校園生活: 爲什麼讀博是浪費時間

ON THE evening before All Saints' Day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg. In those days a thesis was simply a position one wanted to argue. Luther, an Augustinian friar, asserted that Christians could not buy their way to heaven. Today a doctoral thesis is both an idea and an account of a period of original research. Writing one is the aim of the hundreds of thousands of students who embark on a doctorate of philosophy (PhD) every year.

1517年10月31日，也就是萬聖節前夜，馬丁·路德在威登堡城堡大教堂門口以學術爭論方式張貼出歡迎辯論的《九十五條論點》。在那個時代，論文只是闡述作者觀點。這位新教創始人路德在論文中論證了基督教通往天國的道路，其實不是由金錢鋪築而成。而今天，學術論文不僅僅闡述作者觀點，同時還代表作者的一段時期內的研究成果。每年都有成千上萬的學生們想要拿到博士學位，前赴後繼辛苦勞累，就是爲了完成這樣一篇博士論文。

In most countries a PhD is a basic requirement for a career in academia. It is an introduction to the world of independent research—a kind of intellectual masterpiece, created by an apprentice in close collaboration with a supervisor. The requirements to complete one vary enormously between countries, universities and even subjects. Some students will first have to spend two years working on a master's degree or diploma. Some will receive a stipend; others will pay their own way. Some PhDs involve only research, some require classes and examinations and some require the student to teach undergraduates. A thesis can be dozens of pages in mathematics, or many hundreds in history. As a result, newly minted PhDs can be as young as their early 20s or world-weary forty-somethings.

在大多數國家，博士學位是進入學術界的門檻，進入獨立研究某個領域的敲門磚，也是與導師合作的研究成果。各個國家，不同大學，不同專業，要求也有所不同。有些要求學生兩年時間才能拿到碩士學位，有的學生會得到一些補助，而有些完全是自費。獲得博士學位只需要完成研究論文，而有些還需要參加一些必修課或選修課或是助教工作。一篇學術論文有幾十頁，甚至是幾百頁。這些博士有的還是二十出頭的小夥兒，有些已經是知天命的四十歲中年人了。

One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work as “slave labour”. Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and uncertain prospects are widespread. You know you are a graduate student, goes one quip, when your office is better decorated than your home and you have a favourite flavour of instant noodle. “It isn't graduate school itself that is discouraging,” says one student, who confesses to rather enjoying the hunt for free pizza. “What's discouraging is realising the end point has been yanked out of reach.”

這些讀博的學生們有一點是相同的：即對現狀不滿。有的把自己的工作描述爲打工仔，每週七天無休息，二十四小時待命，薪酬很少，前途渺茫。這種情況很普遍。如果你已經博士畢業，回顧讀博那段經歷，可能會說，那個時候，我的辦公室比現在的家都要闊氣，而且經常吃方便麪。一位求學者說，本質問題是研究本身讓我感到枯燥。他很坦誠地說，天上不可能掉餡餅。

Whining PhD students are nothing new, but there seem to be genuine problems with the system that produces research doctorates (the practical “professional doctorates” in fields such as law, business and medicine have a more obvious value). There is an oversupply of PhDs. Although a doctorate is designed as training for a job in academia, the number of PhD positions is unrelated to the number of job openings. Meanwhile, business leaders complain about shortages of high-level skills, suggesting PhDs are not teaching the right things. The fiercest critics compare research doctorates to Ponzi or pyramid schemes.

在讀博士抱怨滿腹早已不是什麼新鮮事，現象背後的本質問題在於培養博士體系本身。應用性博士，比如法學博士、商學博士和藥學博士，實際上含金量很高。而博士氾濫成災供過於求，儘管博士學位的設置是爲進入學術界而考慮，但是現在存在的問題是，授予博士學位的數量和現有的研究崗位數量差距拉大。博士供過於求，而很多企業領導又說他們找不到所需的高級技術人才。從一方面也表明博士們並沒有學到企業所需的知識技能。一些人甚至把研究型博士的培養體系比作旁氏原理。

Rich pickings For most of history even a first degree at a university was the privilege of a rich few, and many academic staff did not hold doctorates. But as higher education expanded after the second world war, so did the expectation that lecturers would hold advanced degrees. American universities geared up first: by 1970 America was producing just under a third of the world's university students and half of its science and technology PhDs (at that time it had only 6% of the global population). Since then America's annual output of PhDs has doubled, to 64,000.

