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[Christmas Specials] [2010.12.16]The disposable academic一次性学术生涯
http://www.ecocn.org/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=44269&extra=page%3D1&page=1

The disposable academic

一次性学术生涯

Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time

为什么读博士只是浪费时间

Doctoral degrees

博士学位

090 Christmas special - Doctoral degrees.mp3 (5.58 MB, 下载次数: 50)

Dec 16th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION

ON THE evening before All Saints’ Day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg. In those days a thesis was simply a position one wanted to argue. Luther, an Augustinian friar, asserted that Christians could not buy their way to heaven. Today a doctoral thesis is both an idea and an account of a period of original research. Writing one is the aim of the hundreds of thousands of students who embark on a doctorate of philosophy (PhD) every year.

1517年万圣节的前一天晚上，马丁路德将（对赎罪券的）九十五条看法钉在了威登堡教堂的大门上。那时，论文不过是人们想论证的一个立场。身为奥古斯丁修道会修士的路德声称，天主教徒不能通过赎买进入天堂。如今，博士论文既是一种观点，也是对一段原创性研究活动的说明。写一篇这样的东西，每年都有成千上万攻读博士学位的学子以此为目标。

In most countries a PhD is a basic requirement for a career in academia. It is an introduction to the world of independent research—a kind of intellectual masterpiece, created by an apprentice in close collaboration with a supervisor. The requirements to complete one vary enormously between countries, universities and even subjects. Some students will first have to spend two years working on a master’s degree or diploma. Some will receive a stipend; others will pay their own way. Some PhDs involve only research, some require classes and examinations and some require the student to teach undergraduates. A thesis can be dozens of pages in mathematics, or many hundreds in history. As a result, newly minted PhDs can be as young as their early 20s or world-weary forty-somethings.

在大多数国家，拥有博士学位是在研究机构就职的基本条件。这是独立研究世界的序曲，是一种智力开拓，是学徒和导师紧密合作的产物。在不同的国家、大学甚至是学科，授予学位的要求迥然各异。有些学生先得花两年时间取得硕士学位或毕业证。有些学生会得到奖学金；其他人将自掏腰包。有些博士学位只要求进行研究，有些则需要上课和考试，还有些需要进行本科生教学。数学论文几十页就够了，而历史学论文要数百页。其结果是，有些新科博士二十刚出头，还有些则已经是到了玩世不恭的四十岁左右了。

One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work as “slave labour”. Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and uncertain prospects are widespread. You know you are a graduate student, goes one quip, when your office is better decorated than your home and you have a favourite flavour of instant noodle. “It isn’t graduate school itself that is discouraging,” says one student, who confesses to rather enjoying the hunt for free pizza. “What’s discouraging is realising the end point has been yanked out of reach.”

大多博士生的一个共同点是爱发牢骚。有些人说自己从事“奴役劳动”。一周七天，一天十时，薪酬低下，前途渺茫，到处都是这样。你明白自己是个研究生，来句自嘲吧，现在是“办公室比家好，方便面是最大爱好”。“研究生院本身并不让人失望”，有个学生这样说，这人也坦承乐于找寻免费匹萨，“让人泄气的是明白要延期了”。

Whining PhD students are nothing new, but there seem to be genuine problems with the system that produces research doctorates (the practical “professional doctorates” in fields such as law, business and medicine have a more obvious value). There is an oversupply of PhDs. Although a doctorate is designed as training for a job in academia, the number of PhD positions is unrelated to the number of job openings. Meanwhile, business leaders complain about shortages of high-level skills, suggesting PhDs are not teaching the right things. The fiercest critics compare research doctorates to Ponzi or pyramid schemes.

博士生爱发牢骚并不少见，但看起来博士培养体系确实出了问题（实用型的“专业博士”，如法律、商务和医药等含金量更高一些）。博士供过于求。虽然博士是为从事研究而培养，但是学位授予数量和岗位需求数量却是脱节的。同时，商务领导们抱怨自己缺乏高水平的技能，并认为给博士们讲授的内容不对头。激烈的批评家则把博士学位和旁氏骗局和金字塔骗局相提并论。

Rich pickings

丰裕的外快

For most of history even a first degree at a university was the privilege of a rich few, and many academic staff did not hold doctorates. But as higher education expanded after the second world war, so did the expectation that lecturers would hold advanced degrees. American universities geared up first: by 1970 America was producing just under a third of the world’s university students and half of its science and technology PhDs (at that time it had only 6% of the global population). Since then America’s annual output of PhDs has doubled, to 64,000.

