All universities should require significantly higher grades from applicants from leading independent schools because of the quality of education they receive, a senior teacher at Eton said yesterday.

　　It would be unjust if parents were buying entry to elite universities for their children rather than the opportunity for their children to reach their academic potential, he said.

　　"I would feel it totally wrong if an independent school were getting a higher proportion of pupils into Oxford and Cambridge than their real ability merits," said David Townend.

　　Mr Townend, 58, an assistant master, admitted that his remarks would be unpopular with some parents. They would also be controversial at a time when the heads of independent schools feared that their students could miss out as universities strive to meet the Government's targets for increasing the number of state school entrants.

　　But Mr Townend, who has taught chemistry at the Berkshire school for 37 years, said social justice demanded that universities follow Bristol's example of taking school background into account when sending out their offers of places.

　　He proposed a motion which was overwhelmingly passed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers at its annual conference in Torquay committing it to campaign for entry to higher education to be on potential alone. The union voted to encourage universities to make allowance in the selection procedures for a variety of educational provision experienced by individual candidates at school or college.

　　"It must be right that pupils from Eton should be required to achieve significantly higher grades than someone who has not had the benefits we at Eton can provide," Mr Townend said.

　　Universities have been given "benchmark" targets by the Higher Education Funding Council for increasing the proportion of state educated pupils they admit.

　　The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is also changing the application form to include questions indicating a candidate's school and social background.

　　This month the London School of Economics admitted that it sets aside 40 places which are available only to applicants from low-achieving state schools.

　　Mr Townend told the conference of teachers from state and independent schools that he would not want to see universities set quotas for state school pupils, which would be unfair.

　　However, research had shown that teachers in the independent sector tended to overestimate the grades their pupils would achieve at the end of their courses while those in the state sector underestimated them.

　　It would be much fairer for pupils to apply to university only after they had received their results, argued Mr Townend, who said that he believed passionately in social justice.

　　"I emphatically state that entry to university should be on potential alone.

　　"Oxbridge asks for three As and many good universities from the Russell group ask for 3 Bs from Eton.

　　"I see no reason why they should not offer much lower grades from schools without such good results."

　　Last year Eton introduced psychometric tests designed by Durham University for all applicants at the age of 11 and they had been used to measure the potential of junior scholars.
 
 
 
 
从伊顿到牛津 金钱铺就的升学路?

　　在英国，为了让孩子今后更容易地升入名牌大学，许多家长都不惜支付高额学费让孩子就读名牌私立学校。但这种用金钱铺就升学路的方式未必就能实现家长的名牌大学梦，因为大学在招生时可能会对私立学校的学生提出更高的要求。

　　据英国《每日电讯报》3月25日报道，日前，英国著名私立中学伊顿公学的高级教师戴维-汤恩德提出，所有大学在招生时，都应该对毕业于名牌私立学校的学生的分数要求更高，因为他们接受了更高质量的教学。

　　在伊顿执教37年的化学教师汤恩德表示，如果父母花费大量金钱让孩子进入私立学校读书，是为了他们日后升入名牌大学而不是为了开发他们的能力和潜质的话，很可能就会得不偿失。他说：“有人认为，要想进入牛津、剑桥这样的名校，学生毕业的中学似乎比他们自身的实力更重要。我想这种观点是完全错误的。从伊顿毕业的学生应该以更高的分数进入大学，因为在他们在伊顿受到了其他学生没有的高质量教育。社会公正性要求高等院校在招收学生时必须考虑学生所毕业的学校背景。”

　　现年58岁的汤恩德承认，他的建议肯定会引起许多家长的不满。但引起私立学校学生家长不满的还远不止汤恩德的建议。近日，英国政府扩大了高等院校对公立学校毕业生的招生比例。这一决定使得众多私立学校都在担心他们的学生是否还能够大量的升入名牌大学。

　　英国多所大学表示，国家高等教育基金委员会已向他们下达了招收更多公立学校毕业生的指使。本月，伦敦经济学院也表示，他们已将40个招生名额专门用于招收公立学校的学生。同时，英国高等院校入学服务中心(一个专门受理英国大学申请的机构，每个学生都必须经过该机构来申请大学)也更改了大学申请书的形式，新申请书增加了申请者填写毕业学校和社会背景的要求。

　　为此，汤恩德表示，高等院校留出专门名额招收公立学校的学生是不公平的，学生进入大学的惟一条件应该是他们的潜质，而不是毕业学校背景及其它。报道说，伊顿公学去年对该校11岁的入学申请者进行了心理学考试，而这些考试题通常都是针对大学三年级的学生设立的。伊顿公学表示，心理测试题可以充分看出学生的综合能力和天赋。(文/蒋黎黎)