報告稱牛津招“特別生”掙錢有損學校聲譽

近期發佈的一份內部調查報告指出，牛津大學通過招收有錢的“特別生”來謀取商業利益的行爲會有損學校的聲譽。牛津大學各學院招收的“特別生”平均成績普遍都低於正式的牛津大學學生，他們每學期支付的學費高達13000英鎊（約合人民幣12.4萬元），而英國學生每年的學費最高只有9000英鎊。報告指出，牛津大學每年招收的特別生多達300人，通常都是由第三方機構進行招生。這些學生沒有資格取得牛津大學的學位，但可以在簡歷中表明他們曾在牛津大學學習。報告指出，不清楚真相的人很難分辨這些特別生跟牛津正式學生的區別，而這些特別生項目看起來更像是純粹的商業交易。

Oxford University risks undermining its reputation by accepting wealthy foreign students with poor grades for “purely commercial reasons”, an internal report warns.

The “associate students”, who generally have lower average grades than a typical Oxford undergraduate, pay as much as £13,000 a term and can stay for up to a year.

Although the students are not officially part of the university, senior figures said they “pose severe reputational risk” because their academic standards are “often low”.

The report said that colleges, which are independent of the university and are free to set their own admissions policies, granted them admission for “purely commercial” reasons. The inquiry, prompted by concerns about the number of associate students and their links with Oxford, was held by a working group chaired by Prof Paul Slack, a former pro-vice-chancellor at Oxford.

Its findings were published two weeks after universities were accused of using foreign students as “cash cows” by charging them as much as £35,000 a year for a degree. British students are currently charged a maximum of £9,000.

As many as 300 associate students are admitted to Oxford each year, usually through a third-party organisation which then makes a payment to the college.

The Washington International Studies Council (WISC), which claims to be the largest overseas study programme at Oxford, charges $20,900 (£13,430) for a 13-week term.

About £4,000 of that total is paid to the Oxford college, and students can attend for up to a year. WISC offers the candidates, who are mostly American students, entry to Trinity College, Christ Church, New College and Magdalen.

Associate students do not have to demonstrate academic standards as high as students admitted through the standard intake.

The website states that the students are degree candidates of their home college and not of Oxford.

However, it says the students are “taught the same way and to the same standard by Oxford tutors”.

The students can refer to being educated at Oxford on their CVs.

In a report published recently by the central university, senior Oxford figures said they feared it would be “difficult for the uninformed reader to detect … that there is any significant difference in the experience of its students coming to Oxford for a limited period time from that of a full-time matriculated undergraduate”.

Official figures showed colleges continued to recruit many candidates.

In the academic year 2010-11, Christ Church admitted 48 associate students, receiving more than £50,000 in fees.

St Catherine’s, which is not included in the WISC programme, took in 33.

Referring to the programme, the report said: “Although there is some assessment of their GPA [Grade Point Average] scores before they are admitted by each college, the transaction seems to be one of a purely commercial kind.”

Despite the central university’s apparent dislike of the programme, the report said it had received more than £1 million in library fees since 2009 from associate students wanting admission to the Bodleian.