历史上很长时期内，甚至获得一级学位都只是少数富人的特权，多数教职也无需博士头衔。但是从二战后，高等教育迅速扩张，因此人们也更希望教师拥有高等学位。美国大学是始作俑者：到1970年，美国培养了近全世界三分之一的大学生，50%的科学和技术博士（当时美国人口只占全球近6%）。从那时起到现在，美国年度培养的博士数量已经翻番至64000人。

Other countries are catching up. Between 1998 and 2006 the number of doctorates handed out in all OECD countries grew by 40%, compared with 22% for America. PhD production sped up most dramatically in Mexico, Portugal, Italy and Slovakia. Even Japan, where the number of young people is shrinking, churned out about 46% more PhDs. Part of that growth reflects the expansion of university education outside America. Richard Freeman, a labour economist at Harvard University, says that by 2006 America was enrolling just 12% of the world’s students.

其他国家正在迎头赶上。在1998年到2006年，OECD国家的博士数量就增长了40%，与之相比，美国是22%。在墨西哥、葡萄牙、意大利和斯洛伐克，博士培养在急剧增长。甚至日本这个年轻人口正在萎缩的国家，也大量炮制博士，其数量增长了46%。这种增长部分地反映了美国以外的大学教育的扩张。哈佛大学的劳动经济学家，理查德弗里曼说，到2006年，美国只招收了全球大学生的12%。

But universities have discovered that PhD students are cheap, highly motivated and disposable labour. With more PhD students they can do more research, and in some countries more teaching, with less money. A graduate assistant at Yale might earn $20,000 a year for nine months of teaching. The average pay of full professors in America was $109,000 in 2009—higher than the average for judges and magistrates.

但是大学已经发现，博士生是廉价的、奋发的、便于使用的劳动力。博士生越多，就可做更多研究，在有些国家就意味着，花更少的钱进行更多的教学。在耶鲁，一名助教承担9个月的教学工作，每年大概可赚2万美元。而2009年美国全职教授的平均工资是10万9千美元——高于法官和地方行政官员的收入。

Indeed, the production of PhDs has far outstripped demand for university lecturers. In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships. Using PhD students to do much of the undergraduate teaching cuts the number of full-time jobs. Even in Canada, where the output of PhD graduates has grown relatively modestly, universities conferred 4,800 doctorate degrees in 2007 but hired just 2,616 new full-time professors. Only a few fast-developing countries, such as Brazil and China, now seem short of PhDs.

确实，博士的供给已经远远超出大学对教师的需求。最近在一本著作中，Andrew Hacker和Claudia Dreifus（一个是学者，一个是记者）指出，从2005到2009年，美国培养了超过10万名博士，但在同一时期，只有1万6千名教授席位。使用博士生承担更多本科教学，会削减全职工作席位。甚至在加拿大，虽然博士数量增长相对慢一些，但在2007年大学仍授予4800个博士学位，而只雇佣了2616名新的全职教授。只有一些快速发展的国家，例如巴西和中国，现在似乎还缺乏博士。

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关键词：经济学人 经济学 Universities introduction Examinations 时间 经济学 博士 文章