從歷史上看有相當一段時間，如果說進入一流大學讀書還是少數富人才能得到的特權，甚至很多大學教師都沒有博士學位。而二戰後，高校不斷擴招，於此同時大學講師也需要有較高學歷。到1970年，美國的大學就是如此，數量不到三分之一，卻頒發了全球自然科學和工科博士的一半人數。在這段時期美國人口僅佔全世界人口的6%，從此之後，美國每年博士數量不斷翻倍，每年達到6.4萬人。

Other countries are catching up. Between 1998 and 2006 the number of doctorates handed out in all OECD countries grew by 40%, compared with 22% for America. PhD production sped up most dramatically in Mexico, Portugal, Italy and Slovakia. Even Japan, where the number of young people is shrinking, churned out about 46% more PhDs. Part of that growth reflects the expansion of university education outside America. Richard Freeman, a labour economist at Harvard University, says that by 2006 America was enrolling just 12% of the world's students.

其他國家也紛紛趕上。在1998年至2006年，經合組織國家頒發的博士學位數量增長了40%，同時美國增長了22%。在墨西哥、葡萄牙、意大利、斯洛伐克等國家博士產出也增長很快。甚至在年輕人口減少的日本，也以46%的增速培養了大批博士。這些增長也看出美國以外的其他國家的高等教育在迅猛發展。哈佛大學勞動經濟學家理查德·費裏曼說，到2006年，美國高校招生數量佔世界12%。

But universities have discovered that PhD students are cheap, highly motivated and disposable labour. With more PhD students they can do more research, and in some countries more teaching, with less money. A graduate assistant at Yale might earn $20,000 a year for nine months of teaching. The average pay of full professors in America was $109,000 in 2009—higher than the average for judges and magistrates.

同時，許多大學形成了一個共識，在讀博士積極性很高，因而是可以任意指使的廉價勞動力。招手博士有助於學校開展研究項目，這些博士生還可用來發展教育，而且成本少。一位耶魯大學研究生助教九個月的收入爲2萬美元，2009年全美在職教授平均年薪爲10.9萬美元，高於法官和地方官員。

Indeed, the production of PhDs has far outstripped demand for university lecturers. In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships. Using PhD students to do much of the undergraduate teaching cuts the number of full-time jobs. Even in Canada, where the output of PhD graduates has grown relatively modestly, universities conferred 4,800 doctorate degrees in 2007 but hired just 2,616 new full-time professors. Only a few fast-developing countries, such as Brazil and China, now seem short of PhDs.

博士年產量遠遠高出了大學對講師的需求，最新出版一本書中，美國在2005年至2009年一共培養了10萬名博士，與此同時，大學教師職位需求僅僅爲1.6萬人，這本書兩位作者是一位學者和一名記者。在讀博士去做助教更減少了對全職教師的需求。甚至在加拿大，博士畢業生增長較爲合理的國家，2007年授予了48000人博士學位，同時增加了26160人做爲全職教師，而一些增長較快的國家，比如巴西和中國，似乎對博士需求量大一些。

A short course in supply and demand In research the story is similar. PhD students and contract staff known as “postdocs”, described by one student as “the ugly underbelly of academia”, do much of the research these days. There is a glut of postdocs too. Dr Freeman concluded from pre-2000 data that if American faculty jobs in the life sciences were increasing at 5% a year, just 20% of students would land one. In Canada 80% of postdocs earn $38,600 or less per year before tax—the average salary of a construction worker. The rise of the postdoc has created another obstacle on the way to an academic post. In some areas five years as a postdoc is now a prerequisite for landing a secure full-time job.

研究領域情況類似，在讀博士學習期間做了大量的研究工作，學生們稱爲“軟肋”，現在博士後也是供過於求，付瑞曼博士的結論是：數據表明，2000年美國生命科學領域教工需求每年增長5%，這些博士和博士後學生裏面，僅僅有五分之一能找到工作。在加拿大，80%的博士後每年收入是3.86萬美元甚至更少，而這是建築工人的平均薪資，博士後數量增加成了博士們通往學術道路的一種阻礙，在有些國家，五年博士後纔是獲得一份全職工作的敲門磚。

These armies of low-paid PhD researchers and postdocs boost universities', and therefore countries', research capacity. Yet that is not always a good thing. Brilliant, well-trained minds can go to waste when fashions change. The post-Sputnik era drove the rapid growth in PhD physicists that came to an abrupt halt as the Vietnam war drained the science budget. Brian Schwartz, a professor of physics at the City University of New York, says that in the 1970s as many as 5,000 physicists had to find jobs in other areas.

