If You Had a Chance Again, Would You Go to University?

如果重来一次，你还会读大学吗?

Young women are losing faith in the university system with nearly half believing it is not worth getting a degree.

年轻女性正在对大学体制失去信心，近半数的女性认为攻读学位不划算。

Tuition fees and little chance of landing a good job make higher education an unattractive prospect¹ for them, a study suggests. It found that nearly half of female graduates would not go to university if they had the chance again.

一项调查反映出，由于大学学费高昂，而找到一份好工作的可能性又很小，高等教育的吸引力对女性来说越来越小。该项调查发现，如果再给已经大学毕业的女性一次重新选择的机会，近半数人将不会去读大学。

The research will cause concern because it was carried out before the Government announced that fees will almost treble to E9,000 in 2012. The findings have prompted warnings that a generation of ambitious young women will miss out on a high-flying career and the opportunity to continue their education.

调查结果让人大为忧心，因为此次调查还是在英国政府出台学费上调计划前进行的。到2012年，大学学费几乎要涨至现在的三倍——9000英镑。该项调查就此提出警告，将会有一代抱负远大的年轻女性会因此失去一份前途光明的职业和继续接受教育的机会。

Louise Court, editor of Cosmopolitan² magazine, which conducted the survey, said young women seem to think university "a waste of time".

路易丝·康特，开展此项调查的《时尚》杂志主编，据她讲年轻女性似乎认为读大学是"浪费时间"。

"It' s never been harder to be a young woman with ambition," she said. "Understandably, women are angry and frustrated³ about their future and this is having a damaging affect on their self-esteem."

"做一个有抱负的年轻女性从来没有像现在这么难。"她说可以理解，女性对自己的未来感到愤怒和绝望，这是对她们自尊心的一种伤害。"

The survey of 1,353 women also looked at the career prospects⁴ and financial outlook for women in 2011. Two thirds of those questioned said they thought it would be "almost impossible" to get their dream job and a quarter were unable to follow their preferred career. Only 14 per cent said they felt safe from the sack.

参与调查的1353位女性都对她们在2011年的职业前景和经济状况作出了答复。三分之二的被调查者回答时称，她们认为找到理想工作"几乎是不可能的四分之一的人无法从事自己最中意的职业。仅有14%被调查者觉得自己不会被解雇。

And the financial situation for graduates was especially bad, with half saying they had so much student debt they could not save. The same proportion believed they faced worse financial hardship than their parent. One in seven women said they had been forced to postpone⁵ getting married because a wedding would be too expensive. And more than one in six admitted that financial constraints⁶ had made them postpone trying to start a family.

而毕业生的经济状况尤其糟糕，半数的毕业生说她们的学生贷款太多，根本攒不下来钱。还有一半人相信她们所面临的经济困境要比父辈们的更加严重。七分之一的女性说因为考虑到婚礼的巨额支出使她们不得不延迟结婚计划。而超过六分之一的人承认回为经济窘迫而推迟了生育计划。

Vicky Tuck, a campaigner for women's education and former head of Cheltenham Ladies College, said: "The rise in fees is going to make a lot of people reflect on why they are going to university. Before the introduction of fees it was not an automatic assumption that a degree would lead to a good job. It is only recently that we have seen that relationship. I believe that women should only go to university if they have a genuine interest in learning, a precious opportunity. If they go purely⁷ to get a job, many will be disappointed."

妇女教育运动参与者、切尔滕纳姆女子学院的前校长维姬·塔克说学费上涨会让很多人开始反思自己为什么要上大学。虽然在学费上涨计划之前，人们也不会盲目认为高学历一定能带来理想工作。但直到最近我们才认真看待这两者之间的联系。我认为女性应该仅仅是出于对学习的真正兴趣和想得到一个宝贵的学习机会而去上大学。如果她们只是为了找工作而求学，那很多人都将会失望。"