A short course in supply and demand
关于供需的简短一课
In research the story is similar. PhD students and contract staff known as “postdocs”, described by one student as “the ugly underbelly of academia”, do much of the research these days. There is a glut of postdocs too. Dr Freeman concluded from pre-2000 data that if American faculty jobs in the life sciences were increasing at 5% a year, just 20% of students would land one. In Canada 80% of postdocs earn $38,600 or less per year before tax—the average salary of a construction worker. The rise of the postdoc has created another obstacle on the way to an academic post. In some areas five years as a postdoc is now a prerequisite for landing a secure full-time job.
在研究活动当中，事情基本相同。博士生和作为合同雇员的“博士后”，被一个学生称为“学术界的底层”，他们承担着大多数研究工作。博士后也太多了。弗里曼博士下结论说，从2000年以前的数据来看，如果美国生命科学领域的教职每年增加5%，那么只有20%的学生能找到工作。在加拿大，80%的博士后年收入为税前3.86万美元，甚至更少——等同于建筑工人的平均年薪。博士后的增多为获取学术岗位带来新障碍。如今在有些地方，要获取全职工作岗位，先决条件是要有五年的博士后经历。
These armies of low-paid PhD researchers and postdocs boost universities’, and therefore countries’, research capacity. Yet that is not always a good thing. Brilliant, well-trained minds can go to waste when fashions change. The post-Sputnik era drove the rapid growth in PhD physicists that came to an abrupt halt as the Vietnam war drained the science budget. Brian Schwartz, a professor of physics at the City University of New York, says that in the 1970s as many as 5,000 physicists had to find jobs in other areas.
廉价博士和博士后组成了科研大军，使大学、国家的科研能力大大加强。但是这也并不总是好事。当潮流变化时，才华出众和训练有素的脑袋会失去用武之地。后人造卫星时代推动了物理学博士的大量培养，但越战爆发占用了大量科学预算，结果那些物理博士项目被硬生生停止下来。纽约城市大学的物理学教授Brian Schwartz说，1970年代，有5000名物理学家不得不在其他领域寻找工作。
In America the rise of PhD teachers’ unions reflects the breakdown of an implicit contract between universities and PhD students: crummy pay now for a good academic job later. Student teachers in public universities such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison formed unions as early as the 1960s, but the pace of unionisation has increased recently. Unions are now spreading to private universities; though Yale and Cornell, where university administrators and some faculty argue that PhD students who teach are not workers but apprentices, have resisted union drives. In 2002 New York University was the first private university to recognise a PhD teachers’ union, but stopped negotiating with it three years later.
在美国，博士教师工会正在兴起，反应了大学和博士生之间的合约出了故障，这个合约本来是心照不宣的：用先前的寒酸收入之苦换取在后的学术职位之甜。在诸如威斯康辛-麦迪逊大学这样的公立大学，早在1960年代学生教师就组建了工会，但近年来工会化的步伐越来越快。工会正扩展到私立大学；耶鲁和康奈尔正在抵制工会化，校方和一些教师争辩说，从事教学的博士生不是劳动者而只是学徒。2002年，纽约州立大学成为最先承认博士生教师工会的私立大学，但三年后停止了谈判。
In some countries, such as Britain and America, poor pay and job prospects are reflected in the number of foreign-born PhD students. Dr Freeman estimates that in 1966 only 23% of science and engineering PhDs in America were awarded to students born outside the country. By 2006 that proportion had increased to 48%. Foreign students tend to tolerate poorer working conditions, and the supply of cheap, brilliant, foreign labour also keeps wages down.
在有些国家，例如英国和美国，低收入和惨淡的前景也通过国外博士生的数量反映出来。弗里曼博士推测，1966年在美国只有23%的科学和工程博士学位提供给海外学生，但是2006年这个比例上升为48%。海外学生愿意忍受艰苦的工作条件，物美价廉的海外劳动力的大量供应也使得工资维持在低水平。
A PhD may offer no financial benefit over a master’s degree. It can even reduce earnings
博士学位带来的经济收益不一定比硕士更好。甚至可能减少收入。
Proponents of the PhD argue that it is worthwhile even if it does not lead to permanent academic employment. Not every student embarks on a PhD wanting a university career and many move successfully into private-sector jobs in, for instance, industrial research. That is true; but drop-out rates suggest that many students become dispirited. In America only 57% of doctoral students will have a PhD ten years after their first date of enrolment. In the humanities, where most students pay for their own PhDs, the figure is 49%. Worse still, whereas in other subject areas students tend to jump ship in the early years, in the humanities they cling like limpets before eventually falling off. And these students started out as the academic cream of the nation. Research at one American university found that those who finish are no cleverer than those who do not. Poor supervision, bad job prospects or lack of money cause them to run out of steam.
支持者争辩说，即使找不到终身从事学术研究的工作，攻读博士学位也是值得的。并不是每个怀揣博士学位的人都想到大学里去，许多人成功进入私有部门，例如产业研发机构。这是真话。但是退出率表明许多学生泄气了。在美国，入学十年后，只有57%的博士生能拿到学位。在人文学科，许多学生要自己掏钱读学位，退出率达到49%。更糟糕的是，和其他学科的学生早早就逃离不同，人文学科的学生往往开始非常执着，但慢慢地还是放弃。这些学生渐渐成长为国家的学术精英。美国的一个大学的研究表明，能坚持到最后的并不是更为聪明。无人督导、前景黯淡、生活拮据是许多人退出的原因。
Even graduates who find work outside universities may not fare all that well. PhD courses are so specialised that university careers offices struggle to assist graduates looking for jobs, and supervisors tend to have little interest in students who are leaving academia. One OECD study shows that five years after receiving their degrees, more than 60% of PhDs in Slovakia and more than 45% in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Spain were still on temporary contracts. Many were postdocs. About one-third of Austria’s PhD graduates take jobs unrelated to their degrees. In Germany 13% of all PhD graduates end up in lowly occupations. In the Netherlands the proportion is 21%.
即使那些到大学以外就职的毕业生，也不是万事大吉。博士课程是如此的专业化，大学就业人员得竭尽全力帮助毕业生找工作，导师们一般对离开学术界的学生漠不关心。OECD的一个研究表明，在获得博士学位5年以后，在斯洛伐克有60%，在比利时、捷克、德国和西班牙有45%的人仍然在打短工。奥地利约有三分之一的博士从事与其学位无关的工作。在德国有13%的博士最后沦落到低收入行业工作，在荷兰这一比例是21%。
A very slim premium
微薄的收益

