News
New name - The Oxford and Cambridge Club of Zurich14 April 2011: We have dropped the word "Dining" from the Club's name. Since fewer than half the events we have held recently have been dinners, it seemed increasingly inappropriate and unnecessarily limiting. New President of the Oxford and Cambridge Dining Club of Zurich1 January 2011: Rebekka Greminger is the new President of the Oxford and Cambridge Dining Club of Zurich. Nick Jacobs, the former President, moved to Basel in January 2011. He still looks forward to enjoying a few Club events in or near Zurich, but he and his wife are planning to leave Switzerland at some point. Survey of UniversitiesIn the 2011 survey of the world's best universities, Oxford and Cambridge were the only two universities outside the USA to be placed in the top 10 (Cambridge was ranked fifth - down from second a couple of years ago - and Oxford tenth). The top-ranked university in continental Europe was ETH Zürich, which placed 23rd. Of course, there is considerable arbitrariness in ranking universities, and by choosing slightly different criteria, or weighting the chosen criteria differently, one could arrive at a different ranking order. The criteria used in this survey favour universities which are strong in research in the sciences and mathematics. More balanced criteria might well result, for example, in a higher ranking of the University of Oxford, and a lower ranking of MIT and the California Institute of Technology. There are several surveys which try to rank universities. This particular survey is interesting because of its impartiality and academic respectability (it was done by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where evaluation of universities is a research focus). An index of its objectivity is that Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranks itself in equal 201st place. A different one which is widely cited in the UK is the QS Survey, which in 2011 ranks four British universities in the world's top ten (Cambridge 1st, Oxford 5th). Of course the objectivity of a British survey which ranks British universities so highly is questionable, as is the objectivity of American surveys which do not rank any universities outside the USA in the top 20. The result may seem good to recent graduates, but similar surveys done in the 1970s always put Oxford and Cambridge at the very top. Our Universities are going through difficult times. The reason American universities do so well is simply that they have more money, which enables them to attract good academics and support staff, and to build better facilities. The top-ranked university in the survey was Harvard, which has a total endowment of about $35 billion1. Oxford and Cambridge each have endowments equivalent to about $5.5 billion. British universities used to be mainly funded by government (i.e. the taxpayers); such funding has decreased greatly and is continuing to decrease. Oxford and Cambridge increasingly depend on their own financial resources - which come mainly from donations and legacies from alumni. Have you considered returning something to the University which gave you so much? If you cannot afford to be generous now, why not leave a legacy in your will? Links for potential donors: Oxford Cambridge 1Here, "billion" is used in the sense 109, which used to be an American usage but which seems to be becoming universal. Suggest an alternative if you object. Note: There may be additional news items on the members-only news page. Login to see them. |