大学如何服务社会

美国耶鲁大学校长里查德·雷文教授发表主旨讲演：
大学如何服务于社会
Keynote Address: Chinese-Foreign University Presidents’ Forum President Richard C. Levin
July 18, 2006
Shanghai, China
中外大学校长论坛
I am greatly honored by the invitation of the Ministry of Education to participate in this important biannual forum involving the presidents of China's leading universities and others from around the world. This is a propitious time for such a gathering, as those of us outside China continue to watch with admiration the enormous investment your country is making to improve the capacity, quality, and international standing of your universities. I want to express my gratitude to Minister Zhou Ji for taking the initiative to organize this event. I am delighted to participate.
I have been asked to discuss how universities serve their society. This is a question well worth asking, at a time of such massive investment and growth here in China. To answer the question, I will draw mainly on the experience of American universities, not because
their contributions are unique or more important than those of universities elsewhere. I focus on the U.S. experience strictly because I know it best, and I do so in full recognition that some of the lessons learned in my country may not apply directly to China.
So let me go straight to the answer. I believe that universities serve their society in many ways, but I will focus on the contribution that they make through three activities in particular: research, education, and institutional citizenship.
First, by advancing knowledge of science, technology, and medicine universities create the foundation for economic growth, material well-being and improvements in human health.
Second, by educating students to be capable of flexible, adaptive, and creative responses to changing conditions, universities strengthen their society's capacity to innovate.
And, third, by serving as models of institutional citizenship, universities make a direct contribution to social betterment and inspire their students to recognize obligation to serve.
Let me discuss each type of service to society in turn.
University Research as an Engine of Economic Growth
In the modern economy, global competitive advantage derives primarily from a nation's capacity to innovate, to introduce and develop new products, processes, and services. This has clearly been the foundation of America's economic leadership in the period following the Second World War. And one important element in sustaining that leadership has been the strength of American science.
As the principal locus of basic research, America's universities play a key role in sustaining our nation's competitiveness and economic growth. Basic research, by definition, is motivated by curiosity and the quest for knowledge, without a clear, practical objective. Yet basic research is the source from which all commercially oriented applied research and development ultimately flows. I say ultimately because it often takes decades before the commercial implications of an important scientific discovery are fully realized. The commercial potential of a particular discovery is often unanticipated, and often extends to many unrelated industries and applications. In other words, the development of innovative
products and services that occurs today usually depends on advances in basic research achieved ten, twenty, or fifty years ago - most often without any idea of the eventual consequences.
The emergence of universities as America's primary basic research machine did not come about by accident. Rather, it was the product of a wise and farsighted national science policy, set forth in an important 1946 report that established the framework for an unprecedented and heavily subsidized system in support of scientific research that has propelled the American economy. The system rested upon three principles that remain largely intact today. First, the federal government shoulders the principal responsibility for financing basic science. Second, universities - rather than government laboratories, non-teaching research institutes, or private industry - are the primary institutions in which this government-funded research is undertaken. And, third, although the federal budgetary process determines the total funding available for each of the various fields of science, most funds are allocated, not according to commercial or political considerations, but through an intensely competitive process of review conducted by independent scientific experts who judge proposals on their scientific merit alone. This system of organizing science has been an extraordinary success,
