In a few minutes, all of you will march through FitzRandolph Gate as newly minted graduates of this University. Before you do, it is my privilege to say a few words about the path that lies ahead.
It is indeed a privilege, and also a joy, to address you, for all of you who graduate today have accomplished something genuinely important and worth celebrating. You have completed a demanding course of study. It will transform your life in many ways. It will expand the range of vocations you can pursue, increase your knowledge of the world, deepen your capacity to appreciate societies and cultures, and provide a foundation for lifelong learning.
So we celebrate here on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, as do other college communities in courtyards, auditoria, arenas, and stadia around the country. Graduates toss caps in the air and professors applaud. Families cheer and holler enthusiastically. Yet, even as we do so, we see a strange trend from columnists, bloggers, think tanks, and politicians. In essays, books, and speeches, some of them suggest that too many students are earning college degrees.
Too many college graduates: that is a very odd claim, because the economic evidence for the value of a college degree is overwhelming. For example, in 2014, economists Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated the average annual return on investment from a college degree, net of tuition paid and lost earnings, at between 9 percent and 16 percent per year for a lifetime (1). For the last two decades, the return on investment has hovered at the high end of that range, around 15 percent per year.
By comparison, 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 decision 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, even after controlling for income. 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 come with an increased capacity to appreciate culture, the arts, the world’s 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 degrees 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 without getting a college degree. Welders, they observe, can make more money than many college graduates. That’s true. There are, of course, reasons why you might want to get a college degree even if you plan to become a welder. You might worry, for example, about what happens if technology renders your trade 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 that 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 come with a college 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 measure. 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. 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 better off with fewer college graduates is a short-term swindle, a swindle that will cheat America’s young people, weaken the nation's 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 students 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 become advocates for the value of higher education in our society. There is a national conversation taking place right now about the value of 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, become advocates for the importance of completion rates. A college education produces a tremendous return—if 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 college and so never get the earnings boost that comes 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 College’s four-year graduation rate from 58 percent to 75 percent, a number that puts TCNJ’s on-time completion rate among the top ten in the nation for public colleges and universities. By raising TCNJ’s graduation rate, President Gitenstein has improved the lives of thousands of students who might have left school with debt but no degree. Be an advocate for higher education leaders like Bobby Gitenstein, and for colleges like TCNJ that commit to improving completion rates.
Second, support America’s public institutions of higher education. State subsidies for public colleges and universities have declined precipitously, and state funding represents an increasingly small share of the budget at public research universities. At the University of Michigan, for example, state funding now accounts for only about 9 percent of total revenues. In the 1950s, by contrast, that number was 80 percent. Tuition at state universities has risen not because they have increased their expenditures per student, but because state legislatures have hollowed out their other sources of support.
America depends on its public colleges and universities. They are engines of social mobility and innovation. Princeton and other private universities make essential contributions to the nation and the world — but there is no way that we could ever replace America’s great public institutions. They are a national treasure, and I urge you to support them.
Third, stand up for the importance of enabling more students from low-income families to earn college degrees. Princeton’s Great Class of 2018 graduates today as the most socioeconomically diverse class in the 272-year history of this University. You will not hold that record for long. Other classes already at Princeton will break your record. Our graduate programs are likewise drawing upon new sources of talent: this spring we admitted the most socioeconomically diverse class of doctoral students in Princeton University’s history.
At Princeton we believe in socioeconomic diversity because we know that to achieve excellence as a University and as a nation we must draw talent from every sector of society. We know, too, that a Princeton degree is a rocket-booster for students seeking socioeconomic mobility. If we want to heal the divisions that inequality has produced in this country, we must ensure that students from low-income backgrounds receive the educations they need to develop their abilities and contribute to our society.
As I look out at our extraordinary class of undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degree recipients, I take pride in your excellence and your diversity, and I am excited about the contributions you will make in the years ahead. The world needs more college degrees, not fewer. We need more celebrations like the one we hold today, with more proud families and happy graduates ready to go out and make a positive difference in the world. All of us on this platform are thrilled to be a part of your celebration. We applaud your achievements. We send our best wishes as you begin the adventures that lie ahead, and we look forward to welcoming you back to this campus on future visits. To the Great Class of 2018 and all of our graduates, congratulations!
