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"New Graduates who don't find an immediate job should start their own companies", interview (2) |
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14:24, August 06, 2007 |
Xing Zong: People in Chinese academia world have a traditional "Nobel Prize dream", while UW has more than 10 Nobel Prize winners. Do you believe the management of a university has something to do with this?
Wiley: First, let me say that the number of Nobel Prizes is so small compared to the number of people doing potentially "Nobel-caliber" work, that the statistics of Nobel Prizes will always be misleading.
You mention that UW has "more than 10 Nobel Prize winners." Actually, included among the ten are Wisconsin Alumni who won the prize for work done elsewhere, as well as individuals who did their Nobel work at Wisconsin but were working elsewhere when they received the prize. To the best of my recollection, only two did there work here and were still working at Wisconsin when the prizes were awarded.
So it''s a little difficult to argue that this has much to do with the management of the university. If there''s anything "special" we do here, it''s maintaining a focus on excellence in hiring and promotion, using rigorous peer review of everything we value and reward.
Ning Ma: Today, most universities in China are still public. However, more and more private universities have been founded and begin to enroll students who are eager to receive higher education. This could be a two-edge sword. For example, the number of college graduates exceeds the number of jobs on the market. As a result, many young people will face unemployment after their graduation, or they have to accept a job with much lower payment than the market rate. This is of course not a paradox for education only, but from an educational perspective, do you have any suggestions to solve the problem?
Wiley: In the US, about 60% of the colleges and universities are private, and some of these private schools are very old and highly respected around the world. But nearly 80% of our college students are attending public universities, and many of these institutions, too, are highly respected worldwide.
At the moment, we seem to be producing about the number of graduates we currently need in the economy in the sense that the unemployment rate for college graduates is very low. Is that the right number? I don''t think so.
If it were not for entrepreneurism (new companies started by recent graduates) then we, too, would probably be producing more graduates than the economy could absorb. And if we were producing even more entrepreneurial graduates, we would have a larger economy! So my suggestion is to encourage new graduates who don''t find an immediate job in an existing company to start their own companies.
Ning Ma: As a renowned research university, many departments of UW rank top 10 in the nation, for example, computer science, chemistry, sociology and so on. However, we notice that professional schools, such as law school and business school ranking are not comparable with those research departments. What is the reason for that? Is there any difference between running research department and professional schools? Do you believe that the university will help those schools to catch up with ranking?
Wiley: I know that a great many people believe in rankings. I''m not one of them. I do not believe there is any objective, defensible way to rank order complex, multidimensional entities such as colleges, cities, hospitals, or restaurants. Are some better than others? Of course. But no two people will agree on how much weight to give each of the hundreds of different important characteristics. So trying to create a single, composite "score" for purposes of ranking is inherently subjective.
Having said that, it is true that Wisconsin has a large number of departments that are consistently "highly ranked" by many different methodologies, and over many years. The reason for that is the one given in my answer to your question about Nobel Prizes: We try hard to hire the best, most diverse workforce we can, and let the results speak for themselves.
Your observation about professional schools is largely a public/private issue: If you look at the lists of top-rated professional schools in the US, you will notice that the highest ranks are very heavily dominated by private schools. I don''t have a really good explanation for that, but I will note that many of the factors used in the professional school rankings are "resource" factors – inputs. Wealthier schools have more resources, and certainly more dollars per student, so they tend to do better in the rankings.
Xing Zong: Thank you, Chancellor Wiley. Before we end this interview, is there anything else you would like to add?
Wiley: I hope that students in China, and other countries across Asia, will continue to view UW-Madison as an attractive place to live and learn. I would encourage anyone who is interested in attending to learn more about us at http://www.wisc.edu.
The authors would like to thank Mr. John Lucas from University Communications office, University of Wisconsin, Madison for his help.
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