PhD graduates do at least earn more than those with a bachelor’s degree. A study in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management by Bernard Casey shows that British men with a bachelor’s degree earn 14% more than those who could have gone to university but chose not to. The earnings premium for a PhD is 26%. But the premium for a master’s degree, which can be accomplished in as little as one year, is almost as high, at 23%. In some subjects the premium for a PhD vanishes entirely. PhDs in maths and computing, social sciences and languages earn no more than those with master’s degrees. The premium for a PhD is actually smaller than for a master’s degree in engineering and technology, architecture and education. Only in medicine, other sciences, and business and financial studies is it high enough to be worthwhile. Over all subjects, a PhD commands only a 3% premium over a master’s degree.
博士学位获得者至少比学士学位获得者赚得多。由Bernard Casey发表在《高等教育政策和管理杂志》上的一项研究表明：在英国的男性公民中，获得学士学位的比那些本可进入大学但却放弃的人要多赚14%。拿到博士学位能多赚26%。但是拿到硕士学位也能多赚很多，是23%，而获取硕士学位往往只需一年时间。在有些科目中，有博士学位完全不能多赚。在数学、计算机、社会科学和语言学科中，博士并不比硕士赚得多。在工程技术、建筑和教育领域，博士实际上比硕士赚得少。只有在医药、其他科学、商业和财经领域，博士含金量才更高。
Dr Schwartz, the New York physicist, says the skills learned in the course of a PhD can be readily acquired through much shorter courses. Thirty years ago, he says, Wall Street firms realised that some physicists could work out differential equations and recruited them to become “quants”, analysts and traders. Today several short courses offer the advanced maths useful for finance. “A PhD physicist with one course on differential equations is not competitive,” says Dr Schwartz.
纽约物理学家Schwartz博士说，通过许多短期课程，人们很快就能学会在博士课程中所学的技巧。他说，三十年前，华尔街的许多公司认识到，有些物理学家能够解微分方程，可以招募他们作为金融工程师、分析师和交易人员。如今，有几种短期课程教授财经类的应用高等数学。“修过微分方程科目的物理学博士不再有竞争力”，Schwartz博士说道。
Many students say they are pursuing their subject out of love, and that education is an end in itself. Some give little thought to where the qualification might lead. In one study of British PhD graduates, about a third admitted that they were doing their doctorate partly to go on being a student, or put off job hunting. Nearly half of engineering students admitted to this. Scientists can easily get stipends, and therefore drift into doing a PhD. But there are penalties, as well as benefits, to staying at university. Workers with “surplus schooling”—more education than a job requires—are likely to be less satisfied, less productive and more likely to say they are going to leave their jobs.
许多学生说，他们出于热爱而选择专业，但这种教育到头了。在资格要求面前，人们别无选择。在一份关于英国博士研究生的研究中，三分之一的人承认读博士部分原因是留恋学生生活，或是推迟找工作。近一半的工程类学生承认这点。做科研很容易得到奖学金，结果就不知不觉地读上了博士。但不利之处是得继续呆在学校。经历“过剩教育（接受的教育超出工作需要）”的工人更容易发牢骚，更加没有积极性，也更易于扬言要走人。
The interests of universities and tenured academics are misaligned with those of PhD students
大学和终身教授们的利益与博士生的利益并不一致
Academics tend to regard asking whether a PhD is worthwhile as analogous to wondering whether there is too much art or culture in the world. They believe that knowledge spills from universities into society, making it more productive and healthier. That may well be true; but doing a PhD may still be a bad choice for an individual.
在学术机构看来，询问博士有什么用处，就如同怀疑这个世界上艺术和文化是否太多了。他们相信，知识会从大学流向社会，使社会更有效率，更为健全。这也许是对的；但是读博士对个体而言仍然是一个坏的选择。
The interests of academics and universities on the one hand and PhD students on the other are not well aligned. The more bright students stay at universities, the better it is for academics. Postgraduate students bring in grants and beef up their supervisors’ publication records. Academics pick bright undergraduate students and groom them as potential graduate students. It isn’t in their interests to turn the smart kids away, at least at the beginning. One female student spoke of being told of glowing opportunities at the outset, but after seven years of hard slog she was fobbed off with a joke about finding a rich husband.
学术机构和大学作为一方，博士生作为另一方，他们的利益并不好协调。越多的优秀学术呆在大学，对学术就越好。研究生能带来更多的拨款，能大大增进导师们的发表记录。学者们挑选优秀本科生并鼓励他们成为潜在的研究生。把这些聪明的孩子们送走不符合他们的利益，至少开始时是这样。开始时，会对一个女生承诺，将来前途无量；但经过七年苦干后，用一句“傍个大款吧”，就把人家给打发走了。
Monica Harris, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, is a rare exception. She believes that too many PhDs are being produced, and has stopped admitting them. But such unilateral academic birth control is rare. One Ivy-League president, asked recently about PhD oversupply, said that if the top universities cut back others will step in to offer them instead.
肯塔基大学的心理学教授Monica Harris是个稀有的例外。她认为博士培养的太多了，决定不再招收了。但是这种单边的学术计划生育控制太少了。最近，当一个常春藤校长被问及博士培养过多时，他说，如果顶级大学削减规模，马上其他大学就会取而代之来培养。

