British universities are slipping down the world rankings, with experts blaming the decline on pressure to admit more disadvantaged students.

英国大学的世界排行下滑，专家将其归咎于招收更多穷学生的压力。

Cambridge University, which for many years was ranked the best in the world and for a decade held a place in the top three, has now dropped down to fifth place, according to the QS World University Rankings.

在QS世界大学排行榜上，剑桥大学曾多年排名世界第一，最近10年以来也一直保持在前三位，但如今，剑桥大学却降至第五名。

Overall, 51 of the UK’s 76 institutions have slipped down in the rankings since last year. The Russell Group members, which represents 24 of the UK's most selective universities, including Oxford¹ and Cambridge, saw 16 dropping down in the rankings.

总体来看，英国的76所高校中有51所的排名相比去年有所下降。代表牛津大学和剑桥大学等英国24所顶尖大学的罗素大学集团中有16所排名下滑。

Professor Alan Smithers, who is head of the centre for education and employment at the University of Buckingham, said that the decline was because “universities are no longer free to take their own decisions and recruit the most talented students which would ensure top positions in league tables”.

白金汉大学教育和就业中心主任艾伦•史密瑟斯教授说，排名下滑是因为“大学无法再自由地做决定，招收最有才华的学生，而只有这样才能让大学保住在排行榜中的高位。”

He said that instead, universities are forced to comply with “all sorts of requirements in terms of the ethnic² mix, the levels of income of the students and whether they come from low income areas”.

他说，如今大学被迫满足“各种要求，关于种族融合、学生收入水平，以及是否来自低收入地区”。

Under the current fees system, any English university wishing to charge tuition fees of over around £6,000 must have an access agreement approved by Offa. This sets out what the university intends to do to recruit and retain youngsters who would not normally study for a degree.

在当前的收费制度下，任何想收取超6000英镑学费的大学，都必须有公平入学办公室通过的准入协议。这一协议规定了大学为招收和留住那些没条件攻读学位的年轻人所计划采取的措施。

Earlier this year, the higher education tsar warned that top universities must make more effort to accept poor students.

今年早些时候，公平入学办公室警告说，顶尖大学必须作出更多努力来接纳贫穷学生。

Les Ebdon, director of Offa said that the argument used by admissions tutors that disadvantaged students’ grades are not high enough “just doesn’t hold water”, and criticised the Russell Group for suggesting that there is a limit on the numbers of poorer teenagers they can recruit.

公平入学办公室主任莱斯•艾伯顿说，招生人员声称穷学生的分数不够高的论断“站不住脚”，并批评了罗素大学集团，指出他们对于家贫的青少年有招收人数限制。

Prof Smithers said that Britain’s top universities are under pressure to recruit more disadvantaged students, and that this “has diverted their attention from really providing the subjects and the fields that they feel are the most appropriate and drawing in the best students”.

史密瑟斯教授说，英国顶尖大学被迫招收更多穷学生，这“让他们分心，无法提供最合适的学科和研究领域，也无法招收最优秀的学生。”

“If the premier³ league made all sorts of requirements about recruiting left footed and right footed players, the teams wouldn’t be quite as successful,” he said.

他说：“如果英超联赛对于招收左脚或右脚踢球的球员有各种规定，那么球队就不会那么成功。”

“This interference is getting in the way of the purpose of universities which is identifying the most talented students and taking them to the frontier of their subject,” he said.

“这种干预已经阻碍了大学的发展目标，而大学的初衷是要发现最有才华的学生，把他们推向各自学科的前沿。”

QS, which has compiled the global university rankings since 2004, ranks institutions according to six metrics: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty⁴ to student ratio, citations⁵ per faculty, the international faculty ratio and the international student ratio.

QS自2004年开始进行全球大学排名，排名主要依据6个衡量标准：学术声誉、雇主声誉、师生数比、教职员论文引用率、国际教师比例和国际学生比例。

Dr Joanna Williams, a senior lecturer in higher education at the University of Kent, said: “Universities are casting the net a lot wider and reaching out to more socially diverse groups, which is good.

肯特大学高等教育部高级讲师乔安娜•威廉姆斯博士说：“大学正在广撒网，触及更多不同的社会群体，这是件好事。”

“But it means you can’t assume that students come in with a body of knowledge and you have to spend a certain amount of time bringing them up to standard”. Dr Williams added that universities are giving lower A-level offers – not just to disadvantaged students but to all students – in order to fill places.

“但这意味着你不能指望学生刚进来就有一套知识体系，你必须花一定时间才能让他们达到标准。”威廉姆斯补充道，大学为了招满学生，不光向穷学生放低招收标准，而是对所有学生都放低标准。

“The assumptions you would have had in the past like telling students to go away and read the book or write the essay, are no longer there,” she said. “Universities are becoming more like schools in teaching style, and that removes a lot of the intellectual challenge.”

“过去大学老师会让学生自己去看书或写论文，但现在已经不能这么想当然了，”她说，“大学变得更像是上课的学校，这让本应有的许多学术挑战消失了。”

Baroness⁶ Alison Wolf, a cross-bench peer and professor of public policy at King’s College London, said that while British universities are relatively⁷ well-funded, their American competitors have “been spending more and more” in recent years.

中立议员、伦敦大学国王学院公共政策系教授艾莉森•沃尔夫女男爵说，虽然英国的大学资金还算充裕，但是美国大学近年来的“投资越来越大”。

“If we are slipping through the ranks it is partly that other countries are pouring money into higher education,” she said. “Governments all over the world are obsessed⁸ with the idea of having world class universities.”

她说：“如果我们的排名下滑，一部分原因是其他国家在高等教育上投入了大量资金。世界各国的政府都很看重国内是否有世界一流大学。”

The top ten universities according to QS World University Rankings 2018

QS2018世界大学排行榜前十名：

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 麻省理工学院

2 Standford University 斯坦福大学

3 Harvard University 哈佛大学

4 California Institute of Technology 加州理工学院

5 University of Cambridge 剑桥大学

6 University of Oxford 牛津大学

7 University College London 伦敦大学学院

8 Imperial College London 伦敦大学帝国理工学院

9 University of Chicago 芝加哥大学

10 Eth Zurich (Swiss Federal Institution of Technology) 瑞士苏黎世联邦理工学院