|
|
星期一, 10月 27, 2014
ASPIRE "Making it Count" 11/1
BRA and UMass Donahue Institute release new report that reframes the “brain drain” debate
BRA and UMass Donahue Institute release new report that reframes the “brain drain” debate
Researchers suggest that size and share of young, educated population is a better indicator of economic vitality than number of graduates retained annually
BOSTON – Today, researchers from the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute released a new report that attempts to reframe a long-running debate about the Boston metro area’s ability to retain the college and university graduates it produces. The BRA-UMass study reviews two notable reports from the last ten years – a 2003 analysis by Boston Consulting Group for the Boston Foundation and a 2013 study by Northeastern University, both of which found that approximately half of Boston’s graduates leave the region after obtaining a degree.
These findings have led some people to conclude that Boston suffers from “brain drain,” which is generally defined as a large-scale departure of highly skilled, college-educated individuals due to a lack of economic opportunity. Critics have raised concerns about the difficulty of retaining graduates and how this challenge may negatively impact the local economy.
However, the new report entitled “Retaining Recent College Graduates in Boston: Is There a Brain Drain?” argues that neither brain drain nor retention is a good indicator of how well Boston’s economy performs with regard to its need for younger, college-educated workers. Instead, the authors propose that the size and share of this population is what is most important to the vitality of Boston and its metro area. The report offers reasons for why it is not surprising for Boston to have a lower retention rate than other metro areas, most notably because so many students from outside of here come to study. Recent Census data shows that Boston has very high concentrations of young adults and college-educated workers compared to other major cities.
“The problem of graduate retention in Boston has been overstated because prior studies have focused on retention rates without looking at the bigger picture,” said Alvaro Lima, Director of Research at the BRA and an author of the new report. “What our analysis shows, however, is that we cannot realistically expect to retain everyone that graduates from a local institution. More importantly, we found that Boston’s labor market, and higher education sector in particular, are increasingly healthy and global.”
As context for the report, researchers looked at a variety of population trends. Between 2000 and 2010, Boston’s 20 to 34 year old demographic grew 11 percent, far faster than the statewide average for population growth. Overall this age group makes up 35 percent of Boston’s population, the highest proportion of any major American city. Only Austin, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Columbus, OH, have more than 30 percent of their population within this age range. In Boston, the 25 to 34 year old demographic, seen as representing a more “permanent” set of young workers, also grew between 2000 and 2010 (by 2.7 percent).
Total college enrollment in Boston has increased from 86,000 to 101,000 in the past decade, and almost 16.5 percent of the city’s total population is college-enrolled, again the highest rate among major U.S. cities. 40 percent of Boston’s population has a college degree, compared to a nationwide average of 28 percent, and over half of Boston’s residents with a college degree are between the ages of 20 and 34.
“These are hardly signs of a mass exodus of well-educated young adults,” the report notes.
The new study points out that the ability to attract young highly skilled graduates from outside of Boston is as important as retaining those who come here for their education. The notion is that employers are concerned with the supply of skilled labor for the jobs that they need to fill, not with where a person obtained his or her degree. A review of job vacancy data for metro Boston does not suggest that there is a significant skilled labor shortage in the region.
Prior studies have suggested that policymakers do more to retain graduates of local institutions, but the new report is the first to attempt to quantify Boston’s capacity for increasing retention. And it shows that the city produces far more graduates than job openings. The report estimates that approximately 150,000 students graduate annually with a bachelor’s degree or higher from area institutions. In comparison, the study estimates that there are only about 71,000 total job openings each year in the metro area, with 20,000 to 27,000 of those being relevant for new graduates.
The Boston Foundation’s 2003 report contested that four out of five recent graduates who decide to leave Boston do so for avoidable reasons. Yet, attempting to retain all of these willing departures would mean accommodating over 25,000 additional people in Boston each year. For comparison, Boston’s population grew by less than 29,000 people in the decade between 2000 and 2010, a period with the most significant housing production in half a century.
The BRA-UMass analysis does not argue that Boston or the surrounding region cannot or should not try to take on additional graduates. Rather, it provides new context around the limits of retention by taking into account the labor market and two-way migration of graduates.
The researchers suggest that any future studies on the issue should consider: 1) the capacity of the labor market to absorb new graduates, not only the supply of graduates; and 2) the high share of Boston’s population of 25-34 year olds, reflecting the region’s ability to not only retain graduates but also attract them from elsewhere.
Other publications from the BRA’s Research Division are available on the agency’s website. Research requests can be made through the Research Inquiries website.