Noble pursuits
高尚的追求
Many of the drawbacks of doing a PhD are well known. Your correspondent was aware of them over a decade ago while she slogged through a largely pointless PhD in theoretical ecology. As Europeans try to harmonise higher education, some institutions are pushing the more structured learning that comes with an American PhD.
读博士的许多弊端已经非常清楚。本文作者在十年前就已经有体会，当时她正在为一个无多大意义的理论生态学博士而苦苦奋斗。当欧洲人正在优化高等教育时，有些机构正在推进结构化的学习，以便和美国的博士制度接轨。
The organisations that pay for research have realised that many PhDs find it tough to transfer their skills into the job market. Writing lab reports, giving academic presentations and conducting six-month literature reviews can be surprisingly unhelpful in a world where technical knowledge has to be assimilated quickly and presented simply to a wide audience. Some universities are now offering their PhD students training in soft skills such as communication and teamwork that may be useful in the labour market. In Britain a four-year NewRoutePhD claims to develop just such skills in graduates.
资助科研的组织机构已经明白，许多博士发现要把技能应用于工作市场非常艰难。在今天这个世界，技术知识应该被快速和方便地传递给普罗大众，写实验报告，做学术演讲，进行半年文献综述这些技能是出奇的没有用处。有些大学正在给博士生提供软技能培训，例如沟通、团队合作等，这些在劳动力市场上可能更有用处。在英国，有一种四年的“新路线博士”，据说要在研究生中培养上述技能。
Measurements and incentives might be changed, too. Some university departments and academics regard numbers of PhD graduates as an indicator of success and compete to produce more. For the students, a measure of how quickly those students get a permanent job, and what they earn, would be more useful. Where penalties are levied on academics who allow PhDs to overrun, the number of students who complete rises abruptly, suggesting that students were previously allowed to fester.
标准和动机也许都应改变。有些大学院系和机构把博士培养数量作为成就指标，所以竞相增加培养规模。对学生来讲，能以多快速度就业，能赚多少钱，这种标准更加有用。
Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at everything they have done. They will have amassed awards and prizes. As this year’s new crop of graduate students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else. They might use their research skills to look harder at the lot of the disposable academic. Someone should write a thesis about that.
许多能够拿到博士学位的人，都是班级上最聪明的，也会在每件事上表现出色。他们将不断获得奖励和荣誉。每年的新科研究生进入研究时，很少有人愿意相信：他们正在进入的那个系统是为他人利益而设计的；甚至通过努力工作和杰出才华都还不足于导致成功；他们最好另谋高就。他们也许会利用研究技能，在大量的一次性学术中苦苦寻找。有人还会写出关于那个东西的一篇论文。
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