英国大学反驳教育不公论

Forcing universities to admit rising numbers of teenagers with lower entry grades risks setting them up to “fail”, one of Britain's most prestigious institutions has warned.

In an unprecedented intervention, St Andrews University in Scotland said it was “utterly dishonest” to dumb down admissions requirements to create a more socially-balanced student body.

Problems with children’s upbringing and schooling were to blame for a lack of working-class students claiming places at the country’s elite universities, it was claimed.

Stephen Magee, St Andrews’ vice-principal with responsibility for admissions, said that politicians could not continue to “lay responsibility for widening access solely at the door of universities”.

It represents the strongest criticism yet levelled by an individual university towards policies designed to force institutions to boost access to students from the poorest families.

SNP ministers in Edinburgh are demanding that Scottish universities sign new “outcome agreements” that will see them given public funding on the condition they agree to “widen access”.

It reflects a similar process in England where universities have been forced to draw up targets to boost the number of disadvantaged students admitted each year in return for retaining the power to charge up to £9,000 in tuition fees.

Prof Les Ebdon, head of the Government’s Office for Fair Access, has told the most sought-after universities to set the most “stretching” targets.

Speaking at a conference in London on Monday, he said the overall number of poor pupils admitted into higher education had increased by a third over the last decade but insisted numbers had failed to rise at the most prestigious institutions.

Data published earlier this year by the Higher Education Statistics Agency revealed that more than half of top universities recruited fewer pupils from the very poorest families in 2010/11. Two-thirds of institutions belonging to the elite Russell Group also recruited proportionally fewer state school students.

St Andrews, whose alumni include the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, has faced fierce criticism in Scotland for admitting only 14 children from the poorest backgrounds last year.

英国一家最具声望的高校提醒称，强迫大学接受越来越多的贫困学生入学会让大学最终“失败”。

位于苏格兰的圣安德鲁斯大学表示，降低入学难度，从而使学生群体在社会化方面更加平衡，这样做是“完全不诚实的”。这是这所大学首次对此予以反驳。

该校表示，工薪阶层的孩子能进入顶尖大学的机会少，主要是因为孩子的养育和学校教育问题。

圣安德鲁斯大学的副校长史蒂芬-麦基负责该校的招生问题。他说，政治人士不能继续“把各阶层的学生入学差距加大的问题仅仅归咎于学校招生。”

英国有关政策规定高校要增加来自穷困家庭的学生人数，这是来自单个大学对此政策的最强有力的批评。

英国爱丁堡苏格兰民族党的部长们要求苏格兰大学签署新的“结局协议”，按照该协议，如果大学同意“扩大招生来源”，将得到公用基金。

这反映出在英格兰，大学也被要求草拟目标，提高每年来自贫困家庭的大学生人数，以此保留每年收取最多九千英镑学费的权利。

英国政府公平入学办公室的莱斯-艾布顿教授告诉最受欢迎的各所大学，要把目标定到最高。

本周一他在伦敦出席会议时说，在过去十年，读大学的贫困家庭学生总数增加了1/3，但他认为在最顶尖的高校机构，这一数字没能实现增长。

英国高等教育统计局今年早些时候公布的数据显示，在2010至2011年度，超过半数顶尖高校招收的贫困学生减少。最顶尖的罗素大学集团中，2/3的高校招收公立学校的学生比例减少。

圣安德鲁斯大学的毕业生包括威廉王子夫妇，去年因为仅接收了14名贫困学生而受到指责。