When next year’s crop of high-school graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall, they will be joined by a new face: Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-old provost (教務長) of Yale, who will become Oxford’s vice-chancellor –– a position equal 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. Yet the talent flow isn’t universal. High-level personnel (人員) 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 finally picked Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old Colorado businessman and political activist who is likely to do well in the main task of modern university presidents: fund-raising. Fund-raising is a particularly 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 numbers. The decline in government support has made fund-raising an increasingly necessary ability among administrators (管理人員), and has made hiring committees hungry for Americans.
In the past few years, well-known schools around the world have joined the trend. In 2011, 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 (監督) “ 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 to promote international programs and attract a global student body. Foreigners can offer a fresh perspective (視角) on established practices.
小題1: What is the current trend in higher education discussed in the text?
A．Institutions worldwide are hiring administrators from the U.S.
B．More international students are being admitted to American universities.
C．University presidents are paying more attention to fund-raising.
D．A lot of activists are being hired as administrators.
小題2: What do we learn about European universities from the text?
A．The tuition they charge has been rising considerably.
B．They are strengthening their position by globalization.
C．Their operation is under strict government control.
D．Most of their money comes from the government.
小題3: In what way do top-level administrators from abroad contribute to university development?
A．They can improve the university’s image.
B．They will bring with them more international personnel.
C．They will view a lot of things from a new angle.
D．They can set up new academic subjects.
小題4: Which of the following would make the best title of the text?
A．High Education Globalization
B．Global Headhunting in Higher Education
C．Global Higher Education Cooperation
D．Universal Higher Education Development
