上周，英國政府組建了新的商業(yè)創(chuàng)新和技能部，英國的高等教育和繼續(xù)教育將由這個新的部級單位管理。沒有人可以否認(rèn)，高校是英國整個社會文化的搖籃，也是英國國力的根本。那么，為什么會將教育納入一個主管經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展的部委呢？

簡短的回答為：新部委的使命將是構(gòu)建英國在技能，知識和創(chuàng)新方面的綜合能力，這些綜合能力將會直接增強(qiáng)英國的競爭力，同時也會間接地促進(jìn)英國的文化、信心和使命感。

英國需要遵循幾條原則，才能實現(xiàn)既定的目標(biāo)。首先，需要給大學(xué)和高校高度地自主，其次，更好地發(fā)揮高校的作用來促進(jìn)經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展，但基礎(chǔ)科學(xué)和研究的地位是不容動搖的。

有些人可能會認(rèn)為，高等教育不應(yīng)該由一個主管商業(yè)經(jīng)濟(jì)的部門來負(fù)責(zé)，他們認(rèn)為如果高校在這個部委中，可能會不受重視，或者經(jīng)濟(jì)成果可能會成為高校評估的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。這樣的理解是不對的。

經(jīng)濟(jì)和高校的需求可能會不同，但也并不是永遠(yuǎn)如此。將來有朝一日，他們會成為英國繁榮的文化和自信的屹立在世界舞臺上相符相成的兩個組成部分。

注：新成立的商業(yè)創(chuàng)新和技能部的部長為曼德爾森爵士

Last week, the government created the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which will have responsibility for higher and further education policy. Nobody would disagree that our universities and colleges are as much about the cultural bedrock of our society as the competitiveness of the economy. So why bring them into a department whose core remit is Britain's economic development?

The simple answer is that the mission of the new department is to build Britain's resources of skill, knowledge and creativity. These things drive our competitiveness directly, but also indirectly by reinforcing our cultural awareness, confidence and sense of our past and future.

Britain now needs to build on these strengths on the basis of a few basic principles. First, a high degree of autonomy for universities and further education has been central to their success. Second, it is possible to further boost the role of universities in generating our economic growth without in any way compromising the place of fundamental science or curiosity-driven research in their mix.

There will always be some who think that higher and further education policy does not belong in a department with business in its title. They assume that universities and colleges will somehow diminish in priority in a new department, or that economic outcomes will be the only benchmark for policy. They are wrong.

The needs of business and those of higher and further education are not always the same, and never will be. But they can and do touch and reinforce each other in important ways. At the end of the day, they are two parts of a single picture of a Britain that has the knowledge, confidence and character to prosper in a changing world.

Lord Mandelson is the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills

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該內(nèi)容來源于英國總領(lǐng)事館文化教育處