德国的大学

　　Between great and so-so

　　处于顶尖和一般之间

　　Not in the elite but improving, German universities bet on a middle way

　　虽非精英教育但一直在提高，德国的大学秉承着中庸之道

　　A GLANCE at the global rankings of universities suggests that nothing much has changed in recent years. MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford and a few other English-speaking campuses remain at the top, fighting it out with large endowments, celebrity professors and selective entry. By contrast, universities in Germany are nowhere near the top, even after several reforms, including an “excellence initiative” since 2005. Many students waste away in overflow rooms next to packed and stuffy lecture halls. Their best hope of seeing professors is through opera glasses.

　　关注下全球大学排名就会发现近年来排序并没有什么变化。以捐款数额，著名教授人数和录取率为排名标准，麻省理工学院，斯坦福，剑桥，牛津以及其他一些说英语的学校仍然高居榜首。相反，没有一所德国的大学位列其中，甚至在政府采取了一系列措施之后仍是如此（包括2005年启动的“精英计划”）。学生宿舍拥挤不堪，旁边紧挨着就是着狭小、封闭的阶梯教室，学生就在那里虚度光阴。他们也就只能在通过望远镜看到教授。

　　But look more closely at the rankings, and change is more evident, thinks Günther Zupanc, a biology professor who has taught in Germany, Britain and Canada and is now at Boston's Northeastern University. Only a couple of German universities make it into the top 50: Heidelberg's Ruprecht-Karls-University and Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians-University usually lead the pack. Among the top 200, however, German universities have improved the most. Taken together, they have moved up by 250 places, Mr Zupanc calculates. Only Dutch universities have done better. America's, by contrast, have crashed: since 2011 they have collectively moved down by 692 places.

　　但是仔细观察全球排名就发现变化很明显：曾在德国、英国和加拿大任教过的生物学教授Günther Zupanc 现在波士顿的东北大学任教。排在全球前50的德国大学屈指可数:海德堡的鲁普莱希特—卡尔大学和慕尼黑大学(全称路德维希马克西米利安慕尼黑大学Ludwig Maximilian Muenchen Unitversitaet) 常独领风骚。然而，在前200名的大学中，德国大学排名上升最快。Zupanc统计，总体来说上升了250个名次。其他国家中，只有荷兰大学做的比德国更好些。相比而言，美国大学的排名骤降：自2011年以来，共下降了692个名次。

　　德国大学.jpg

　　If this trend continues, Mr Zupanc suggests, it could amount to a German Mittelweg (middle path) in higher education. At one extreme of the spectrum stand the Anglo-Saxons, who breed elite universities that most students either cannot get into or cannot pay for, but do less to nurture those lower in the rankings. At the other are socialist systems which make higher education free and access easy, at the cost of less differentiation among universities and overall mediocrity.

　　Zupanc教授表示，如果这种趋势延续下去，可以认为德国高等教育在走中间路线。一端是以精英大学为主的安格鲁撒克逊人，学生筛选标准严格及其学费高昂，但这对名次下降也无任何帮助。另一端是社会主义国家，由于其大学更加看重平等且普遍较平庸，高等教育免费，入学门槛低。

　　Germany has tried both ends of this spectrum. In 1810 Wilhelm von Humboldt, a Prussian son of the enlightenment, founded the University of Berlin (now Humboldt University) on the then-revolutionary premise that professors and students should be partners in learning and that teaching and research were inseparable. His philosophy influenced university systems from America to Japan. And it led to more than a century of excellence at German universities, which for many years were the best in the world and produced thinkers from Hegel to Planck. This golden age was destroyed by the Nazis.

　　这两种极端的教学模式德国都尝试过。1810年出生于启蒙时期的布鲁士人威廉姆·冯·洪堡建立了柏林大学（现为洪堡大学），并提出了革命性的言论：教授和学生在学习中应该是平等的伙伴关系且教学和科研不可分离。他的理念影响了从美国到日本的整个大学教育系统。这为德国大学带来了一个世纪的杰出成就，长期处于世界顶尖大学的行列并培养了包括黑格尔、普朗克在内的思想家。这段黄金时期终结于纳粹的手中。

　　After 1945, West German universities revived the stuffy bits but without the excellence. Only the idolising of titles survived: even outside academia, Germans insist on being addressed with the full mouthful of “Herr Professor Doktor”. In the 1960s German students rebelled in vain. One slogan was “under the robes, the musty stink of 1,000 years”.

　　1945年后，西德的大学重建了这些拥挤的校舍但未保持优势。只有那些象征崇拜的称号保留下来了，德国规定，即使在学术活动外，学生对老师也要用尊陈，如“教授、先生”等。20世纪60年代，德国学生反抗失败，他们的一句口号是：“长袍下，是千年陈腐的老古董”。

　　With the country's first Social Democratic government in 1969, the emphasis shifted to widening access across social classes. Until a court ruling in 2005, German universities—which, like schools, are run by the states—were not allowed to charge tuition fees. Since then, seven states (all in the old West Germany) have tried, but all have given up after howls of outrage. The final holdouts, Bavaria and Lower Saxony, have recently dropped fees.

　　1969年德国第一个社会民主党执政，把重点转移到扩大社会各阶层的学习机会。在2005年法律规定前，德国的大学—如各州州立的大学—是不允许收学费的。自那以后，尽管有七个州(都处于旧西德地区)尝试征收学费，但迫于人们的愤怒而作罢。最后抵抗的学校，Bavaria和Lower Saxony，最近也放弃了收学费。

　　But Germany knows that higher education needs to improve. One push has, since 1999, come from the European Union's Bologna process, which has made the German system more compatible internationally, replacing traditional degrees with bachelors' and masters'. Germany has also allowed private universities and specialised colleges for engineers or business, with courses in English.

　　但是德国人明白高等教育需要改进。一个推动力就是1999年来自欧盟的波罗尼亚进程，促使德国教育系统与国际接轨并用硕士和博士学位代替了传统学位

　　。德国也准许私立大学和专业性大学为工程师或企业家开展英语授课模式。

　　Their success has been limited, however. The idea that alumni should donate money to their alma maters remains anathema. The assumption is that education is the government's business and should cost nothing. Only 6% of students go to private colleges.

　　然而，他们的成绩很有限。毕业生应向母校捐赠的观点仍然不被大众接受。人们认为教育是政府的事情，不需要公众花费。只有6%的学生选择私立院校进行学习。

　　Even so, some progress has been made. The federal government and a research foundation have given money to 30 promising universities known tongue-in-cheek as an Ivy League in the making. The number of foreign students in Germany has surged to 300,000, putting Germany just behind America, Britain and Australia as a destination. If you can't get into Stanford, Germany is now another option.

　　即便如此，还是取得了一些成就。联邦政府和一科研基金会向30所前景较好的大学拨款，比较好笑的是，其中竟然包括一所常春藤大学。德国的外国留学生人数激增至300,000，仅次于美国、英国和澳大利亚。如果你去不了斯坦福，那么如今的德国大学也是个不错的选择。