When next year’s crop of high-school graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall of 2009, they’ll be joined by a new face; Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-old provost (教务长) of Yale, who’ll become Oxford’s vice-chancellor—a position equivalent to university president in America.
Hamilton isn’t the only educator crossing the Atlantic. Schools in France, Egypt, Singapore, etc, have also recently made top-level hires from abroad. Higher education has become a big and competitive business nowadays, and like so many businesses, it’s gone global. Yet the talent flow isn’t universal. High-level personnel tend to head in only one direction: outward from America.
The chief reason is that American schools don’t tend to seriously consider looking abroad. For example, when the board of the University of Colorado searched for a new president, it wanted a leader familiar with the state government, a major source of the university’s budget. “We didn’t do any global consideration,” says Patricia Hayes, the board’s chair. The board ultimately picked Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old Colorado businessman and political activist (活动家) who is likely to do well in the main task of modern university presidents: fund-raising. Fund-raising is a distinctively American thing, since U.S. schools rely heavily on donations. The fund-raising ability is largely a product of experience and necessity.
Many European universities, meanwhile, are still mostly dependent on government funding. But government support has failed to keep pace with rising student number. The decline in government support has made funding-raising an increasing necessary ability among administrators and has hiring committees hungry for Americans.
In the past few years, prominent schools around the world have joined the trend. In 2003, when Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard, another former Yale provost, as its vice-chancellor, the university publicly stressed that in her previous job she had overseen “a major strengthening of Yale’s financial position.”
Of course, fund-raising isn’t the only skill outsiders offer. The globalization of education means more universities will be seeking heads with international experience of some kind of promote international programs and attract a global student body. Foreigners can offer a fresh perspective on established practices.
小题1:What is the current trend in higher education discussed in the passage?
A．Institutions worldwide are hiring administrators from the U.S.
B．A lot of political activists are being recruited as administrators.
C．American universities are enrolling more international students.
D．University presidents are paying more attention to funding-raising.小题2:What is the chief consideration of American universities when hiring top-level administrators?
A．The political correctness.
B．Their ability to raise funds.
C．Their fame in academic circles.
D．Their administrative experience.小题3:What do we learn about European universities from the passage?
A．The tuitions they charge have been rising considerably.
B．Their operation is under strict government supervision.
C．They are strengthening their position by globalization.
D．Most of their revenues come from the government.小题4:Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard as its vice-chancellor chiefly because _____.
A．she was known to be good at raising money
B．she could help strengthen its ties with Yale
C．she knew how to attract students overseas
D．she had boosted Yale’s academic status小题5:In what way do top-level administrators from abroad contribute to university development?
A．They can enhance the university’s image.
B．They will bring with them more international faculty.
C．They will view a lot of things from a new perspective.
D．They can set up new academic disciplines.