這些如螞蟻般不斷增長的博士和博士後們使得大學的研究事業蒸蒸日上，同時也增加了一個國家科研能力，但並不能單純看成是一件好事。在某些情況下，受到良好培訓教育的高學歷者自身才能極大的浪費了。美國在研究定點地球衛星時，物理學博士數量激增，而過後數量急劇下降，越南戰爭削減了科研計劃。一位美國紐約城市大學的物理學教授史沃茲說，20世紀70年代，大約有5000位物理學家不得不該行另謀出路。

In America the rise of PhD teachers' unions reflects the breakdown of an implicit contract between universities and PhD students: crummy pay now for a good academic job later. Student teachers in public universities such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison formed unions as early as the 1960s, but the pace of unionisation has increased recently. Unions are now spreading to private universities; though Yale and Cornell, where university administrators and some faculty argue that PhD students who teach are not workers but apprentices, have resisted union drives. In 2002 New York University was the first private university to recognise a PhD teachers' union, but stopped negotiating with it three years later.

在美國，博士教師的工會也隨之興起，解決博士生教師與學校之間的一些矛盾。大學給他們花了一張大餅，即用今天的廉價勞動來換取未來的一份穩定學術工作。像威斯康星麥迪遜這樣的大學，工會建立可以追溯到1960年。而真正的工會興起還是近幾年的事。如今，工會也深入到私立大學。在耶魯和康奈爾大學，行政管理人員和教師說博士不能算是正式員工，只能是學徒而已。這些話受到了來自工會的壓力。2002年，紐約城市大學作爲第一個承認博士教師工會存在的私立大學，但三年之後，這所學校停止了工會活動。

In some countries, such as Britain and America, poor pay and job prospects are reflected in the number of foreign-born PhD students. Dr Freeman estimates that in 1966 only 23% of science and engineering PhDs in America were awarded to students born outside the country. By 2006 that proportion had increased to 48%. Foreign students tend to tolerate poorer working conditions, and the supply of cheap, brilliant, foreign labour also keeps wages down.

在美國和英國，很多博士都忍受着低收入低報酬的職業並且看不到前景。在1966年，僅僅23%的自然科學和工科博士文憑頒發給了外國學生。到2006年，這個比例增加到48&，與本土學生相比，國外學生更能忍受艱苦研究工作環境，與此同時，他們的薪酬大大降低。

Proponents of the PhD argue that it is worthwhile even if it does not lead to permanent academic employment. Not every student embarks on a PhD wanting a university career and many move successfully into private-sector jobs in, for instance, industrial research. That is true; but drop-out rates suggest that many students become dispirited. In America only 57% of doctoral students will have a PhD ten years after their first date of enrolment. In the humanities, where most students pay for their own PhDs, the figure is 49%. Worse still, whereas in other subject areas students tend to jump ship in the early years, in the humanities they cling like limpets before eventually falling off. And these students started out as the academic cream of the nation. Research at one American university found that those who finish are no cleverer than those who do not. Poor supervision, bad job prospects or lack of money cause them to run out of steam.

支持讀博士的人也許會說，即使不能得到一份穩定的研究工作，讀博也是值得的。並非每一位讀博士的人都想進入大學，也有很多在私營企業，或是企業研發等，都取得了不錯的成績。這的確是事實，但是凡事都有兩面，我們看到的事實，博士生退學者增多，很多在讀博士很鬱悶。在美國，僅僅57%的博士在十年以後繼續攻讀博士，也就是說其他的都退學了。在人文社會學科領域，自費讀博士的學生退學比例是49%。更糟糕的是，其他在讀博士，在博士一年級就在不同專業跳來跳去，很多人文學科在讀博士堅守着自己的領域，最終很多人不得不放棄了。而輟學者往往成爲了國家的學術精英。美國大學一個研究報告表明，按時完成博士學習的人，並不比輟學者睿智多少。缺少職業指導，前途渺茫，經濟拮据成了他們最終放棄的原因。

Even graduates who find work outside universities may not fare all that well. PhD courses are so specialised that university careers offices struggle to assist graduates looking for jobs, and supervisors tend to have little interest in students who are leaving academia. One OECD study shows that five years after receiving their degrees, more than 60% of PhDs in Slovakia and more than 45% in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Spain were still on temporary contracts. Many were postdocs. About one-third of Austria's PhD graduates take jobs unrelated to their degrees. In Germany 13% of all PhD graduates end up in lowly occupations. In the Netherlands the proportion is 21%.

