一个朋友跟我说，英语课上老师要让他们说一个话题：What do you think of university in nature in your mind. 这朋友问我如何说这个话题。关于大学，我想说的很多，正好趁这个机会整理一下自己一直以来的想法。

大学，百度百科上给出的定义是“提供教学和研究条件和授权颁发学位的高等教育机关。（A university is an institution where students study for degrees and where academic research is done）”坦白的说，我并不是很喜欢这个定义，似乎学生在大学里就是为了学知识、拿学位。那么大学应该是什么样的呢？

清华大学第一任校长梅贻琦在1931年的演讲中提到：“大学之大，非大楼之大，而在于大师之大”。我非常欣赏这句话。我个人认为，大学不是仅仅学知识的地方，而在于培养人的独立思想、见解及意识，不迷信、不盲从，有自己的主见和思考，敢于质疑、敢于挑战，让我们在这个浮华的社会中仍能保持清醒的头脑。

大学应该是知识分子的精神家园，应该是一道过滤网，把社会上的商业铜臭、无良现象完全的阻隔在大学之外。并能去感召、净化整个社会，让人们在道德上有准则、有标尺。大学应该像莲花，“出淤泥而不染，濯清涟而不妖”。大学，应该是真正意义上的象牙塔，是社会的一方净土。

还记得关于哈佛大学的一次失火事件：１８世纪中叶（1864年）的一天，美国哈佛大学图书馆突发火灾，数百本哈佛牧师捐赠的重要图书被焚毁一空，只有一本书幸免于难——前一天晚上，它被一位学生违章带回了宿舍(哈佛大学有一项校规就是学生在图书馆借阅学校的珍贵图书只能留在图书馆阅览)。次日，这名学生把书交还给学校，而这本书也成为哈佛牧师捐赠图书的孤本。在处理这一事件时，哈佛大学召开校会，校长对该学生提出了表彰，对他保留了学校最珍贵的图书表示最高的谢意，然后当众宣布开除这名学生。

公私分明、赏罚分明、公平公正公开，这样的大学让人不得不竖起大拇指。而亚利桑那州立大学拒绝向奥巴马授予荣誉学位，哈佛大学拒绝时任美国国务卿并曾当过哈佛教授的基辛格重新回学校任教，耶鲁的学生反对耶鲁大学授予前总统布什荣誉法律博士学位，则更让人心向往之。这才是大学，自尊自强自立！

反观我国，大学似乎成了鸡肋，食之无味，弃之可惜。很少有人去思考，上大学究竟是为了什么，更多的人似乎觉得大学就是向社会一个顺理成章的过渡。大学教师们一边抱怨收入太低，提不起科研和教学兴趣，另一方面又不得不得不为了评职称而写出大量的垃圾论文；即使清华北大的很多所谓博导教授们，也只是在学术上炒冷饭，把别人几十年的观点再拿出来咀嚼一遍。学生们则上课睡觉、玩手机，下课上网、打游戏。即使有拼命学习的学生，也只是埋头于书本，书上教啥我背啥，从来没想到过创新和质疑。几乎所有大学附近都有两个产业最红火，一个是宾馆，另一个是网吧。

如果翻看我国政府官员的简历，我们会发现，多少官员都顶着某某名校的博士帽，又有多少大学正在满怀欣喜给某某官员颁发学位。大学的学位，知识的尊严，就这样被踩在脚底下尽情蹂躏，成了讨好献媚官员的工具。

央视曾经有一期间节目，是北大校长和耶鲁校长之间的对话。其中主持人提到，学生在大学的三大任务是什么，两个校长给出了自己答案：

北大校长：学会做学问、学会做人、学会为社会服务的能力
耶鲁大学校长：质疑一切、努力学习、独立思考

两者答案高下立判，北大校长的观点看上去似乎有理，但是实际大而无当，还是泛泛之论。好比空洞的口号，天天喊着要学会做学问，但大家却都不知道如何去做学问，到最后似乎只有抄袭才是做学问的方法--“天下文章一大抄，看你会抄不会抄”，至于学会做人难道是到了大学才应该学的吗？我们从出生到这个世界上，从懂事的那一天起，就应该学如何做人，而不是只有到了大学才开始学会做人。相比耶鲁大学校长提出的三点，我认为才是一个大学真正所需要、所拥有的，也是一个学生在大学里所能得到的。就像爱因斯坦说的那句话：“当把学过的所有知识全部忘记，剩下的才是教育。”

