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Finance and Economics
財經
Student Loans: Grading Education
學生貸款：分級教育
A fintech startup treats student loans a serious investments.
一家新興金融科技公司把學生貸款作為正經投資。
IN AN old factory building in lower Manhattan a fintech startup is seeking answers to a question that has tormented teachers and students for decades: what is the value of a given course, teacher or institution?
在下曼哈頓區的一幢老舊廠房里，一家金融科技新秀正試圖解答一個困擾著教師和學生們數十載的問題：一門課程、一名教師或是一間學府，它/他們的價值是什么？
Climb Credit, with just two dozen employees, provides student loans.
Climb Credit 依靠著僅僅二十四名員工，開展學生貸款業務。
The programmes it finances bring returns far higher than can be expected from even highly rated universities.
其財政項目回報遠高于那些高評級大學期待。
Climb does not claim to nurture billionaires, nor to care much about any of the intangible benefits of education.
Climb公司并沒有聲稱要去培養億萬富豪，也沒有特別關心教育所帶來的無形好處。
Rather, it focuses on sharp, quantifiable increases in earnings.
相反，它關注的是快速的、可計量的營收增長。
The average size of its loans is $10,000 and it normally finances programmes of less than a year.
平均貸款額度是10,000美金，且一般資助低于一年的項目。
The subjects range from coding to web design, from underwater welding to programming robots for carmakers (which has the highest rate of return).
其中涉及的學科從編程到網站設計，從水下焊接到為汽車制造商編寫機器人程序（這是最高回報率的學科）。
Some students have scant formal education; others advanced degrees.
一些學生缺乏正規的教育，而另一些擁有高等學歷。
The rate of return they get is calculated as the uplift in earnings after the course of study, minus its cost (which includes that of servicing the loan, and takes account of the absence of earnings during the course).
他們所得到的回報率是根據學習結束后的收入增長減去課程花費所得到的（其中課程花費包括貸款的花費以及考慮了課程期間沒有收入來源這一因素）。
Climb’s results so far are hardly conclusive.
目前為止，Climb Credit 的成果尚未有定論。
It has released only the number of loan applications: just 10,000 since its founding in 2014.
它僅僅發布了貸款申請數：自2014年成立起，才收到一萬份。
Many institutions it works with do not offer the four-year and two-year courses eligible for federal funding, which account for 19m students.
與之合作的許多院校不提供符合聯邦基金條件的四年制與兩年制課程，而這些課程涵蓋一千九百萬名學生。
Instead, its market for now is among the 5m studying in more focused programmes.
相反，Climb Credit 的市場到目前只處于接受更為專門化培養教育的五百萬學生中。
Past efforts to rank education providers based on the financial return they offer have struggled.
過去那些基于財富回報而為教育提供者排名的努力還在掙扎。
The data are often drawn from patchy surveys.
數據往往來自東拼西湊的調查。
It is hard to compare different courses over different time spans.
很難在不同的時間跨度上比較不同的課程。
Climb tracks every loan it makes, along with data such as subject area, teacher, institution, job offers and salaries.
Climb 跟蹤調查了他們發放的每一筆貸款，連同調查了諸如學科領域、教師院校、就職機會與薪酬的數據。
Its interest rates average 9% a year, roughly double the government rate, and can be as high as 15%.
貸款年收益率平均為9%，約為政府利率的兩倍，最高可達15%。
It shuns some fields, such as acting or modelling, altogether, if there is no evidence that a course delivers a return.
如果在某些領域中，沒有證據表明是培訓課程帶來的回報，公司也完全會回避這些專業領域，比如表演與模特。
So far, the firm’s approach has worked: its default rates are in the low single digits.
迄今為止，公司的運作模式已經奏效：違約率在不高的個位數。
Climb’s credit offering covers 70 institutions; another 150 are being vetted.
Climb Credit 提供的信貸業務已經覆蓋七十家教育機構；另有一百五十家正在審查中。
As many as 3,000 may eventually qualify.
最終可能有多達三千家機構獲得審批。
Climb’s attraction is obvious: an expanded student base.
Climb Credit的魅力顯而易見：擴張后的學生基數很大。
But many will balk at the tough provisions Climb imposes.
但是許多人將畏于接受Climb Credit 強加的強硬條款。
Students must be given a drop-out period, when they can leave without any loan obligation. (A review of data on conventional student loans suggested that those most likely to default had begun classes, taken on debt and then quit the course before they had acquired any new skills.）
學生們必須獲得一段退學期，期間他們可以退出而不必有任何債務負擔。（在對傳統學生貸款數據進行梳理之后，發現最有可能出現違約的情況是學生去上學，進行貸款，然后在學到任何新技能之前就退學了。）
If a student does default, the school is usually responsible for more than 20% of the unpaid debt.
如果有學生確實存在違約行為，學校通常會承擔未償債務的20%以上。
That gives it an incentive to pick students carefully and train them well.
這樣學校就有動力去認真挑選學員，提高教學質量。
In conventional student loans, interest and principal accumulate silently.
在傳統的學生貸款中，利息與本金是悄悄積累的。
On graduation, the monthly repayment bill comes as a shock.
在學生畢業時，月度支付賬單會嚇人一跳。
Climb students start making tiny payments as soon as they take out a loan (refunded if they drop out fast).
Climb Credit放貸的學生一獲得貸款就開始小額地償還債務（如果他們不久就退學，會退回這筆錢）。
Climb hopes to make its success-rate data public, to help both students and lenders.
Climb Credit 希望可以公開它的成功率數據，這樣既有助于學生們，也有助于放貸人。
It already makes good use of its network of education providers: it has hired three former students from institutions within it.
公司已經充分利用了它的教育提供方網絡：Credit Credit 現已從中雇傭了之前在教育機構的三名學員。
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