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University expansion BRITAIN'S universities are in an awful spin. Top universities were overwhelmed by the 24% of A-level applicants sporting indistinguishable straight As; newer ones are beating the byways for bodies. Curiously, both images of education-the weeping willows of Cambridge and the futuristic architecture of UEL-are cherished by the government. Ministers want to see half of all young people in universities by 2010 (numbers have stalled at 42%), without relinquishing the worldclass quality of its top institutions. Many argue that the two goals are incompatible without spending a lot more money. Researchers scrabble for funds, and students complain of large classes and reduced teaching time. To help solve the problem, the government agreed in 2004 to let universities increase tuition fees.Though low, the fees have introduced a market of sorts into higher education. Universities can offer cut-price tuition, although most have stuck close to the $3,000. Other incentives are more popular. Newcomers to St Mark & St John, a higher-education college linked to Exeter University, will receive free laptops. As universities enter the third week of "clearing" , the marketing has become weirder. Bradford University is luring students with the chance of winning an MP3 player in a prize draw. Plymouth University students visited Cornish seaside resorts, tempting young holiday-makers with surfboards and cinema vouchers. These offers suggest that supply has outstripped demand.
Not so the top universities that make up the "Russell group", however. Their ranks include the likes of Imperial College London and Bristol University along with Oxford and Cambridge. Swamped with applicants, only half offer any places through clearing. They have a different problem: they need money to compete for highcalibre students and academics, both British and foreign, who could be tempted overseas by betterheeled American universities or fastimproving institutions in developing countries such as India. Higher fees and excess supply are causing students to look more critically at just what different universities have to offer. And the crunch could become more acute. The number of 18-year-olds in Britain will drop around 2010 and decline over the following ten years, according to government projections.Bahram Bekhradnia, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, a thinktank, says the government hasn't a hope of getting 50% of young Britons into higher education by 2010. And the decline of home-grown student numbers will have a "differential effect" on universities, he reckons. Those at the bottom end will have to become increasingly "innovative" about whom they admit and some may not survive.
The Cambridge shades evoked by Rupert Brooke were gentle, nostalgic ones. Many vicechancellors today are pursued by far more vengeful spectres of empty campuses, deserted laboratories, failed institutions. Markets, after all, create winners-and losers.
参考译文： 大学扩张 英国大学正处在一种糟糕的迷惑状态。顶尖大学申请者人满为患，其中成绩清一色全A的A级生比例高达24%；新兴大学则为生源争得头破血流。
奇怪的是，教育界两个景象迥异的学校--垂柳依依的剑桥和建筑前卫的UEL--都是政府扶植的对象。部长们希望2010年半数年轻人能读大学（目前大学生比例在42%左右），同时保证顶尖学府的世界级质量。
许多人指出要同时实现两个目标须花费更多的钱。研究人员需要钱，学生抱怨大班上课和课时缩减。为解决该问题，政府于2004年同意大学提高学费。
学费虽然不高，却已经引来了高等教育的初级市场。尽管多数大学的学费已经固定在接近3000镑的价位，但仍可以减少学费。其他激励措施则更为流行。St Mark & St John大学（与Exeter大学合作的高等教育学院）的新生可以免费获得笔记本电脑。
当大学进入调剂的第三周，市场经营手段也更加新奇。Bradford大学用抽奖赢MP3的活动来吸引学生。Plymouth大学的学生造访Cornish海滨度假村，用冲浪板和影院优惠券来吸引年轻度假人士。种种好处暗示大学市场供大于求。
构成罗素联盟的顶尖大学却不是这样。该联盟包括诸如伦敦帝国大学，Bristol大学，牛津大学以及剑桥大学等名校。由于申请者众多，所以只有半数学校在调剂阶段还在招人。这些学校则面对不同的问题：他们需要钱去争夺英国乃至海外的高才生和优秀教师，这些人容易被更富有的美国大学和发展中国家（如印度）高速发展的学校所吸引。
更高的学费和供大于求导致学生在挑选学校的时候更为慎重，所以竞争将更为激烈。而政府预计2010年起英国18岁年轻人的数量将开始逐年减少，并持续10年之久。
高等教育政策学会（一个智囊机构）主任Bahram Bekhradnia说，政府在2010年达成让50%的英国年轻人读大学的目标渺茫。他估计，本土大学生数量的减少将对大学产生差异化效应。那些在底层的大学在招生上将不得不变得更富于创新，而其中的一些可能会惨遭淘汰。
Rupert Brooke所唤起的剑桥记忆是温柔而怀旧的。如今许多大学校长则更多地被空荡荡的校园、荒废的实验室、废止的机构里的幽灵所追逐。毕竟，市场成就胜者，也造就败者。
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