College enrolment
大学注册

Boom times
雨后春笋般增长
Nov 12th 2009 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition

The recession drives young Americans back to learning
经济危机促使美国的年轻人重返校园
A BUSINESS that jacks up its prices during a recession is usually asking to lose customers. Not so America’s colleges, which are simultaneously raising tuition fees and experiencing record levels of enrolment. The Technical College System of Georgia, for instance, whose 28 campuses teach everything from power-line maintenance to dental hygiene, has sharply raised its fees, yet the number of students is up 24% from a year earlier. Campus parking lots are so full that “we got them parking in cow pastures,” says a spokesman.
通常来说，如果有一桩生意在经济危机时期提高价格，那么定会丧失其顾客。但是这一法则对美国的大学来说却毫不适用，它们在提高学费的同时却招来了史无前例的众多报名者。就拿乔治亚技术学院系统来说，其28个校区中从电力维修专业到牙科卫生专业均大幅增加了学费，但学生人数却比一年前增加了24%。一位发言人说，校园里的停车位已经满得“使我们不得不将车停到养牛的牧场里”。

Across the country, college enrolment rates are at an all-time high. In October 41% of 18-to-24-year-olds were enrolled in either two-year colleges (which specialise in vocational training) or four-year colleges (which grant undergraduate degrees) or higher, up from 39% a year earlier. Yet tuition fees have risen by an average of 4-7%.
全国的大学新生注册率已经达到了迄今最高水平。在十月份，18到24岁的青年人中有41%的人或是在两年制的学院（提供职业培训）注册，或是向四年制（可以授予本科学位）或更高级别的大学报名，而在一年前这一数字为39%。然而与此同时学费却平均上升了4%到7%。

The economy is the most immediate culprit. The unemployment rate hit 10.2% in October, up sharply from 9.8% in September, the first time it has reached double digits since 1983. Among 16-to-24-year-olds, it was a dismal 19.1%. Faced with the worst job prospects in a generation, many young people are deciding to go to college instead.
当前的经济状况是引起这一现象的首要原因。至10月份失业率已经从9月的9.8%一路飙升到了10.2%，这是自1983年以来第一次突破两位数。更为悲惨的是，在16到24岁的人中，失业率高达19.1%。面对如此惨淡的就业前景，许多年轻人纷纷选择上大学。

That, however, is only part of the story. The Pew Research Centre notes in a recent report that enrolment rates have been rising and participation rates declining for decades now. One reason is that as the number of well-paid unskilled jobs began to shrink in the 1980s, the “college premium”—the difference in salaries between college and high-school graduates—rose. The college premium stopped growing earlier this decade, but it remains high enough to affect the calculus for any 18-year-old weighing whether to look for work or stay in education.
然而，以上不仅仅是故事的全部。皮尤研究中心在最近的一项报告中表示，在大学注册率上升的同时，就业参与率却连续几十年下降。其中的一个原因就是，从20世纪80年代开始，技术含量低的高薪职业开始缩水， “大学生优势”（即大学毕业生和高中毕业生之间的工资差距）现象日益显现。这种现象在近十年中已不再出现，但是却对那些正值18岁并且正踟蹰于就业和学业间的年轻人产生了相当大的影响。

Another reason is that the pool of potential college-goers has grown. The Pew report notes that the proportion of 18-to-24-year-olds who have dropped out of high school fell steadily to 9.3% in 2008 from 15.7% in 1973. With more students finishing high school, more are eligible to go to college.
另一个原因是，潜在的大学入学者有所增加。皮尤中心的报告显示，18至24岁人群中，高中辍学的人的比例从1973年的15.7%稳步下降到了2008年的9.3%。随着越来越多的学生完成高中学业，也就意味着越来越多的人拥有了上大学的资格。

The problem for colleges is that enrolment is surging just as funding is shrinking. Private colleges have seen their endowments and investment income shrivel because of the financial crisis, while public colleges have had funding cut by cash-strapped state governments. The Technical College System of Georgia gets 60% of its budget from the state, and that has been frozen as the state attempts to sort out its finances. It has eliminated Friday classes to save money; some classes on other days go on past 10pm. Tuition charges have risen by $600 a quarter, to between $2,100 and $2,400. But that has failed to serve as a big deterrent, thanks in part to more generous state and federal “Pell grants”, which Barack Obama increased this year.
大学面临的问题是注册学生猛增资金猛降。受到经济危机的影响，私立大学的捐赠和投资收入缩水严重，而各地政府因为财政危机，也纷纷减少了公立大学的资金。Technical College System of Georgia60%的的财政预算都来自于政府，但如今政府为了缓解其财政问题冻结了这笔资金。因此该学院不得不减少周五的课程来节省开支，周五以外的课程也在上午10点后才进行。每季度的学费上涨了600美元之后在2100—2400美元之间。但是以上情况并没有阻碍学校的运行，这一部分归功于国家和联邦的“佩尔助学金”，奥巴马今年还增加了这一计划的援助金额