牛頓中文學校辦網球賽為中國支教籌款
牛頓中文學校刻正舉行的第二屆網球賽，共吸引了42名網球愛好者參加，募得報名費9百美元，將捐給中國安徽省撮鎮中學，資助該校教學。
這一比賽已於25日進入決賽階段，女子單打部分，王晶贏得冠軍，周津平亞軍。
牛頓中文學校宣傳主任劉玲表示，該校去年開始藉著辦網球比賽，為支教募款，收到的參賽報名費全部用於支教項目。今年參賽的愛打網球家長及校外人士比去年增加近一倍，其中包括來自屋本市（Woburn）
華人雙打網盟，波士頓地區華人網球群的許多網球高手。
最近這4年來在屋本雙打網盟連續獲得第一名的麥德福居民李新唯表示，儘管他以前從沒到過牛頓中校，對中國邊遠地區也缺少了解，但從牛頓中校支教組成員周津平那兒得知網球賽的慈善目的後，十分高興的報名參賽了。
他建議根據主辦單位因應紐英崙地區的氣候特色，明年推前比賽日前，以期有更多球友可參賽。
牛頓市網球賽2005年-2009年的男單冠軍文衛列說，去年他因傷無法參加；想不到今年參加，不但可支教，還有機會與高手切磋球技，太讓人高興了。
在今年的參賽年輕選手中，有兩名特別的高中生，Ryan Lin和Brian
Gao。他倆是支教小組學生團員，今年四月前往中國江西崇仁一中，和當地學生一同吃住一個星期，不但交了朋友，更對當地文化有了更深入了解。今年，他倆在家長支持下，繼續以參加網球賽活動來支持支教項目。
網球賽的向家長籌款代表周津平表示，牛頓中文學校支持中國教育項目已有9年，志願者每年以辦慈善舞會，感恩節聚會等活動，為支教募捐。他們希望明年募款成績更好。
附圖說明：
屋本市（Woburn）
華人雙打網盟的網球好手，後排右二為李新唯，前排右一為楊志勇。（圖由劉玲提供））
Brian
Gao（左），Ryan Lin（右） 和比賽組織者周津平。（圖由劉玲提供）
台灣書院走入麻州外語協會年會
麻州外語協會(MaFLA)在Sturbridge旅館及會議中心舉行，為期三日的第四十七屆年會，25日圓滿落幕。
成立於1967年的麻州外語協會，今年從新英格蘭地區，甚至全美各地，吸引了不下九百名外語老師及行政人員出席，透過各場講座，討論，交流阿拉伯文，中文，法文，拉丁文，德文及西班牙文等語種，從幼稚園到大學程度，在教育學，科技應用上的教學心得。
三天的會議，活動內容包括各語言主題演講、教學觀摩、頒獎、聚餐，以及圖書教材展示。會場內共擺有近五十個各式外語教材展示攤。
波士頓華僑文教中心今年再度派員參加，還擺出“台灣書院“攤位，向出席該會議，來自各地的中文老師們，介紹來自台灣的中國文化，語言教材。
波士頓華僑文教中心主任郭大文也在麻州外語協會唯一的華裔理事葉金惠，新英格蘭中文教師專業協會(NECTA)秘書劉奇峰等人陪同下，和麻州外語協會要員交流，餐敘。
根據該會的會議議程，今年共有三名亞裔老師在會議中主持講座，分別為傅萊明罕麻州州立大學助理教授Cheng-Fu Chen，阿靈頓公校中文老師Na Lu-Hogan，多福雪邦（Dover-Sherborn)高中的Yanhong Li等人。
Glastonbury公校外語主任Rita A. Oleksak是今年的大會主講人。該學校系統有60名外語，以及學習英語者老師。2009年時，該校區成為第一批，廿個孔子課堂的合夥人之一，還曾經獲得七次“星談（StarTalk）“夏令營資助。去年Rita
A. Oleksak還獲得皮爾森（Pearson）年度主管獎。
她在會議上公開感謝波士頓華僑文教中心對該會的支持。郭大文也向麻州外語協會表示，波士頓華僑文教中心將繼續支持新英格蘭地區的華文活動。 麻州外語協會的下一次年會，已定2015年十月廿九日至三十一日，在Sturbridge的同一地點舉行，會議主席將為Jessica
Clifford。
圖片說明：
新英格蘭中文教師專業協會(NECTA)秘書劉奇峰（左一），新英格蘭中文教師專業協會(NECTA)會長張福增（後右三），波士頓僑教中心主任郭大文（後排右二)，麻州外語協會理事Mary-Ann
Stadtler-Chester。（圖由波士頓華僑文教中心提供）
麻州外語協會參加年會者餐敘。（圖由波士頓華僑文教中心提供）
波士頓華僑文教中心在麻州外語協會年會上擺攤。（圖由波士頓華僑文教中心提供）
訂閱：
文章 (Atom)