2018毕业典礼致辞
Christopher L. Eisgruber总统
2018年6月5日
再过几分钟，你们所有人都会在菲茨兰多夫门前游行，成为这所大学新毕业的毕业生。在你这样做之前，我有幸对未来的道路说几句话。
对你们来说，这的确是一种特权，也是一种喜悦，因为你们今天毕业的所有人都已经完成了一些真正重要的事情，值得庆祝。你已经完成了一门要求很高的课程。它将在很多方面改变你的生活。它将扩大你可以从事的职业范围，增加你对世界的了解，加深你对社会和文化的欣赏能力，并为终生学习提供基础。
所以我们在拿骚大厅前面的草坪上庆祝，就像在全国各地的庭院、礼堂、体育场和体育场等大学社区一样。毕业生们在空中抛帽子，教授们鼓掌。家庭热烈鼓掌。然而，即使我们这样做，我们也会从专栏作家、博客作者、智囊团和政治家那里看到一种奇怪的趋势。在散文、书籍和演讲中，有些人认为太多的学生获得大学学位。
太多的大学毕业生：这是一个非常奇怪的说法，因为大学学位的经济证据是压倒性的。例如，在2014，经济学家Jay森阿贝尔和纽约联邦储备银行的Richard Deitz估计从大学毕业的平均每年的投资回报，净收入和损失的收入，每年在9%到16%之间（1）。在过去的二十年中，投资回报率一直徘徊在这一范围的高端，每年约为15%。
相比之下，美国股市投资的历史平均回报率每年约为7%。这就是为什么我的朋友Morton Shapiro，西北大学校长和一位著名的教育经济学家说，对于大多数人来说，投资大学学位的决定将是“一生中唯一的最好的财务决策”，即使纯粹是用FIN来判断。社会投资回报率。
学位也能带来许多其他好处。例如，大学毕业生报告更高水平的幸福感和工作满意度，甚至在控制收入之后。大学毕业生比非毕业生更健康。他们更有可能锻炼，更有可能投票，并且有更高程度的公民参与。在这些务实的考虑下，我们应该增加伴随着欣赏文化、艺术、世界多样性和非凡思想内在美的能力而带来的欢乐。
我引用的数字不是普林斯顿特有的。相反，他们是所有四年学位的平均值，在所有领域，来自美国的所有大学。想一想：平均而言，来自所有学院的所有领域的所有学位都会产生9%到16%年间的年度回报，而这一回报是由健康、幸福和生活质量的额外好处所补充的。怎么会有人认为我们需要更少的大学毕业生？
有些人回答说，你可以在没有获得大学学位的情况下学习贸易。他们观察到，焊工比许多大学毕业生挣的钱多。那是真的。当然，即使你打算成为一名焊工，你也有可能想获得大学学位。例如，你可能担心，如果技术让你的交易过时，或者关节炎让你无法实践，或者你想进入管理层或探索其他兴趣，会发生什么。大学学位能使你对改变——对你自己和对世界的反应——一辈子都不可避免地发生。
不过，如果权威人士和政治家只说美国需要更好的职业培训，我可以全心全意地同意。如果更多的人能够得到他们需要的训练来进行贸易，那就太好了。但同时，如果有更多的人，而不是更少的人，能得到大学学位带来的非凡好处，那也将是很好的。所以我再次问：为什么有人认为我们需要更少的大学毕业生？我认为有一个简单的答案。教育需要高质量的教学。教学反过来取决于熟练的劳动力，这是昂贵的。因此，教育的前期成本是真实的、大的和容易测量的。回报同样真实，甚至更大，但它们终生积累，难以衡量，因人而异。希望你能以更低的成本获得更多的确定性。要求较少学位的人会屈服于这种诱惑。他们强调短期。他们几乎完全关注大学的价格和学生在第一份工作中的薪水。那是个错误。
大学教育是一项长期投资。它使毕业生能够适应和发展，而且回报丰厚。