How much is a professor worth? It might help to know what professors are actually paid and how that figure compares with other salaries — and with the salaries of academics in other countries. But as Philip Altbach and his colleagues at the Center for International Higher Education discovered, such questions are a lot easier to ask than to answer.

大学教授价值几何？想回答这个问题，可能需要了解大学教授的实际工资以及与其他职业的数据比较，当然还有与其他国家学者工资的比较结果。美国芝加哥大学国际高等教育研究中心教授阿特巴赫及其同事的研究发现，这样的问题好问却不好答。

In a new book, “Paying the Professoriate,” to be published this month, Mr. Altbach and his co-editors examine academic salaries, contracts and benefits in publicly funded universities in 28 countries. They depict a world increasingly divided “into two categories — brain drain and brain gain,” as countries with more resources siphon off academic talent from poorer countries. They also show a profession that in many countries is subject to a widening gap between professors at top research universities and those who work at colleges devoted mainly to teaching.

阿特巴赫教授的新书《大学教授薪酬面面观》将于本月发布。在书中阿特巴赫教授和其他几位合著者调查了学术领域的工资水平，并且比较和分析了28个国家公立大学的工资水平和福利。他们的调查研究揭示了在世界范围内，随着资源丰富的国家从较贫困的国家越来越多的吸收人才资源，学术领域逐渐分化成两种范畴：人才流失和人才引进。研究还显示，不同国家的同一个职业，在高等大学工作的教授和主要负责教学的学院老师之间，薪资的差距也在逐渐拉大。

All currencies were converted into U.S. dollars using a purchasing power parity index based on the cost of a set of items in the United States. But they also compared salaries in each country with that country’s average per capita gross domestic product, giving a sense of how academics were paid in comparison to pay for compatriots in other jobs. Finally each of the 28 country teams was asked whether the average academic salary for that country was “sufficient to support a middle-class standard of living.”

所有的货币都换算成美元，但这里使用的美元并不是通俗意义上的“美元”，而指的是购买力平价指数，也就是教授工资在美国的购买力。不过研究也将各国的工资水平与该国的人均国内生产总值进行了比较，用学术工资与其他工作的薪酬差距做一个参照。，参与研究的28个国家小组成员还会被问到该国的平均学术工资是否“足够支持中等家庭的生活标准”。

In terms of purchasing power, newly hired academics in China ($259 per month, as calculated by this particular study’s index) were the worst off, paid less than colleagues in Armenia ($405) or Ethiopia ($864). Academics in Canada, where the entry level salaries averaged $5,733, and full professors were paid an average of $9,485, had more cause for celebration than in the United States, where newly hired faculty members averaged $4,950 and full professors $7,358.

在购买力方面，中国初级教师的工资条件最差（根据研究的指数计算每月只有259美元），比亚美尼亚（405美元）和埃塞俄比亚（864美元）的工资水平都要低。加拿大的教师最富足，初级工资平均为5733美元，正教授的平均工资为9485美元。加拿大教授工资水平甚至高于美国：在美国初级教师的平均工资为4950美元，正教授为7358美元。

“We wanted to get an international perspective,” said Mr. Androushchak, one of the book’s co-editors. Although Russians continue to be awarded Nobel prizes — and to launch rockets — the country’s academic institutions consistently fare poorly in international rankings. “We wanted to know what developed countries paid their academics, as well as developing countries and the other BRICS,” he said, referring to the emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

新书的另一位合著者Androushchak 先生表示：“我们的研究想要有一个国际性的观察视角。” 虽然俄罗斯人持续获得诺贝尔奖、发射火箭，但在国际排名中该国学术机构的工资水平却一直都很低廉。他表示：“我们想了解更多关于发达国家、发展中国家和其他金砖五国的教授薪酬水平”。这里的金砖五国指的是巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国和南非五个经济快速发展的国家。