就算完成了學業，也並非前途光芒。由於博士專業太細，就業工作人員費盡心思幫助博士們求職，而企業老總們對這些想要離開學術的博士生們興趣不大。經合組織一項研究表明，博士們在取得博士學位後五年，很多還在做臨時工作，這一比例在斯洛伐克超過了60%，比利時、捷克、德國和西班牙超過了45%。而大約三分之一的澳大利亞博士們從事與博士專業毫無關係的工作。在德國，13%的博士畢業生從事其他工作，荷蘭的比例是21%。

A very slim premium

微薄的回報

PhD graduates do at least earn more than those with a bachelor's degree. A study in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management by Bernard Casey shows that British men with a bachelor's degree earn 14% more than those who could have gone to university but chose not to. The earnings premium for a PhD is 26%. But the premium for a master's degree, which can be accomplished in as little as one year, is almost as high, at 23%. In some subjects the premium for a PhD vanishes entirely. PhDs in maths and computing, social sciences and languages earn no more than those with master's degrees. The premium for a PhD is actually smaller than for a master's degree in engineering and technology, architecture and education. Only in medicine, other sciences, and business and financial studies is it high enough to be worthwhile. Over all subjects, a PhD commands only a 3% premium over a master's degree.

博士畢業生的確比本科生薪酬高，《高等教育政策管理》雜誌刊登了卡塞的一項研究，在英國，大學畢業生比未上大學者收入高14%。身爲博士，回報差只有26%。碩士學位回報同樣比博士高，有的碩士一年就可拿到。有些領域博士學位沒有任何優勢。在數學、計算機、社會科學和語言等領域，博士收入與碩士差不多。在工程、工業技術、建築和教育領域，博士和碩士收入也差不多。在製藥、商學、金融等領域，博士回報與付出差不多。總體說來，博士學位僅僅比碩士學位收入高3%。

Dr Schwartz, the New York physicist, says the skills learned in the course of a PhD can be readily acquired through much shorter courses. Thirty years ago, he says, Wall Street firms realised that some physicists could work out differential equations and recruited them to become “quants”, analysts and traders. Today several short courses offer the advanced maths useful for finance. “A PhD physicist with one course on differential equations is not competitive,” says Dr Schwartz.

紐約一位政治家史沃茲博士說，博士課程中有很多可以用更短課程取代，他說，華爾街發現很多物理學家能夠解出微分方程，於是聘請他們做定量分析。但是如今教授卻用一些很簡單的高等數學課程，因此，一個會解微分方程的博士生不再具有競爭力。

Many students say they are pursuing their subject out of love, and that education is an end in itself. Some give little thought to where the qualification might lead. In one study of British PhD graduates, about a third admitted that they were doing their doctorate partly to go on being a student, or put off job hunting. Nearly half of engineering students admitted to this. Scientists can easily get stipends, and therefore drift into doing a PhD. But there are penalties, as well as benefits, to staying at university. Workers with “surplus schooling”—more education than a job requires—are likely to be less satisfied, less productive and more likely to say they are going to leave their jobs.

很多學生做研究是出於熱愛，現在教育卻成了終結了他們的熱愛。很少人知道路在何方，英國一項對博士畢業生研究數據表明，三分之一人讀博只是爲了繼續做學生，或是延遲就業。大概一半學生說，科學家可以有很高的年薪，因此就隨波逐流讀博。但是呆在校園，喜憂參半。高學歷者更容易不滿足更容易跳槽。

The interests of universities and tenured academics are misaligned with those of PhD studentsAcademics tend to regard asking whether a PhD is worthwhile as analogous to wondering whether there is too much art or culture in the world. They believe that knowledge spills from universities into society, making it more productive and healthier. That may well be true; but doing a PhD may still be a bad choice for an individual.

