《经济学人》双语：英国的新办大学将颠覆高等教育？

原文标题：
New universities
Britain’s surprising, upstart universities
A handful of new institutions are set on upending higher education
新大学
英国令人惊讶的新办大学
一些新机构将颠覆高等教育

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SIR JAMES DYSON, a designer of whizzy home appliances who became a billionaire, has long complained that Britain pumps out too few engineers. So a few years ago he set out to mint graduates of his own.

詹姆斯·戴森爵士是一位出色的家用电器设计师，后来成为了亿万富翁，他一直抱怨英国培养出来的工程师太少。因此，几年前，他开始办学校，培养自己的毕业生。

A mini-university he created at his company’s glassy research facility in Wiltshire now has about 160 youngsters enrolled, all in engineering.

他在威尔特郡的玻璃研究中心（他自己的公司）里创建了一所微型大学，现在约有 160 名年轻人在这里就读，全部都是工程专业的学生。

They spend two days a week in lessons and the rest working on real products, for which they earn a salary. They pay no fees and incur no loans.

学生每周花两天时间上课，其余时间都在研发实际产品，以此获得薪水。他们不需要交学费或贷款上学。

Instead of residential halls, newcomers live in timber “pods” stacked near Dyson’s labs; on a sunny September afternoon they stand ready for incoming freshers.

新生们不住宿舍，而是住在戴森实验室附近的木制 "吊舱 "里；在9月一个阳光明媚的下午，这些 "吊舱 "随时准备迎接新生。

Two undergraduates say they turned down Cambridge for the chance to attend.
两名本科生说，他们拒绝了剑桥大学的入学机会。

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The Dyson Institute in Malmesbury, one of a clutch of universities that have opened in recent years, saw its first students graduate in 2021.

马姆斯伯里的戴森学院是近年来开办的众多大学之一，戴森学院首届学生于 2021 年毕业。

In the past it was almost impossible for such outfits to hand out degrees unless they first partnered with an existing institution.

过去，这类机构几乎无权颁发学位，除非先与现有大学合作。

Now upstarts may apply to operate independently from day one—a consequence of rule changes the government introduced in 2017.

现在，新办大学从开学第一天起就可以申请独立运营--这是政府在 2017 年推出的规则变更的结果。

Having lifted caps that limited how many people could attend university, policymakers hoped that new providers would keep incumbents on their toes and encourage innovation in higher education.

政策制定者取消了大学入学人数限制，他们希望新办大学能够让现有大学有危机感，并鼓励高等教育领域的创新。

The result, so far, is a handful of energetic new institutions. But the campaign for their expansion needs another shove.
因此截至目前，出现了几个富有活力的新机构。但是，这些新机构的扩张运动还需要更多的推动力。

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So far seven new bodies have received “degree awarding powers”, though they are not yet supposed to use the term “university”, which remains a tightly protected title.

目前已有7个新机构获得“学位授予权”，但它们还不能使用“大学”这个受严格保护的机构名称。

Most teach only one or two degrees, usually in technical subjects whose graduates are in the most demand from employers.

大多数新机构只教授一两个学位，学生通常学的是用人单位最需要的技术科目。

In Hereford the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) offers bachelor’s degrees that can be finished in two years—and upgraded to a master’s degree with one additional year.

赫里福德的新模范技术与工程学院 (NMITE) 提供可在两年内完成的学士学位，并可通过再学习一年完成硕士学位。

That saves students money; NMITE’s classes run daily from nine to five, and pause only briefly in the summer.
这样可以为学生节省开支；NMITE每天朝九晚五上课，只在暑假稍作休息。

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There are no lectures at The Engineering & Design Institute (TEDI-London), which operates from a waterside campus in east London that is packed with 3D printers.

工程与设计学院（TEDI-London）在伦敦东部的一个水边校园里没有讲座，那个校区摆满了3D打印机。

Its students spend 85% of their time doing practical projects, says Judy Raper, its boss.

该校负责人朱迪·拉珀说，学生们 85% 的时间都花在了实践项目上。

TEDI-London expects applicants to its engineering courses to have decent grades, but does not insist they have A-levels in both maths and physics, as is standard elsewhere.

工程与设计学院伦敦校区希望其工程专业的申请人成绩不错，但不要求申请人的数学和物理均要有A级成绩，这与其他机构的标准不同。

That helps to attract clever candidates, including girls, who might otherwise overlook the discipline.
这有助于吸引聪明的申请人，包括那些可能会忽视这门学科的女孩们。

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Perhaps the most novel degrees are offered by the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) in Whitechapel, whose first cohort of polymaths graduate next year.

伦敦跨学科学院（LIS）白教堂校区提供最新颖的学位课程，首届多才多艺的毕业生将于明年毕业。

Each term its students examine a different thorny issue: inequality, say, or sustainability.

学生每学期都会研究一个不同的难题，比如不平等或可持续性。

Rather than pick one subject, they study things as diverse as philosophy and data science; eventually they earn a degree in “interdisciplinary” studies.

