英国一大学打算解决知识与现实脱节的问题

Getting a university degree has never seemed more important: college graduates earn more money, live longer, and are happier. But college degrees are expensive (especially in the US), narrowly focused (especially in the UK), and often fail to build the skills employers want (true in most countries).

大学学位似乎从来不曾像现在这样重要：大学毕业生收入更高、寿命更长，也更幸福。但是大学学位很烧钱（尤其在美国），教学范围太狭窄（尤其在英国），经常不能培养出雇主想要的技能（在多数国家都是如此）。

A new university in the UK wants to change that.

英国的一所新大学想要改变这一现状。

The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS), which will launch in 2021 with a target of 100 students, will scrap traditional academic subjects and offer a three-year bachelor of arts and sciences degree designed to tackle real-world issues. The curriculum is built around interdisciplinary problems—knife crime, childhood obesity, palm oil in supply chains, plastic pollution—as well as quantitative and qualitative research skills. Employers like the Met Police, Innocent, and Virgin will provide project ideas and offer five-week work experience for students.

将于2021年成立的伦敦跨学科学院（LIS）将招收100名学生，该学院将摒弃传统的学科，提供三年制文科和理科学士学位，以解决现实世界的问题为目标，围绕持刀犯罪、儿童肥胖、棕榈油供应链、塑料污染等跨学科问题以及定量和定性研究技能来设置课程。伦敦警察厅、天真饮料公司和维珍集团等雇主将为学生提供项目创意以及五周的实习机会。

The idea is similar to a US liberal arts degree (a rarity in the UK) but also more explicitly focused on "interdisciplinarity," or drawing on multiple subjects—economics, psychology, sociology, statistics—to solve complex problems like childhood obesity. In other words, the problem, not the subject, sits at the center of the curriculum. The skills students develop, the founders hope, will more closely align with what an AI-infused, automated world demands: collaboration between people and machines, critical thinking, speaking and writing skills, and data management, to name just a few things.

该学院的理念类似于美国的人文科学学位（在英国很罕见），但显然更注重“跨学科”，或利用多个学科——经济学、心理学、社会学、统计学——的内容来解决儿童肥胖这样的复杂问题。换言之，问题，而非学科，在课程设置中占据中心地位。创办者希望，学生们发展的技能——人和机器的协作、批判性的思考、说话和写作技能、数据管理等等——将能和一个充斥着人工智能的自动化世界的需求接轨。

Students will tackle problems through various disciplines: knife crime, for example, by understanding cultural and socioeconomic factors in different neighborhoods, data science, statistics, publicly available data, an economics or psychology lens.

学生们将利用多个学科的知识来解决问题。以持刀犯罪为例，通过理解不同社区的文化和社会经济因素，利用公开数据，从数据科学、统计学、经济学或心理学的角度来分析。

In the UK, students apply through a central clearinghouse, and exam results are paramount. At LIS, students will instead apply directly and all will be invited to a "selection day" which will include a face-to-face interview so that LIS can understand a student's background, motivations, and passions. Interviews will be conducted by a panel to minimize bias. Conditional offers will be granted based on personal background, circumstances and, also, grades.

在英国，学生们通过招生服务中心申请大学，考试成绩至关重要。在伦敦跨学科学院，学生可以直接申请，所有学生都会受邀在一个“选拔日”参加现场面试，学院借此来了解一个学生的背景、动机和爱好。面试将由专门小组进行，以将个人偏见的影响降到最低。学院将会基于学生的背景、情况以及分数进行择优录取。