研究所、轉學考(插大)、學士後-英文題庫下載題庫

Passage 1

College presidents and the American public have very different ideas about who should pay for college and whether higher education is a good deal, a new Pew Research Center study finds. About two-thirds of the presidents of public and private four-year and two-year colleges say that students should pay for their own education. Meanwhile, less than half of members of the general public agrees with that assessment, with a majority saying either the federal or state government, private donors, or a combination of those should pick up the largest share of a student’s college tab. 

Perhaps this reluctance to pay is due in part to a widespread belief that colleges are ripping people off. Nearly 60 percent of Americans say the U.S. higher education system is not providing students with a good value. Three-quarters of college presidents, on the other hand, say college is a good or excellent value. 

It’s true that the sticker price of college has nearly tripled since 1980. Advocates of higher education, like Terry Hartle, chief lobbyist at the American Council on Education, argue that grants and financial aid have filled that gap －but economists have found that the average family is paying a higher percentage of its income to finance college than it did 30 years ago. Families in the lowest 20^th percentile of income have found college more financially out of reach over the same period, suggesting that financial aid has not kept pace with ballooning costs.

Meanwhile, six in 10 college presidents say students are less prepared for college and study less than their counterparts had 10 years ago. Their pessimism is borne out by research. A comprehensive study finds college students only study 12 hours a week on average. And a 2008 study found that one-third of college students are enrolled in pricey remedial courses because they lack proficiency in basic math or reading. 

Hartle says skepticism over the value of a college education is not new: A 1976 Newsweek cover asked “Who Needs College?” and Harvard economist Richard Freeman argued in “The Overeducated American” the same year that as more Americans racked up degrees their value would go down. (The opposite has proven true so far.) 

College graduates enjoy a strong economic advantage over lesser educated Americans on average. The Pew researchers estimate that the average college graduate makes $650,000 more over his or her lifetime than a high school graduate. And even if they don’t think college was the best deal, more than 85 percent of college grads surveyed say their education was a good investment for them personally.