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Britain’s universities are in an awful spin. Top universities were overwhelmed by the 24% of A-level applicants with indistingui

admin2011-04-04  41
问题     Britain’s universities are in an awful spin. Top universities were overwhelmed by the 24% of A-level applicants with indistinguishable straight A’s; newer ones are beating the byways for bodies.
    Curiously, both images of education -- the weeping willows of Cambridge and the futuristic architecture of UEL (University of East London) -- are cherished by the government. Ministers want to see half of all young people in universities by 2010 (numbers have stalled at 42%), without letting go of the world-class quality of its top institutions.
    Many argue that the two goals are incompatible without spending a lot more money. Researchers scrabble (寻找) 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 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 (调剂)", 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 (代金券). These offers suggest that supply has surpassed 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 high-quality students and academics, both British and foreign, who could be tempted overseas by better heeled American universities or fast improving 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 critical situation 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 think tank, 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 (怀旧的) ones. Many vice chancellors today are pursued by far more revengeful monsters of empty campuses, deserted laboratories, failed institutions. Markets, after all, create winners -- and losers.
Why did the British government permit universities to raise tuition fees?
选项 A、They find it no longer possible to support the universities by the federal funds.
B、They want to increase both the quantity of students and quality of universities.
C、Many universities are overburdened by the increasing number of students.
D、It will help create a much more competitive higher education market.
答案B
解析 根据题干中的raise tuition fees将本题出处定位到第三段。该段提到，政府同意大学提高学费是为了解决研究人员非常需要资金，而学生则抱怨大班上课和课时缩减这一问题。由此推断，提高学费是为了达到在学生数量上升的情况下保证教学质量，故答案为[B]。[A]在原文中未提及。[C]所说的原因不够全面。虽然第四段中提到学费已经引来了高等教育的市场，但是这并不是学校提高学费的原因，而是结果，故排除[D]。
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