所有今天畢業的同學們，你們完成了一項非常重要且值得慶賀的事。你們完成了學科課程要求，這將在很多方面改變你的生活。它將擴大你的擇業范圍，增加你對世界的認識，加深你理解社會文化的能力，并為終生學習打好基礎。

因此我們在拿騷樓前的草坪上慶祝，其它各家學校也都在自己的院落、禮堂、舞臺和體育場內舉行慶?；顒?。畢業生們將帽子拋向空中、教授們在鼓掌、家人們熱情歡呼。

盡管我們是這樣做的，我們仍發現社會上有一股奇怪的風氣，它來自專欄作家、博主、智庫和政治家，他們中的一些人在文章、書籍和演講中宣稱很多人其實不用上大學、大學生太多了。

這是一個非常奇怪的說法。因為已經有經濟學數據充分證明了讀大學的好處。例如，據2014年紐約聯邦儲備銀行的經濟學家Jaison Abel 和 Richard Deitz的統計，投資一個大學學位的年平均回報率，扣除學費和收入損失后大約在9%到16%之間。尤其是在過去的20年中，投資回報率一直在該范圍的高位，約每年15%。相比之下，美國股票市場的平均年投資回報率僅為7%。

這就是為什么我的朋友西北大學教育經濟學家莫頓夏皮羅說，對于大多數人來說投資大學學位將是他們一生中做過的最英明的經濟抉擇。即使但從經濟回報的角度來看，一個大學學位還能帶來很多其它好處。

比如，有報告顯示大學畢業生們擁有更高的幸福感和工作滿意度。即使在收入不多的情況下，同時大學畢業的人比非大學畢業的人健康，他們有更大幾率進行體育鍛煉、參與投票并且擁有更高程度的公民參與度。

從實用角度考量的話，我們還應該加上那些由于對文化、藝術、世界多樣性內在美和卓越觀點理解能力的增強而額外帶來的樂趣。

我舉的這些數字并不只適用于普林斯頓，相反，它反映了所以接受過美國大學四年制教育后的人會達到的平均水平。

想想看，在所有專業領域讀完大學的年平均回報率都有9％到16％之間，而這種回報又輔以對健康，幸福和生活質量的額外好處。怎么會有人覺得我們需要更少的拼貼畢業生？

有人回答說，如果你在沒有大學學位的情況下，也得學一門手藝。他們說焊工有時候比畢業生掙的多，這是真的。

當然，也有理由解釋為什么要讀大學。即使你打算當個焊工，也要先讀個大學

比如你可能擔心隨著技術進步你的手藝會被淘汰，抑或傷病會讓你無法勝任這份工作，又或者你想進入管理層，探索其它方面的愛好。大學學歷能讓你擁有應對更多變化的能力，無論是在你身上還是這個世界發生的變化。這些都是難以避免的。

不過如果那些專家政客們說的是，我們需要更好的職業規劃，我完全贊同。那當然很好，如果更多的人能夠在就職前得到培訓的機會。但同時，如果更多的人（而不是更少）能夠從讀大學這件事上有更深遠的獲益會更好。

所以我再問一遍，為什么會有人認為我們需要更少的大學生？我認為答案很簡單，高等教育意味著高質量的教學，教學反過來又取決于資深的教育勞動力，這很昂貴。

因此，顯而易見，教育的前期成本非常大，是切實的，高昂的，能夠量化的。

但回報同樣真實，甚至更大。但這種回報難以量化統計，因人而異。

企圖以低成本獲得更多的確定性，這一想法當然是誘人的。那些想少讀書的人會屈服于這種誘惑，他們強調短期內的收益，只關注大學學費和第一份薪水的比較上。這是錯誤的。

大學教育是一項長期投資，它使畢業生不斷發展自己和適應世界，從長遠來看，這種投資會帶來驚人的收益。

“減少大學生會讓這個國家會更好”的想法是非常短視的騙局，欺騙美國年輕人的騙局，它會削弱國家經濟，并破壞我們的未來。

我們要有信心投資我們的年輕人，并確保大學教育對于來各種背景和經濟狀況的學生來說都是可以獲得和負擔得起的。

我希望，今天的所有畢業生，以及都在自己的生活中體驗過教育力量的人，都能成為我們高等教育的倡導者。

關于高等教育的價值有一場全國性的爭論。我們需要你的聲音，換言之，我們需要你幫助別人在將來實現你今天取得的成就。

如何幫助更多的人獲得大學學位？這里有三個建議。

首先，成為學業完成率重要性的倡導者。如果能夠取得學位，高等教育帶來的收益是巨大的。如果你讀了大學卻沒有獲得學位，回報率要低得多。

學生貸款違約率最高的那批人不是負債最高的畢業生，而是沒能讀完大學的小額債務背負者。由于沒有讀完大學，他們也未能享受到高校學位帶來的收入提升。

不久之前，我們授予了新澤西學院校長芭芭拉吉登斯坦榮譽學位。在她領導新澤西大學近20年期間，她將拼貼四年制畢業率從58％提高到75％。這個數字全國公立大學排名前5％。

通過提高學生的畢業率，吉滕斯坦總統改善了成千上萬可能已經背負著債務輟學的學生的生活。支持更多像芭芭拉吉登斯坦校長這樣的高等教育領袖，以及像新澤西大學這樣致力于提高畢業率的院校吧。

其次，支持美國的公立高校。各州對公立大學和大學的補貼急劇下降，公立研究型大學的撥款在州財政預算中所占比例越來越小。例如，在密歇根大學，州的財政支助僅占總9％。相比之下，在20世紀50年代，這一數字為80％。

州立大學的學費上漲并不是因為它們增加了對每個學生的花銷，而是因為州立法機構挖空了其他支持來源。美國依靠其公立大學而強大。他們是社會發展創新的引擎。

普林斯頓大學和其他私立大學為國家和世界做出了重要貢獻，但我們無法取代美國人的偉大公立機構。他們是國寶，希望你們支持他們。

第三，倡導幫助更多低收入家庭學生獲得大學學位。普林斯頓2018屆的優秀畢業生是這所大學272年歷史上最具經濟多元化的階層。珍惜這點特別之處吧，因為你們不會保持這個記錄太久了。

普林斯頓大學的其他學生將打破這個紀錄。我們的研究生課程同樣吸引了各個背景的人才。今年春天，我們錄取了普林斯頓歷史上最具社會經濟多樣性的博士生。

在普林斯頓，我們相信這種多樣性的積極意義。因為我們知道，不管是大學還是國家要想卓越，必須從社會的各個階層汲取人才。

我們也知道，普林斯頓的學位是學生尋求社會經濟流動的助推器。如果我們想要治愈這個國家因為不平等而造成的分歧，我們必須確保低收入背景的學生獲得他們需要的教育，從而發展能力并為我們的社會作出貢獻。

看著我們的本科碩士和博士畢業時，我真心為你們的優秀和多元化而感到自豪，并為你們在未來幾年將做的貢獻感到興奮。

世界需要更多的大學生，而不是更少。我們需要更多像今天這樣的慶?；顒?，需要更多自信和快樂的畢業生，為世界帶來積極的變化。

在臺上的所有人都為能參與到你們的慶祝活動感到振奮，我們為你們取得的成就鼓掌，為你們即將開始的探險，送上最美好的祝福，同時，我們歡迎所有的畢業生將來常來母校看看。

2018屆的優秀畢業生，祝福你們，祝賀你們！

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!