最后，我想说说我最近看到的一段很火的话：“我一直在想 大学为什么要把课安排的这么松散然后耗上四年，而不是像中学一样朝七晚五学上两年就毕业——它就是要这样，用四年的时间，打磨你锐气，消耗你的梦想，拆散坚定过的爱情，然后才能放心地把一个足够圆滑和现实的你，送到社会，婚姻，现实里。大学，多可怕，多必要的存在。” 如果大学最后留给你的只是这些，那我只能说这大学算是白上了，它不仅不对你的成长有利，反而是有害的。但这也就是现在中国社会的写照，磨灭了年轻人所有的理想。。。。

 

 

 

下面是我刚刚写好的英文版本，由于时间紧促，错误在所难免，还望大家多批评：

WHAT IS THE UNIVERSITY IN NATURE IN YOUR MIND

A friend of mine once gave me a topic:What do you think of university in nature in your mind. I'd like to say something about it.

What is a university? According to the dictionary, a university is the instituation where students study for degrees and where academic research is done. Honestly speaking, I don't like this definition. It seems that the purpose for undergraduates is only to get a degree. So, what is university in nature?

The first president of Tsinghua University--Mei Yiqi once said in an address in 1931: " The spirit of the university isn't the magnificence of the architects but the significance of the teachers. " which I appreciate very much. My opinion is the university is not only an institute where the knowledge is studied, but also a place where to educate and help us think independently, have our own minds and opinions, and not follow the others blindly. We dare to doubt and challenge authorities and keep our minds sober in this ostentatious society.

A university should be the spiritual home for intellectuals and also a filter that obstructs any undesirable phenomenon outside. It can purify the society and impel people to abide morals, just like lotus which rise unsullied from the dirty mud; bath in the water but not coquettish. The university ought to be the real ivory tower---a pure land of the society.

I still remember a fire happened in Harvard University in 1864. The library was burnt to the ground and hundreds of precious books donated by Priest John Harvard were all gone except one which had been taken out by a student the last night.(According to the rules of Harvard, books can be read only in the library. The following day, the student returned the book which became the only one book surviving the fire. The president of Harvard praised the student for keeping the book which now is the most precious one and expelled him publicly for his disobeying the rules.

The Harvard University should be respected for its fairness, justness and openness. And the following cases show the better examples: Arizona Stated University denied conferring honorary degree to President Obama; the Harvard University refused the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who used to be the professor of Harvard to be professor again; the Yale students protested Yale University for giving former President Bush honorary law doctorate. These are the real Universities: Self-esteem, Self-reliance and Self-improvement.

Let's look back upon the universities in our country. They become dispensable. Students seldom think about the purpose of going to university but just regard it as automatic procedure after high school. College teacher complain the low income that declines their interest for teaching and researching on one hand, and continue writing many worthless papers only for professional titles on the other hand. Even if those professors of the best universities in China mainland also repeat the same old views in their academic thesis. Students play with their cell phones or sleep in class and play computer games and surf the Internet after class. Even some who works hard only learn by rote , focus on the book without any doubt or innovation. And there are two industries which are always brisk: one is hotel, the other is Internet cafe.If we check the resumes of our government officials, we will find many of them have doctor's or master's degrees. And universities are very glad to award them degrees. Degree, the dignity of knowledge is insulted and becomes a way to flatter officials.

There was once a dialogue between presidents of Beijing University and Yale Unversity in a programme of China Central TV. The host asked one question that what are the three main tasks for college students. The two presidents both gave their answers:

President of Beijing University: 1. Learn to study 2. Learn to behave oneself 3. Contribute to the society

President of Yale University: 1.Learn to doubt everything 2. Study hard 3. Think independently

It is very easy to see whose answer is better. President of Beijing Univerisity's words seem to be reasonable but has nothing valuable. Everyone knows he/she should learn to study while nobody knows how to study and do theresearch. And it seems that crib and plagiarism become a good and easy way to finish thesis at last, which is one of the reasons why China has the most papers in quantity of the world but also most of which are trash in quality As to learn to behave oneself, should we just start in universities? We should start to learn how to behave ourselves the day we were born. Comparing with answer by president of Yale, I think that is what we really need and what universities should own. Just like the saying by Albert Einstein:"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learnt in school."

At last, I want to quote one popular paragraph here:"I have been always thinking why the classes in university is arranged so loose and we have to spend four years in university , which is quite different from high school that we had a tense life and graduated just after two years. So is the university that uses four years to weaken your ambition, efface your dream, break up your love that once was thought solid, then it is glad to send you with realism and sophistication to the society, marriage and reality. How terrible and necessary the university is !" If you describe your campus life like this, I regret to tell you that you have wasted your time in the university which does harm to you. However, this is the reality of the society of China, which consume all the dreams of the young gradually.

李鹏--Nelson

2012年3月7日晚于沙特