English Test 80
Directions for Questions from 1 to 4:
With the prospect of dwindling state funds, the leaders of Oxford and Cambridge face a question that many people living beneath this city's
dreaming spires may consider beneath their dignity: How do you market an 800-year-old university? American universities have whole departments
devoted to fund-raising and marketing, but these have remained foreign to schools here. Both Oxford and Cambridge, however, have new fund-
raising efforts under way.
"Fund-raising is a topic we have to approach very carefully because it is not ingrained in the culture of these universities like it is in the United
States," said Frances Cairncross, rector of Exeter College in Oxford. "There is a shift taking place, but it will take time."
Oxford has hired a fund-raiser from a North American university who will start work in October, and later this year the University of Cambridge will
hold a public kickoff of its largest capital campaign ever, pegged to its 800th anniversary in 2009. For all their prestige and fame, cashing in on their
brand names will take more than a simple campaign, according to John Birnsteel, a director of the London consulting firm Enterprise IG.
"While they are both among the most prestigious educational establishments in the world, their amateur communications efforts give totally mixed
messages to alumni," said Mr. Birnsteel, a graduate of Queen's College, Cambridge. "As it stands, I can never understand who is asking for money
or for what."
To eliminate confusion, both universities should establish a "master brand," Mr. Birnsteel said.
"The key brand weakness is that there is very little identifying the universities as a single entity," he said. "Sports unite universities in the US, but
the only events that unite Oxford and Cambridge as a whole are a rugby game and a rowing race."
The result, Mr. Birnsteel says, is that he receives requests for money from his college, the university and from individual faculties. "There is no
streamlined messa