一些人開始懷疑讀博是否值得，如同懷疑這個世界太多的藝術和文化。他們認爲，知識會從大學滲透到社會各個領域，社會物質文明高度發展，會朝着更加健康的方向。在宏觀上是這樣，微觀方面，讀博的確是一個很糟的選擇。

The interests of academics and universities on the one hand and PhD students on the other are not well aligned. The more bright students stay at universities, the better it is for academics. Postgraduate students bring in grants and beef up their supervisors' publication records. Academics pick bright undergraduate students and groom them as potential graduate students. It isn't in their interests to turn the smart kids away, at least at the beginning. One female student spoke of being told of glowing opportunities at the outset, but after seven years of hard slog she was fobbed off with a joke about finding a rich husband.

學術研究者、大學、博士生利益各不同。呆在大學的學生更聰明只是對學術有利。碩士研究生可以帶來帶來更多的財政經費，爲導師的學術論文增加數量。這些孩子畢業走出校門，這些對他們來說毫無好處。一位女學生曾經被導師認爲前途無量，但七年學術後，最後導師送她一句話，早點嫁人吧。然後導師把她請出了校門。

Monica Harris, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, is a rare exception. She believes that too many PhDs are being produced, and has stopped admitting them. But such unilateral academic birth control is rare. One Ivy-League president, asked recently about PhD oversupply, said that if the top universities cut back others will step in to offer them instead.

肯塔基州大學心理學教授莫里1卡哈里斯說，這樣的教授是少數。她認爲單方面想要控制博士數量行爲很少見到。一位常青藤學校校長被問到博士數量過多時，他回答，即便我們這些學校減少招生博士生，其他學校也會把我們減少的部分給增加上去的。

Noble pursuits

高貴的追求

Many of the drawbacks of doing a PhD are well known. Your correspondent was aware of them over a decade ago while she slogged through a largely pointless PhD in theoretical ecology. As Europeans try to harmonise higher education, some institutions are pushing the more structured learning that comes with an American PhD.

讀博士的種種弊端已經衆所周知，本文的作者十年前就勸說一位理論生態學方向博士不要繼續，當時歐洲也正在促使高等教育體系更完善，一些機構也大力推動。

The organisations that pay for research have realised that many PhDs find it tough to transfer their skills into the job market. Writing lab reports, giving academic presentations and conducting six-month literature reviews can be surprisingly unhelpful in a world where technical knowledge has to be assimilated quickly and presented simply to a wide audience. Some universities are now offering their PhD students training in soft skills such as communication and teamwork that may be useful in the labour market. In Britain a four-year NewRoutePhD claims to develop just such skills in graduates.

資助基金組織已經意識到，博士在勞動力市場中，技能難以發揮。他們會寫實驗研究報告，會做學術報告，做文獻查閱等，但如今這個知識技術快速傳播的時代，顯得毫無用處。一些大學爲博士生開設了其他課程，比如溝通能力、團隊合作能力等。這些在求職時或許派上用。在英國有一個四年的博士，他們要爲博士開設以上課程。

Measurements and incentives might be changed, too. Some university departments and academics regard numbers of PhD graduates as an indicator of success and compete to produce more. For the students, a measure of how quickly those students get a permanent job, and what they earn, would be more useful. Where penalties are levied on academics who allow PhDs to overrun, the number of students who complete rises abruptly, suggesting that students were previously allowed to fester.

一些大學和科研院所把培養博士數量作爲一項指標，並準備培養更多。對學生來說，找到一份實際的固定工作，收入會有多少才更重要。而博士數量已經太多了，博士生不得不面對整體水平越來越下降的窘境。

Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at everything they have done. They will have amassed awards and prizes. As this year's new crop of graduate students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else. They might use their research skills to look harder at the lot of the disposable academic. Someone should write a thesis about that.

很多讀博的人都是班上聰明的學生，他們可以把想做的事做到最好。在人生旅途上得到鮮花和獎贊。每年博士新生都不願意去相信，他們正在爲整個文憑體系效力，我們不要完全否認而得益者不是他們。僅僅有追樑刺骨的刻苦精神與自以爲聰明過人不會取得人生的成功。如果把這些精力和時間用到別處或許會做得更好。