What is a large, private research university? - 什么是大型私立研究型大学？

James W. Wagner, president of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, says that private research universities enjoy greater financial flexibility than their public counterparts. Thus, private institutions are more able to create distinctive programs.

James W. Wagner是佐治亚州亚特兰大市埃默里大学的校长。他说私立研究型大学比公立大学享有更大的财政灵活性，因此私立院校更有能力创建与众不同的项目。

One of the strengths of the American system of higher education is its great variety. From small colleges with only several hundred students to large state-supported universities with tens of thousands of students, and from two-year community colleges with vocational programs to privately funded research universities, American higher education meets a wide variety of needs. For students, the right choice has much to do with possible career paths, financial constraints, and geography. In other words, it has to do with what they feel called to do and to study, how much they can afford, and whether or not they want to leave home. What matters most in the end is the appropriateness of the school to the aspirations of the student.

美国高等教育体系的优势之一是种类繁多：从只有几百名学生的小院校到拥有数万名学生的大型州立大学，从开设职业课程的两年制社区学院到私人资助的研究型大学，可以说美国高等教育满足了各类需求。对学生来说，正确的选择与可能的职业发展方向、经济限制、地理环境有很大关系。换句话说，这与他们觉得应该做什么和学习什么有关，与他们能负担多少钱有关，与他们是否想要离开家有关。最后，最重要的是学校是否能满足学生的愿望。

In the United States, 92 of the 100 largest universities are public or “state-supported” (i.e., supported by one of the 50 individual states, not the federal government), and 77 percent of the nation’s college students receive their education at public institutions. Still, the major private universities occupy all but three or four of the top 25 slots in most rankings. Thus, the private research university appears to be held in especially high regard in the United States and around the world.

在美国，100所最大的大学中，有92所是公立或 “州支持”（即由50个州中的一个州支持，而不是联邦政府），全国77%的大学生在公立机构接受教育。尽管如此，在大多数排名中，排名前25位的私立大学中，只有三到四所占据主要地位。因此，私立研究型大学在美国和世界各地似乎都受到特别的重视。

But what do we mean when we speak of a “private research university,” and what makes this type of institution so attractive?

但我们所说的 “私立研究型大学 “是什么意思，这种类型的机构为什么会有如此大的吸引力？

Private research universities offer professional training (for instance, in law, medicine, and engineering), as well as education leading to the Ph.D. degree. Besides teaching, the faculty members spend a great deal of their time in research. In fact, in these institutions, the quality of faculty, scholarship, and research is as important in determining compensation and promotion as is the quality of teaching. But public universities also offer professional training, Ph.D. education, and an emphasis on scholarship and research. So what makes private universities different?

私立研究型大学提供专业培训(例如，法律、医学和工程)，以及通往博士学位的教育。除了教学之外，教员们还将大量的时间用于研究。事实上，在这些机构中，教员、学术和研究的质量与教学质量一样，是决定报酬和晋升的重要因素。但公立大学也提供专业培训、博士教育，强调学术和研究。那么私立大学有什么不同呢？

For one thing, private universities generally enjoy greater financial flexibility. They do not depend on state legislatures for funding, but draw their resources from alumni, philanthropic foundations, and scientific and other professional organizations, all of which support the universities by funding programs, scholarships, buildings, and professorships. These sources of funding, although increasing at public universities as well, now provide private universities with the ability to be more nimble and more able to step off in bold new directions of inquiry, creating specialized centers of study and distinctive programs. For students, this flexibility often translates into opportunity to stay in fields where they might otherwise expect to find little encouragement.

首先，私立大学一般享有更大的财政灵活性。它们不依赖州立法机构的资助，而是从校友、慈善基金会、科学组织和其他专业组织那里获取资源，所有这些组织都通过资助项目、奖学金、建筑和教授职位来支持大学。这些资金来源虽然在公立大学也在增加，但现在为私立大学提供了更灵活的能力，更能够在大胆的新的探索方向上迈开脚步，创建专门的研究中心和特色项目。对于学生来说，这种灵活性往往转化为留在他们可能期望找到很少鼓励的领域的机会。

Similarly, private universities’ independence from public coffers has made them more able to establish “points of presence” in other countries. The citizens of Georgia, for instance, are unlikely to approve the use of their tax dollars to establish a study center in London. But they probably would welcome the establishment of such a center by privately controlled Emory University. In general, private universities can more easily open international portals for research, service, and teaching. Emory University, for example, has programs in global health throughout Africa, in the Caucasus region, and in Asia. It has business programs throughout Europe and Asia. Such activities provide opportunities for American students and professors to engage, whether in the United States or abroad, with the best minds and talent from other countries.

同样，私立大学独立于公共财政，使它们更有能力在其他国家建立 “存在点”。例如，格鲁吉亚的公民不太可能批准使用他们的税收在伦敦建立一个研究中心。但他们可能会欢迎私人控制的埃默里大学建立这样一个中心。一般来说，私立大学更容易打开研究、服务和教学的国际门户。例如，埃默里大学在整个非洲、高加索地区和亚洲都有全球健康的项目。它在整个欧洲和亚洲都有商业项目。这些活动为美国学生和教授提供了机会，让他们在美国或国外与其他国家最优秀的头脑和人才接触。

Finally, most research universities are somewhat smaller than their public counterparts, offering a favorable mixture of rich resources and human scale. While the potential for learning and research is great at any of our nation’s fine universities, public or private, the smaller scale of private campuses makes possible the easy interaction of scholars across disciplines, since the schools and departments generally are at most a short walk across campus. In a world where the most important discoveries are being made through collaboration across boundaries, the capacity of the private university to foster and intensify collaborations both within the confines of the campus and beyond, to the far reaches of the globe, maybe the private university’s greatest attraction.

最后，大多数研究型大学的规模都比公立大学小一些，具有丰富的资源和人力规模的有利结合。虽然美国任何一所优秀的大学，无论是公立还是私立，学习和研究的潜力都很大，但私立校园的规模较小，使得学者们跨学科的交流成为可能，因为学校和院系一般最多只能步行穿过校园。在这个世界上，最重要的发现都是通过跨国界的合作来实现的，私立大学在校园范围内和校园以外的地方，乃至全球的远方，促进和加强合作的能力，可能是私立大学最大的魅力所在。