英國大學排名下滑因爲招收更多窮學生？
新發布的世界大學排行榜顯示，英國的幾所名校，包括牛津和劍橋在內，排名都有所下滑。專家將其歸咎於英國的大學被迫招收更多窮學生，從而導致生源質量下降。
British universities are slipping down the world rankings, with experts blaming the decline on pressure to admit more disadvantaged students.
英國大學的世界排行下滑，專家將其歸咎於招收更多窮學生的壓力。
Cambridge University, which for many years was ranked the best in the world and for a decade held a place in the top three, has now dropped down to fifth place, according to the QS World University Rankings.
在QS世界大學排行榜上，劍橋大學曾多年排名世界第一，最近10年以來也一直保持在前三位，但如今，劍橋大學卻降至第五名。
Overall, 51 of the UK’s 76 institutions have slipped down in the rankings since last year. The Russell Group members, which represents 24 of the UK's most selective universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, saw 16 dropping down in the rankings.
總體來看，英國的76所高校中有51所的排名相比去年有所下降。代表牛津大學和劍橋大學等英國24所頂尖大學的羅素大學集團中有16所排名下滑。
Professor Alan Smithers, who is head of the centre for education and employment at the University of Buckingham, said that the decline was because “universities are no longer free to take their own decisions and recruit the most talented students which would ensure top positions in league tables”.
白金漢大學教育和就業中心主任艾倫•史密瑟斯教授說，排名下滑是因爲“大學無法再自由地做決定，招收最有才華的學生，而只有這樣才能讓大學保住在排行榜中的高位。”
He said that instead, universities are forced to comply with “all sorts of requirements in terms of the ethnic mix, the levels of income of the students and whether they come from low income areas”.
他說，如今大學被迫滿足“各種要求，關於種族融合、學生收入水平，以及是否來自低收入地區”。
Under the current fees system, any English university wishing to charge tuition fees of over around £6,000 must have an access agreement approved by Offa. This sets out what the university intends to do to recruit and retain youngsters who would not normally study for a degree.
在當前的收費制度下，任何想收取超6000英鎊學費的大學，都必須有公平入學辦公室通過的准入協議。這一協議規定了大學爲招收和留住那些沒條件攻讀學位的年輕人所計劃採取的措施。
Earlier this year, the higher education tsar warned that top universities must make more effort to accept poor students.
今年早些時候，公平入學辦公室警告說，頂尖大學必須作出更多努力來接納貧窮學生。
Les Ebdon, director of Offa said that the argument used by admissions tutors that disadvantaged students’ grades are not high enough “just doesn’t hold water”, and criticised the Russell Group for suggesting that there is a limit on the numbers of poorer teenagers they can recruit.
公平入學辦公室主任萊斯•艾伯頓說，招生人員聲稱窮學生的分數不夠高的論斷“站不住腳”，並批評了羅素大學集團，指出他們對於家貧的青少年有招收人數限制。
Prof Smithers said that Britain’s top universities are under pressure to recruit more disadvantaged students, and that this “has diverted their attention from really providing the subjects and the fields that they feel are the most appropriate and drawing in the best students”.
史密瑟斯教授說，英國頂尖大學被迫招收更多窮學生，這“讓他們分心，無法提供最合適的學科和研究領域，也無法招收最優秀的學生。”
“If the premier league made all sorts of requirements about recruiting left footed and right footed players, the teams wouldn’t be quite as successful,” he said.
他說：“如果英超聯賽對於招收左腳或右腳踢球的球員有各種規定，那麼球隊就不會那麼成功。”
“This interference is getting in the way of the purpose of universities which is identifying the most talented students and taking them to the frontier of their subject,” he said.
“這種干預已經阻礙了大學的發展目標，而大學的初衷是要發現最有才華的學生，把他們推向各自學科的前沿。”
QS, which has compiled the global university rankings since 2004, ranks institutions according to six metrics: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty to student ratio, citations per faculty, the international faculty ratio and the international student ratio.
QS自2004年開始進行全球大學排名，排名主要依據6個衡量標準：學術聲譽、僱主聲譽、師生數比、教職員論文引用率、國際教師比例和國際學生比例。
Dr Joanna Williams, a senior lecturer in higher education at the University of Kent, said: “Universities are casting the net a lot wider and reaching out to more socially diverse groups, which is good.
肯特大學高等教育部高級講師喬安娜•威廉姆斯博士說：“大學正在廣撒網，觸及更多不同的社會羣體，這是件好事。”
“But it means you can’t assume that students come in with a body of knowledge and you have to spend a certain amount of time bringing them up to standard”. Dr Williams added that universities are giving lower A-level offers – not just to disadvantaged students but to all students – in order to fill places.
“但這意味着你不能指望學生剛進來就有一套知識體系，你必須花一定時間才能讓他們達到標準。”威廉姆斯補充道，大學爲了招滿學生，不光向窮學生放低招收標準，而是對所有學生都放低標準。
“The assumptions you would have had in the past like telling students to go away and read the book or write the essay, are no longer there,” she said. “Universities are becoming more like schools in teaching style, and that removes a lot of the intellectual challenge.”
“過去大學老師會讓學生自己去看書或寫論文，但現在已經不能這麼想當然了，”她說，“大學變得更像是上課的學校，這讓本應有的許多學術挑戰消失了。”
Baroness Alison Wolf, a cross-bench peer and professor of public policy at King’s College London, said that while British universities are relatively well-funded, their American competitors have “been spending more and more” in recent years.
中立議員、倫敦大學國王學院公共政策系教授艾莉森•沃爾夫女男爵說，雖然英國的大學資金還算充裕，但是美國大學近年來的“投資越來越大”。
“If we are slipping through the ranks it is partly that other countries are pouring money into higher education,” she said. “Governments all over the world are obsessed with the idea of having world class universities.”
她說：“如果我們的排名下滑，一部分原因是其他國家在高等教育上投入了大量資金。世界各國的政府都很看重國內是否有世界一流大學。”
The top ten universities according to QS World University Rankings 2018
QS2018世界大學排行榜前十名：
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 麻省理工學院
2 Standford University 斯坦福大學
3 Harvard University 哈佛大學
4 California Institute of Technology 加州理工學院
5 University of Cambridge 劍橋大學
6 University of Oxford 牛津大學
7 University College London 倫敦大學學院
8 Imperial College London 倫敦大學帝國理工學院
9 University of Chicago 芝加哥大學
10 Eth Zurich (Swiss Federal Institution of Technology) 瑞士蘇黎世聯邦理工學院