scientifically and economically.
To ensure that university-based scientific research truly contributes to national well-being requires that ideas move from theory to practice. For much of the period following World War II, most U.S. universities did not actively seek to participate in the translation of discoveries into new products, processes, and services. An exception was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By the mid-1990s, graduates of MIT had founded over 4,000 companies nationwide, and were continuing to create an additional 150 companies a year. Illustrating the impact a university can have on its local economy, more than 1,000 of those companies are based in Massachusetts, accounting for about 25 percent of all manufacturing activity in the state. If engagement with industry was once the exception among U.S. universities, it is now the norm. Since 1980 over 4,000 companies have been formed based on technology licensed by a university.
Educating Students for Innovation and Leadership
The knowledge created by the enterprise of academic science is
by no means the only important contribution that universities make to the welfare of their societies. By educating students and preparing them well for service across the range of occupations and professions, universities contribute at least as much through their teaching as they contribute through their research. The increase in the number of well-trained engineers here in China has been staggering, and providing students with the requisite skills to obtain and retain productive jobs is important. But I want to talk about a more subtle and profound objective of university education, one that has been achieved with distinction by the very best of America's universities and colleges. And that is educating students to be creative, flexible, and adaptive problem-solvers, capable of innovation and leadership.
The world we live in is fast-paced and constantly changing. New scientific discoveries are made every day, and new theories displace old ones with relentless regularity.
The methods of undergraduate education used by America's most selective and distinguished universities and liberal arts colleges are particularly well suited to prepare students for a changing world. These institutions are committed to the "liberal education" of
undergraduates. The premise underlying the philosophy of liberal education is that students will be best prepared for life if they can assimilate new information and reason through to new conclusions. Since any particular body of knowledge is bound to become obsolete, the object of liberal education is not to convey any particular content, but to develop certain qualities of mind: the ability to think independently, to regard the world with curiosity and ask interesting questions, to subject the world to sustained and rigorous analysis, and to arrive at fresh, creative answers. Society gains most from a pedagogy that seeks to enlarge the power of students to reason, to think creatively, and to respond adaptively.
The University as an Institutional Citizen
I'd like next to explore with you one more way in which universities can contribute to society - by being good institutional citizens of their communities. In this way universities can contribute directly to local economic development, neighborhood improvement, public education, health care, social services, and environmental awareness. But they also contribute indirectly by modeling good citizenship for their students, thus helping to inculcate in them a sense of social responsibility.
Such efforts to mobilize students and faculty in support of worthy civic causes, as well as efforts by the leadership of institutions to contribute directly to the betterment of the broader community that surrounds us, flow naturally from the mission and purposes of our institutions. On our campuses we are devoted to the development of full human potential of our students and faculty. But many of our neighbors lack the opportunity to flourish. We, with the privilege of education, can help those without privilege gain access to greater opportunity. Thus, universities contribute through their citizenship, as well as through their research and teaching, to the betterment of society.
参考译文：
我十分荣幸能够受中国教育部的邀请来参加这样一个重要的、每两年举办一次的大学校长论坛，这个论坛有来自中外著名大学校长的参加。

