It is the dream of most brilliant students – or even the not so intelligent ones – to study at some of the prestigious universities in the world. Prospective students spend countless hours reading, preparing to take entrance examinations, evaluating their chances, preparing their applications to some of these universities. And every year, hundreds of thousands apply to these institutions, from which only a few thousands are picked. What exactly is the allure or attraction of renowned institutions like Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge? Why do students from all parts of the world jostle to get a place in some of these institutions?
To begin with, many people see these institutions as rightful destinations of smart and brilliant students. According to Chinedu Ugwu, an MSc holder from Oxford and a PhD candidate in Cambridge University, there is always a popular saying among his people “ Ima akuko ijego Cambridge” . Literally translated, this means “if you are smart have you gone to Cambridge?” This saying is common both among literates, illiterates, rich and poor people in the society. For him therefore studying in Oxbridge – that is Oxford and Cambridge- becomes a challenge to meet the society criteria for intelligence in his society. Indeed, disproportionate number of applicants to these schools is composed of top flyers from their schools and countries. In Nigeria, for example, it is usually the practice to see mainly top flyers or first class students applying to these schools because they rightly believe only the best of the best will be admitted. But not all students apply to these schools because they are regarded as schools where only the brilliant go to. Quite a number go to these places because they see them as conduits of opportunities. Brilliance, they say, is widely available, but not opportunities. These universities are nucleus of opportunities for jobs and life-time achievements and most students don’t want to miss out of those.
These universities have enduring and rich traditions. Oxford University, for example, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Although there isn’t a clear date of its foundation, some form of teaching existed at Oxford from 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. Similarly, Cambridge University is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. It grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. Harvard University, which started as Harvard College, which was founded in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States
Of course, these universities acquired their reputation not only on account of how long they have been in existence, but also because they have consistently and relentlessly pursued, attained and maintained excellence in teaching, research, and the marriage of town and gown. The two universities (Oxford and Cambridge) have consistently ranked 1st and 2nd on the UK University rankings. They ranked far ahead in terms of quality of teaching and research and account for majority of grants pulled by UK universities. The two universities have a great deal in common, including their collegiate structure, personalised teaching methods and wealth of resources available to students. This, according to Ugwu, “makes it easier to attract best students with great ambition who see these schools as the perfect environment to achieve their dreams.” He also enthused that having Nobel Prize winners as one’s teachers will spur one on towards achieving great things.
For Dr Ijeoma Nwagwu of the Lagos Business School and a Harvard PhD graduate in Law, the distinguishing thing about these universities is their ability to provide the perfect environment for the training of leaders, development of skills, work place preparations and placements, extensive alumni contacts and connections, and real investment in knowledge resources. She contends that these schools are usually built on liberal arts model which normally encourages students to read and digest the best materials ever written on any subject or field. The keeps the students at the fountain head of knowledge and abreast of the latest knowledge or development in the subject or field. But most critically, the students are challenged and pushed to think critically and to challenge received opinions. Before long, the students begin to see themselves as thought leaders. This is the best form of leadership training. It is no surprising therefore that Oxford and Cambridge Universities have produced the most British Prime Ministers between them and account for a disproportionately large number of the elite in the United Kingdom. According to Nwagwu, one of the critical aspects of leadership training for students of Harvard University is the inculcation in young students of a kind of ease to be comfortable and confident in themselves at all times. They are therefore exposed to very powerful people in the society in informal settings and never to be overawed by power or powerful people.
In terms of investment in knowledge resources, these schools have the biggest and best libraries around the countries. Like Nwagwu argued, Harvard University has the biggest and best libraries in the country, except, perhaps, that of the library of congress. The Bodleian Library in Oxford is also one of the oldest libraries in Europe with over 12 million items. It is also the second largest library in Britain after the British library and boasts of a collection of all books published in the UK. Besides libraries, these top schools have moved from just possessions of hard copy books into digitisation of all library and knowledge resources. Besides, unlike other schools, they subscribe to all the top and best journals on virtually all disciplines available and challenge both their students and researchers to be at the cutting edge of knowledge.
Consequently, their students turn out to be among the very best among their peers and top companies and organisations are usually in competition to attract students from these schools. Besides the schools’ ability to attract the highest achieving students and to promote exceptionally successful outcomes from these students through rigorous and distinctive forms of teaching offered, students at Oxford and Cambridge, according to a research done in the UK, were discovered to spend, on average, more hours studying during term time than students at other universities.
Further, available data suggest a link between attendance at these universities and higher lifetime earnings. An analysis of the earnings of Cambridge alumni from 2005, for instance, which compared the average earnings of Cambridge graduates in various age cohorts with the national average for higher education graduates in each of these cohorts, showed, for example, that the starting income for Cambridge graduates was around one and a half times higher, on average, than that of graduates from other institutions
Also, a recent but yet unpublished study by BusinessDay shows that 40 percent of Nigeria’s richest are Harvard Business School (HBS) alumni. This corroborates a research by Elite Traveler and leading wealth consultancy company, WealthInsight, which revealed that Harvard University is top of the list of universities that has produced the most millionaires in the world.
CHRISTOPHER AKOR
