Let's Stop Pretending College Degrees Don't Matter

讓我們不要再假裝大學學歷不重要了

By Ben Wildavsky

Scanning the headlines， it would be easy to believe that a college degree is becoming increasingly irrelevant in a fast-evolving job market.

瀏覽新聞標題時，我們很容易相信，在這個快速發展的就業市場中，大學學歷正變得越來越無關緊要。

Fourteen states， including 10 in the past year alone， have dropped degree requirements for many state jobs.

美國已有14個州取消了對許多州政府職位的學歷要求，其中有10個州是在過去一年之內取消要求的。

As always， it's useful to look at what economists call “revealed preferences“— or what people do， regardless of what they say.

像通常情況一樣，看一看經濟學家們所說的“顯示性偏好”是很有用的，意思是，看一看人們是怎么做的，而不要看他們是怎么說的。

The economic advantage of getting a college degree remains at just about an all-time high when compared with the average earnings of Americans with only a high-school diploma.

就平均收入而言，相較于只擁有高中文憑的美國人，擁有大學學歷者的經濟優勢仍在，且接近歷史最高水平。

In April 2022， a major study by the Society for Human Resource Management， or S.H.R.M.， found that 71 percent of executives said that some alternative credentials are equivalent to a bachelor's degree. But only 58 percent of supervisors (most likely beneath those executives on the organization chart) concurred， a figure that fell to 36 percent for human resources professionals， or those typically closest to hiring decisions.

2022年4月，美國人力資源管理協會（簡稱“S.H.R.M.”）的一項重大研究發現，71%的高管表示，一些其他類型的資質證明可以等同于學士學位。但只有58%的主管（職位很可能在組織結構中位于高管之下）同意該觀點。在人力資源專業人士中，這一比例降至36%，而這些人通常與招聘決策最為密切相關。

The broad education and targeted skills that college graduates usually obtain prepare them for career success. That includes analytical and communications abilities， tailored preparation in popular subjects like business， nursing and computer science， or liberal arts majors that have significant long-term benefits. When undergrads are also able to develop their social capital to build professional networks， so much the better.

大學畢業生通常可以獲得廣泛的通識教育和特定的專業技能，幫助他們為職業成功做好準備。這包括分析和溝通能力，商科、護理、計算機科學等熱門學科中專業對口的職業準備，或是可讓人長期顯著獲益的文理基礎學科專業。如果本科生也能發展自己的社會資本，從而建立職業人際關系網，那就更好了。

College degree requirements aren't sacred. But they reflect the unmistakable reality that higher education helps people do well.

對于大學學歷的要求并不神圣。但它們反映了一個不容置疑的現實，即高等教育幫助人們取得成功。