当我们这些外国的校长们以欣赏的眼光来关注贵国以巨额的投资来提高你们大学的实力、质量和名望的时候，举办这样一个论坛非常有益。

我被要求谈论是大学如何服务社会的话题。

在中国正进行巨额投入和发展的时候，这是一个值得讨论的话题。

我主要会用美国的经验来回答这个问题，这并是不是说美国大学对社会的贡献比其他地区更加独特或是更加重要。

我之所以会严格地按美国的经验来探讨，是因为我对它最
了解。

我也深知，美国的经验可能并不能直接应用于中国。

现在就言归正传吧。

我相信大学可以以不同的方式服务社会，而我主要会谈三种方式，即研究、教学和机构性公民。

首先，大学通过促进科技和医学知识的发展，为促进经济发展、物质富裕和人类健康创造基础。

其次，大学通过教育培养学生应对各种变化的灵活性、适应能力和创新能力，来加强社会的创新能力。

第三，大学以身作则，直接对社会的发展做出贡献，并激励学生认识到他们的服务社会的职责。

接下来，我分别谈谈每种服务社会的方式。

大学研究是经济发展的引擎
现代经济中，全球化的竞争优势主要取决于一个国家的创新、开发新产品和提供服务的能力。

这种能力显然是美国经济在二战后保持领先地位的基础，而维持这种领先地位的一个重要因素是美国科学的实力。

作为基础研究的主要基地，美国大学在保持美国竞争力和经济发展上发挥着关键作用。

基础研究，是一种好奇心和对知识的追求，而并不是一种明确的实践目标。

但是基础研究是所有以商业为导向的应用研究和开发最初的源头，我之所以说“最初”，是因为重要的科学发现的商业
价值往往需要人们要花几十年才能认识到。

一种科学发现的商业潜力事先往往无法预知，而且通常会延伸到很多不相关的产业和应用。

换句话说，现在出现的创造性的产品和服务通常依赖于在十年、二十年甚至五十年前基础研究方面的进步。

美国大学作为国家基础科学研究的基地并不是偶然出现的，而是一个具有远见的科学政策的结果。

该政策在1946年的一个报告中被提出，它建立了一个前所未有的高额补助体系的框架来支持科学研究，从而促进美国经济的增长。

这个补助体系依赖于三个原则，这三个原则直到现在仍然没有大的变化。

第一，联邦政府必须对基础研究承担主要的资助责任；第二，只有大学才是从事由政府资助的基础研究的地方，而不是政府的实验室、非教学的研究机构或私营企业的一些机构；第三，虽然联邦政府的预算决定每个科研领域的拨款额，但是联邦政府大部分的拨款不是看其商业上的价值，也不是看其政治上的影响，而是通过由独立的专家进行同行评审看其在科学上的价值。

这种组织科研的体系在科学上和经济上都取得了巨大的成功。

为了保证大学的学术研究能够真正为国家发展做出贡献，就要求我们把自己的观念从理论转向实践。

二战后的相当一个时期，大多数美国的大学并没有主动寻求将科学发现转化为生产和服务，只有麻省理工学院是个例外。

20世纪90年代中期，麻省理工学院的毕业生在全国建立了4000多家公司，接着每一年又创立出1 50家公司。

这些公司中有1000多家在麻省理工创办，他们占到麻省理工所在州制造业的25%，这说明
一所大学会对当地经济产生重要影响。

如果说，美国的大学参与产业界的活动曾经是一种例外的话，那么现在它已经成为一种普遍现象了。

自20世纪80年代以来，有4000家公司所用的技术来自于大学。

基础性学术研究所创造的知识绝不是大学为社会做出的唯一重要的贡献，通过对学生的教育使其将来能够更好地为社会各行各业服务，是与学术研究同样重要的社会贡献。

在中国，经过很好培训的工程师的数量在不断增加，为学生提供必需的技能以便使其能够获得并保持一个好的工作，被看作是很重要的事情。

但是，我想讨论一下大学教育的一个更敏感、也更意义深远的目标，这一的目标在美国一些最好大学得以出色地实现，那就是：培养学生的创造性、灵活性，以及解决问题、创新和领导的能力。

培养学生的创新能力和领导能力
当今世界日新月异，科学发现层出不穷，各种理论不断推陈出新。

在美国最好的大学和人文学院，本科教育的教学方法很适合培养学生的能力，以应对这个日新月异的世界。

这些大学和学院在本科阶段实行的是通识教育。

这种教育的前提是让学生吸收新信息、得出新结论从而培养学生的生活能力。

因为任何知识都会过时，所以通识教育的目的并不是要给予学生具体的专门知识，而是要培养学生思维的素质，即独立思考的能力，好奇心和提出问题的能力，严密的逻辑思维能力和创新能
力。

社会受益于这样一种旨在培养学生分析问题、创新思考和灵活应对能力的教学方法。

大学是机构性公民
接下来，我想谈谈大学服务于社会的另外一种方式，就是做好的机构性公民。

通过这种方式，大学可以直接为社区经济发展、“邻里’’(学校周边)关系的改善、公共教育、健康关怀、社会服务和环境意识的提高做出贡献。

同时，大学也可以通过以身作则，使学生树立强烈的社会责任感，从而间接地为社会做出自己的贡献。

动员学生和教职工支持民间事业的努力，和大学领导直接为周边更广阔的社区发展做出的努力，来自于大学的使命和目标。

我们致力于发展学生和教师的潜力。

但是我们很多社区缺少发展与繁荣的机会。

我们拥有教育的优势，因此可以帮助那些缺少这样优势的社区获得更大的发展机会。

这样，大学通过机构性公民、教学和科研，能够为社会的发展做出贡献。