名額供不應(yīng)求 美國(guó)初創(chuàng)大學(xué)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)常青藤

A San Francisco start-up aiming to offer an IvyLeague-level education at a fraction of the cost ofelite US colleges has become more selective thanHarvard or Yale in its third year of operation.

旨在提供常春藤水準(zhǔn)教育、而收費(fèi)遠(yuǎn)低于美國(guó)精英高校的一所舊金山初創(chuàng)大學(xué)，在投入運(yùn)營(yíng)后的第三年已變得比哈佛(Harvard)或耶魯(Yale)更有選擇性。

Minerva, whose students move between California,Berlin, Buenos Aires, Seoul, Bangalore, Istanbul andLondon while studying a largely online curriculum,will announce this week that it received more than 16,000 applications from 50 countries for306 places, for an acceptance rate of just 1.9 per cent.

Minerva的學(xué)生們分布于加利福尼亞、柏林、布宜諾斯艾利斯、首爾、班加羅爾、伊斯坦布爾和倫敦，所學(xué)課程以在線(xiàn)授課為主。該校將在本周宣布，它從50個(gè)國(guó)家收到了逾1.6萬(wàn)份申請(qǐng)，而招生名額只有306個(gè)，這意味著錄取率只有1.9%。

Harvard last week said it had accepted a record low 5.2 per cent of the 39,000 applicants for itsclass of 2020, making it the most selective of the Ivy League universities. Yale’s acceptancerate stands at 6.3 per cent and Stanford, which is outside the traditional Ivy League groupingof prestigious colleges, accepts only 4.7 per cent.

哈佛上周表示，其2020級(jí)的申請(qǐng)人達(dá)到3.9萬(wàn)，錄取率只有5.2%，創(chuàng)下最低紀(jì)錄，使其成為常青藤大學(xué)中最有選擇性的學(xué)府。耶魯大學(xué)的錄取率為6.3%，而不在傳統(tǒng)常春藤大學(xué)之列的斯坦福大學(xué)(Stanford)的錄取率為4.7%。

The interest in Minerva, an intense for-profit undergraduate programme, shows students’growing appetite for alternatives to increasingly costly US colleges. Minerva is one of severalefforts to rethink traditional education models, ranging from huge open online courses (Moocs)to immersive entrepreneurial alternatives to business school, such as the DO School.

Minerva提供高強(qiáng)度的營(yíng)利性本科課程。對(duì)該校的興趣突顯學(xué)生越來(lái)越傾向于避開(kāi)學(xué)費(fèi)日益昂貴的美國(guó)高校，寧愿選擇它們的替代品。Minerva是反思傳統(tǒng)教育模式的多項(xiàng)努力之一;這些努力包括巨大的開(kāi)放式在線(xiàn)課程(Mooc)，以及商學(xué)院的沉浸式創(chuàng)業(yè)替代品，如DO School。

College costs have risen far faster than inflation, and US student debt doubled from $600bn in2008 to more than $1.2tn by the end of 2015. That has made the cost of higher education atheme of the 2016 election campaign, with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton’s rival for theDemocratic nomination, mobilising young voters with a pledge of free tuition at public collegesand universities.

高校學(xué)費(fèi)的漲幅遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)通脹，美國(guó)學(xué)生的債務(wù)已從2008年的6000億美元增至2015年底的逾1.2萬(wàn)億美元，增幅超過(guò)一倍。這使得高等教育成本成了2016年大選競(jìng)選活動(dòng)的主題之一，與希拉里•克林頓(HillaryClinton)角逐民主黨總統(tǒng)候選人提名的伯尼•桑德斯(Bernie Sanders)以公立學(xué)院和大學(xué)免學(xué)費(fèi)的承諾動(dòng)員年輕選民。

With no sports teams, libraries or other overheads that contribute to the prestige oftraditional universities but inflate costs, Minerva charges about $28,000 a year for tuition,room, board and other fees, offering scholarships through a non-profit arm. That compares withan estimated annual cost of $64,000 to attend Princeton.

Minerva沒(méi)有運(yùn)動(dòng)隊(duì)、圖書(shū)館或其它有利于提高傳統(tǒng)大學(xué)的聲望、但導(dǎo)致費(fèi)用扶搖直上的開(kāi)支。該校每年收費(fèi)約2.8萬(wàn)美元，包括學(xué)費(fèi)、食宿和其它收費(fèi)，并通過(guò)一個(gè)非營(yíng)利性的部門(mén)提供獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。相比之下，在普林斯頓大學(xué)(Princeton)入學(xué)的年度成本估計(jì)高達(dá)6.4萬(wàn)美元。

“Students are realising that institutions can’t just sit on their brands that they’ve built overdecades or centuries and deliver the same ineffective experience,” said Ben Nelson, the formerSnapfish president who founded Minerva. “Much like in technology, the service industry, travel,entertainment, transportation, or any other field you can think of, when an undeniablybetter offering comes around, people flock to it.”

“學(xué)生們意識(shí)到，高校不能只是依靠他們?cè)跀?shù)十年乃至數(shù)百年打造起來(lái)的品牌吃老本，提供一成不變的無(wú)效體驗(yàn)，”Minerva創(chuàng)始人、曾經(jīng)擔(dān)任Snapfish總裁的本•納爾遜(Ben Nelson)表示。“就像在科技、服務(wù)業(yè)、旅游、娛樂(lè)、交通，以及你能想到的其它任何領(lǐng)域一樣，當(dāng)一種不可否認(rèn)的更好產(chǎn)品出現(xiàn)時(shí)，人們會(huì)趨之若鶩。”

Minerva has raised $70m from investors including Benchmark Capital and three Chinesegroups; TAL Education Group, ZhenFund and Yongjin Group. It opened its doors in September2014, taking in 69 students from 2,500 applicants. Last year, it had 11,000 applicants andaccepted 220.

Minerva已募集了7000萬(wàn)美元資本，投資者包括標(biāo)桿資本(Benchmark Capital)和三家中資集團(tuán)：好未來(lái)教育集團(tuán)(TAL Education Group)、真格基金(ZhenFund)以及涌金集團(tuán)(Yongjin Group)。它在2014年9月開(kāi)業(yè)，從2500申請(qǐng)人中招收了69名學(xué)生。去年，它從1.1萬(wàn)申請(qǐng)人中招收了220名學(xué)生。