金融时报:剑桥大学新动作

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2021年10月10日

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剑桥大学新动作

剑桥大学准备引入新的入学申请系统来取代之前为人诟病的测试流程

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

brightest pupils最聪明的学生

labyrinthine迷宫一样的[,læbə'rɪnθaɪn]

opaque不透明的[ə(ʊ)'peɪk]

capricious反复无常的[kə'prɪʃəs]

eligible符合条件的['elɪdʒɪb(ə)l]

Cambridge announces written entrance test amid elitism row（520words）

By Gonzalo Viña, Public Policy Reporter

The university-wide tests will be standardised by subject, doing away with the myriad assessments at its colleges, and are being brought back to give admissions tutors a better idea of who to invite for interview now that schools are phasing out AS-levels.

The change comes as the Sutton Trust — a group that campaigns for greater social mobility — is this week expected to criticise Cambridge and Oxford universities for having labyrinthine admissions systems that deter applications from the brightest pupils at state schools.

Britain's elite universities are coming under fire for failing to do enough to to tackle discrimination. This week, David Cameron accused them of not doing enough to attract students from black and ethnic minority backgrounds and announced plans to force them to publish the ethnic background of students.

The Sutton Trust will say that teachers from state schools that traditionally send few students to Oxbridge are deterred from putting bright students forward because of the complexity of the system to outsiders.

There are 11 different exams at Oxford while Cambridge, until now, appeared at first glance to have as many as 380 although, in practice, many of them are simple tests rather than exams.

The opaque admissions system is traditionally believed to be subject to the capricious whims of university dons and was infamously captured in an incident in the late 1990s when Essex schoolgirl Tracy Playle was brought to tears, claiming that Eric Griffiths, her interviewer, had mocked her accent and background.

Under the new system, Cambridge's 29 undergraduate colleges will bring in a common written assessment to provide “valuable additional evidence” of academic ability, subject knowledge and “potential to succeed” following demands from teachers and students. The new system will be in place for those applying for entry in 2017.

The Sutton Trust will say in a report this week that the proportion of state school students at both universities has increased in recent years. Cambridge accepted 62 per cent of its students from state schools in 2014, while Oxford took 56 per cent, up from a combined average of 47 per cent in 1997. But there were just a total of 40 Oxbridge students in 2012 who were once eligible for free school meals, a widely used measure of poverty.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: “We welcome anymeasure to simplify the admissions procedures at Oxbridge. However, Cambridge should be aware that tests could present a disadvantage for low and middle income students as there is a thriving market in private tuition for the extra admissions tests used at Oxford and Cambridge.

“We will of course ensure that any changes that are made are fully reflected in our summer school programme, which now has 600 places at Cambridge.”

Mr Cameron this week said it was unacceptable that young black men were more likely to be in prison than studying at a top university, that there were no black generals in the armed forces, and that only 4 per cent of FTSE chief executives were from ethnic minorities.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the failure of Britain's elite universities?

A.The employment rate of the graduates is low

B.The infrastructure in school is old-fashioned

C.The quality of teaching is not satisfied

D.Not doing enough to tackle discrimination

答案(1)

2.In the claim of the Essex schoolgirl Tracy Playle，what was mocked by her interviewer?

A.her low GPA

B.her accent and background

C.her low GPA

D.her dress