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1、普林斯顿大学校长2021毕业演讲：读书无用论才是最大的谎话(3)By parison, the historical average return on investments in the American stock market is around 7 percent per year. That is why my friend Morton Shapiro, the president of Northwestern University and a leading educational economist, says that for most people, the decis
2、ion to invest in a college degree will be “the single best financial decision they make in a lifetime, even if judged purely in terms of financial return on investment.A degree conveys many other benefits as well. For example, college graduates report higher levels of happiness and job satisfaction,
3、 even after controlling for ine. College graduates are healthier than non-graduates. They are more likely to exercise, more likely to vote, and have higher levels of civic engagement. To these pragmatic considerations we should add the joys that e with an increased capacity to appreciate culture, th
4、e arts, the worlds diversity, and the inherent beauty of extraordinary ideas.The numbers I have quoted are not specific to Princeton. On the contrary, they are averages over all four-year degrees, in all fields, from all colleges in the United States. Think about that for a moment: on average, all d
5、egrees in all fields from all colleges generate an annual return between 9 percent and 16 percent, and this return is supplemented by additional benefits to health, happiness, and quality of life. How could anyone think we need fewer college graduates?Some people answer that you can learn a trade wi
6、thout getting a college degree. Welders, they observe, can make more money than many college graduates. Thats true. There are, of course, reasons why you might want to get a college degree even if you plan to bee a welder. You might worry, for example, about what happens if technology renders your t
7、rade obsolete, or arthritis leaves you unable to practice it, or you want to move into management or explore other interests. A college degree equips you to respond to the changes to yourself, and to the world that inevitably occur over a lifetime.Still, if pundits and politicians were saying only t
8、hat America needs better vocational training, I could agree wholeheartedly. It would be terrific if more people could get the training they need to practice a trade. But at the same time it would also be great if more people, not fewer, could receive the extraordinary benefits that e with a college
9、degree.So I ask again: why would anyone think we need fewer college graduates? I think there is a simple answer. Education requires high-quality teaching. Teaching, in turn, depends upon skilled labor, which is expensive. As a result, the up-front cost for education is real, large, and easy to measu
10、re. The returns are equally real and even larger, but they accrue over a lifetime, are hard to measure, and vary from person to person. It is tempting to wish that you could get more certainty at lower cost.The people who call for fewer degrees yield to that temptation. They emphasize the short-term
11、. They focus almost entirely on the price of college and on the salaries students might earn in their first jobs. That is a mistake.A college education is a long-term investment. It enables graduates to develop and adapt, and it pays off spectacularly in the long run. The idea that we would be bette
12、r off with fewer college graduates is a short-term swindle, a swindle that will cheat Americas young people, weaken the nations economy, and undermine our future. We need to have the confidence to invest in our young people and to ensure that a college education is accessible and affordable for stud
13、ents from all backgrounds and financial circumstances.I hope that all of you who graduate today, and who experience the power of education in your own lives, will bee advocates for the value of higher education in our society. There is a national conversation taking place right now about the value o
14、f higher education, and we need your voice in that conversation. We need you, in other words, to help others to achieve in the future what you achieve today.How can you help more students earn college degrees? Here are three suggestions. First, bee advocates for the importance of pletion rates. A co
15、llege education produces a tremendous returnif you get the degree. Returns are much lower if you start college but do not get the degree. The highest default rates on student loans do not involve college graduates with big debts. They instead involve students with small debts who never finish colleg
16、e and so never get the earnings boost that es with a degree.A few moments ago, we awarded an honorary degree to President Barbara Gitenstein. Over her nearly two decades leading The College of New Jersey, she raised the Colleges four-year graduation rate from 58 percent to 75 percent, a number that puts TCNJs on-time pletion rate among the top ten in the nation for public colleges and universities. By raising TCNJs graduation rate, President Gitenstein has improved the lives of th
