在学校餐厅吃饭时，她说，像我这样的人根本找不到工作。我想我只能去读研究生了。