学生不是专攻一门学科，而是会学习哲学和数据科学等不同的学科；最终他们会获得“跨学科”学位。

Ed Fidoe, a LIS founder, says that nurturing broad thinkers is crucial to solving big problems.
伦敦跨学科学院创始人埃德·菲多表示，培养多元思考者对于解决重大问题至关重要。

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If these new outfits are zingy, for the moment they are all still very small. There are also fewer of them than reformers a few years ago had hoped.

如果说这些新机构很有活力，但目前它们的规模都还很小。机构的数量也比几年前改革者所希望的要少。

It takes uncommon gumption to get a new university off the ground.

创办一所新大学需要非凡的勇气。

“There’s no guidebook,” says James Newby of NMITE. Before creating LIS, Mr Fidoe set up a London secondary school; he says that breaking into higher education has been a lot tougher.

NMITE 的詹姆斯·纽比说：“没有办学指南。”在创办伦敦跨学科学院之前，费多在伦敦创办了一所中学；他说，相比之下，进军高等教育要困难得多。

New entrants have to battle big incumbents, including some with the “oldest brands in the world”.
新办学府必须与现有大学竞争，其中包括一些“世界老牌大学”。

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The bigger challenge is that, despite promises, regulation continues to hamper the new providers.

更大的挑战在于，尽管做出了承诺，但监管仍然阻碍着新的办学机构。

Though upstarts are no longer forced into partnerships with their competitors, they must convince the Office for Students (OfS), Britain’s newish universities regulator, that they are made of the right stuff. That process has sometimes taken years.

尽管新办机构不再被迫与老牌大学建立合作伙伴关系，但他们必须让英国新成立的大学监管机构--学生办公室（OfS）相信他们的实力。这个过程有时需要数年时间。

Jo Johnson, a former universities minister whose reforms helped to create the OfS, says that in too many cases the regulator has saddled new providers with “endless delays, mindless bureaucracy, and unreasonable demands”.

前大学部长乔·约翰逊的改革帮助创建了 OfS，他表示，在很多情况下，监管机构让新的办学机构忍受着 "无尽的拖延、无谓的官僚主义和无理的要求"。

Innovators say the box-ticking has been hardest for outfits unwilling to promise they will do things the same way as everyone else.
创新者说，对于不愿承诺与其他大学做相同事情的新办机构来说，条条框框的要求是最苛刻的。

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The pandemic slowed things.

疫情减缓了事情的发展。

Conservatives once championed “challenger” institutions, but no longer talk about them much. Ruling politicians have been preoccupied with a crackdown on “rip-off university degrees”.

保守派曾一度支持“挑战者”机构，但现在已不再多谈。执政党政客们一直专注于打击“野鸡大学学位”。

This rouses their base, but hardly encourages the regulator to welcome new entrants.

这引起了支持者的兴趣，但却不鼓励监管机构欢迎新参与者。

It doesn’t help that ministers have given the OfS lots of new tasks, such as policing academic freedom and monitoring policies on harassment.

部长们赋予了 OfS 大量新任务，例如监管学术自由和监控骚扰政策，这也无济于事。

That limits the time and resources it can use for working with startups.
这限制了OfS与新办机构合作的时间和资源。

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The zeal for “challenger” universities deserves to be rediscovered (it may be easier once employment data for their graduates show that they create a successful pathway to well-paid jobs).

我们应该重燃对“挑战者”大学的热情（一旦毕业生的就业数据表明新办大学创造了通往高薪工作的成功路径，这可能会更容易）。

With the right policies, this demographic bulge could be used to plant universities in cities that presently go without one, and increase competition everywhere else.
如果政策得当，就可以利用人口膨胀在目前没有大学的城市创办大学，增加各地的竞争力。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量922左右）
原文出自：2023年9月16日《The Economist》Britain版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
詹姆斯·戴森（James Dyson）是一位著名的英国设计师和发明家，他最广为人知的作品是吸尘器。他年轻时学习艺术和设计。在20世纪60年代末，他开始独立设计吸尘器，因为他认为传统吸尘器的设计不能有效地清理地面。他在一段时间内进行了大量试验和研究，最终开发出了一种名为“戴森”（Dyson）的新型吸尘器，它使用一种名为“环流动力学”的技术，可以更有效地清理地面。

【重点句子】（3个）
So far seven new bodies have received “degree awarding powers”, though they are not yet supposed to use the term “university”, which remains a tightly protected title.
目前已有7个新机构获得“学位授予权”，但它们还不能使用“大学”这个受严格保护的机构名称。

Rather than pick one subject, they study things as diverse as philosophy and data science; eventually they earn a degree in “interdisciplinary” studies.
学生不是专攻一门学科，而是会学习哲学和数据科学等不同的学科；最终他们会获得“跨学科”学位。

It takes uncommon gumption to get a new university off the ground.
创办一所新大学需要非凡的勇气。