2024年秋季，哈佛本科生學院至少30門課程被取消，其中多數是文科專業。而國內頂尖學府清華大學早在2018年的自主招生中，就已取消人文與社會類、法學類等文科專業。此現象正悄然蔓延至各大院校，因此引發了各界對文科教育未來走向的思考。In the autumn of 2024, Harvard College cancelled at least thirty courses, most of them in humanities subjects. In mainland China, Tsinghua University had already dropped humanities and social sciences and law from its independent admissions scheme back in 2018. The pattern is quietly spreading through universities everywhere, and it has prompted a broad rethink about where humanities education is heading.
消失的原因Why they are disappearing
02 經費與資源限制02 Funding and resource pressure
大學經費和資源有限，再加上全球經濟下行，教育部門紛紛壓縮支出。理工科專業建設需大量資金用於實驗室建設、科研設備購置等，能在短期內為學校帶來顯著的經濟效益和聲譽的提升。文科專業科研產出相對較慢，難以快速產生顯著效益，所以成為被裁撤的對象。University budgets and resources are finite, and with the global economy slowing, education authorities everywhere are cutting spending. Science and engineering programmes demand heavy investment in laboratories and research equipment, but they can deliver visible financial returns and a lift in reputation within a short time. Humanities research produces results more slowly and rarely shows quick, headline-grabbing gains — which is why these programmes end up on the chopping block.
03 社會觀念影響03 Prevailing attitudes
社會存在重理輕文觀念，認為文科知識不如理工科知識實用，不能直接創造物質財富。這種觀念使文科專業在招生、師資配備等方面面臨挑戰。There is a widely held belief that the sciences matter more than the arts — that humanities knowledge is less practical because it does not directly create material wealth. That view leaves humanities programmes at a disadvantage both in recruiting students and in staffing their departments.
文科的出路Where the humanities can still go
文科生的出路會越走越窄，直至毫無希望嗎？其實，有三類文科生不僅依然容易找到工作，而且可以說是無可取代。Are the options for humanities students narrowing to the point of hopelessness? In fact, there are three kinds of humanities graduate who not only still find work easily, but are close to irreplaceable.
偏理科類的文科Humanities with a scientific edge
也許翻譯、新聞、漢語言文學類較容易被AI取代，而法律、精算等具有複雜邏輯關係的專業仍擁有良好的前景。Translation, journalism and Chinese literature may be comparatively easy for AI to take over, but subjects built on complex logical reasoning — law and actuarial science, for instance — still have strong prospects.
將文科深耕到底Going deeper into the humanities
將文科向更寬、更深、更複雜的方向挺進，如文化、種族、性別的研究等，這是AI無法取代的。Push the humanities in a broader, deeper and more complex direction — cultural studies, race, gender — and you arrive at territory AI cannot replace.
小編的話A note from the editor
文科的意義What the humanities are for
據哈佛校報《深紅》報道，此次哈佛取消課程的背後，其實是一項更為宏大的專業與課程改革計劃——那就是將藝術與人文學院的三個語言專業，及一個輔修領域，整合為全新的「語言、文學與文化」學科。由此可見，這對於真正的文科研究與人文教育而言，未嘗不是一件好事。有位網友在回答「AI時代文科是否顯得越來越無用」時寫道：「機械的聲音是毫無波瀾的湖面，而我的筆下是波濤洶湧的大海。無用的是我，而不是這個傳承了上千年的學科。」它只是換了一種方式存在，但永遠不會「倒閉」。According to The Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, the cancelled courses are part of a far larger overhaul of programmes and curricula: three language programmes and one secondary field in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities are being merged into a new discipline called Language, Literature and Culture. Seen in that light, the change may be no bad thing at all for serious humanities scholarship and liberal education. Answering the question of whether the humanities look increasingly useless in the age of AI, one online commenter wrote: “The machine’s voice is a lake without a ripple; what flows from my pen is an ocean of surging waves. It is I who am useless, not this discipline that has been handed down for a thousand years.” The humanities are simply taking another form. They will never “shut down”.