精彩回顾 | 剑桥大学终身正教授解读英国教育体系及剑桥大学录取标准|a-level|剑桥|剑桥大学|大学

*文末附有全文的英文版本

English version is at the end of the text

2021年11月20日，由京领新国际主办、德胜教育承办的第十一届京领创新人才论坛暨德胜教育二十周年德胜学校（国际）十周年教育峰会在德胜学校（国际）成功举办。

围绕“未来学校的创新人才培养”主题，第十一届京领创新人才论坛暨德胜教育二十周年·德胜学校（国际）十周年教育峰会内容覆盖世界名校创新人才培养实践、优秀国际学校创新人才与科研素养培养经验、未来创新人才培养路径等议题，旨在通过分享现实经验和研究成果，启发国际教育者们挖掘规律、探索路径，用研究指导实践，促进国际化创新性人才培养。

这是一场国际教育者学术交流的思想盛宴，是一场汇聚世界顶尖学者智慧与重磅专家学者经验的宝贵经验与研究成果的教育盛会。

本次论坛聚焦“创新”这一主题，邀请了：

国家教育督学、教育部原政策法规司司长、中国教育战略发展学会执行会长与中国教育政策研究院副院长，以及来自哈佛大学、剑桥大学、牛津大学的学者教授，来自北京京西学校、北京市鼎石学校、青苗国际双语学校、天津惠灵顿学校、天津英华国际学校、华南师范大学附属中学国际部、哈罗深圳外籍人员子女学校、深圳万科梅沙书院、上海新加坡外籍人员子女学校、上海学领集团、苏州领科海外教育学校、杭州惠立学校等北京、上海、广州、深圳、苏州、杭州、天津等地的知名国际学校、教育集团的校长共话创新人才培养，着眼当下、前瞻未来，立足中国、放眼世界。

本届论坛中，剑桥大学的卡德维尔教授带来了主题为“英国剑桥大学招生标准”的演讲。

教授解读了英国教育体系的特点以及剑桥大学的录取标准。

演讲内容回顾

你好，我是大卫·卡德维尔。我是剑桥大学超导工程的终身正教授。我在剑桥已经快30年了，这段时间里，我做了很多本科生招生方面的工作。我今天想与大家谈一谈这段经历。我热烈欢迎大家参加第十一届创新人才论坛，并对德胜学校的未来创新人才培养致以最诚挚的祝愿。

我今天想与大家分享的是，如果你想要申请剑桥大学，你需要考虑些什么，期望从你的申请中得到什么，以及我们如何做决定。在我的演讲中，我还将讨论我们所期望的标准，以及我们如何做出对个人和大学都有好处的决定。

首先我要从普遍的角度评价中国的教育，以及它与英国教育的关系。剑桥是一所英国的大学，显然，它是为了教育英国学生。但国际学生也有大量的机会从中受益。英国提供的非常高标准和高质量的课程，尤其是剑桥大学。在中国的传统高中，学生们学习9到11门课程。这和美国16到18岁的教育体系非常相似。然而，英国有一个非常不同的体系。它主要基于A-Level的学习，学生在16岁到18岁的阶段学习A-Level课程。学生们要学习三到四门A-Level课程。平均来看，更接近三门A-Level。因此，英国的教育深入且范围专精。

传统中国高中教育的范围是很广的，但是相对较浅显。所以，重点不在于哪一种教育最好。重点是它们不一样。在过去的20年里，我们看到中国出现了许多国际高中。我去过中国很多次。这些国际学校提供国际课程，比如A-Level，和德胜学校提供的IB课程。国际学校这样做的原因是这些国际课程的证书很容易被英国院校认可。例如, 我们可以以非常标准化的方式提供A-Level或IB课程。我们了解这些国际课程的成绩，并且我们知道如果学生达到了一定的水平，就可以满足录取标准。如果他们被英国的大学录取，他们将会发展得很好。所以，我想说的第一点是我们对国际课程非常了解例如A-Level和IB课程。

那么，在考虑是否申请剑桥大学时，什么是重要的呢? 不管你申请什么, 最重要的是选择适合自己的道路。对于任何大学，无论是剑桥，还是英国或其他地方的其他大学，你为什么应该学习，或者你为什么想要学习，这两个问题背后都有很多的原因。首要原因是你要取得一个优秀的学位。好的学位会给你带来更多机会。它能让你从事自己选择的职业，让你的未来以你想要的方式发展。所以，取得一个好学位真的很重要。我认为，对于英国的大学而言，一个被认可的绩点，至少是二等上学位。所以，这就是你需要努力的标准。你想去大学学习的第二个原因就是享受自己，并利用好其他所有的机会。非学术活动，课外活动是学生发展的重要机会。你要知道，你很有可能在大学里遇到你想要在未来长期合作的同伴。所以这不仅仅关乎良好的教育本身，而是接受良好教育的重要性。

如何去实现这些目标？其实很简单。你需要选择正确的课程。我经常遇到一些人他们申请剑桥仅仅因为它是剑桥, 当我和他们谈论他们想申请的课程时，他们几乎没有任何想法。这样的学生不会给人留下好印象。所以，你首先要确保剑桥大学为你提供了你想要学习的课程。

剑桥大学的课程非常学术。例如，如果你想学习会计，剑桥大学没有这个课程，你需要去学习经济学。你不能在剑桥大学学习护理，而是学医学，医学在剑桥大学是一门非常学术性的课程。我们的科学学习起始的范围很广，如工程方面，你需要用两年的时候学习所有工程知识。如自然科学，你不会专攻特定的学科如材料学，物理学，化学等，除非你完成两年的全科的学习。

所以，除非你想学习非常学术的课程，不然剑桥并不适合你。所以，你需要在你申请之前了解我们课程的学术严谨性以及你想要学习的学科。在确定剑桥大学是适合你的地方之后，你需要选择一个学院。现在，人们对于学院的选择存在很多焦虑，我认为这是非常不必要的。

重要的是你选择了正确的课程。剑桥不同于大多数大学，录取学生的是学院，而非系。如果你选我的工程系，我们有25个本科学院，它们都录取工程学生。第一天他们就纷纷涌向工程系，开始他们的研究。这些学生不是工程系选的，是学院选的。但重点是，无论学生被哪个学院录取，他们都会接受完全相同的教育。学生在不同的学院接受教育不会有其独特的教育优势。关键是你被你想学的课程录取了，这个课程由大学管理和评估，学位是由大学授予的，而不是学院。所以学院只是获得录取的一个工具。

如果你不能决定申请哪个学院，那么你可以做一个开放的申请，在这种情况下，大学分配给你一个学院，这样也没有问题。然而，你可能有一个理由，在那个学院里可能有很多学生学你的专业，所有的学科，所有的学院都有学生。那个学院可能教职团队很庞大，你每周要去学院参加两次导师小组讨论。然后你会在小组那里有所收获，但大部分时间你会在系里，就像我之前说的，和每个学生一样学习相同的课程。你可能在意的是学院的地理位置，如果你在选择学院时有所偏好，那么你就选喜欢的学院。但如果你没有具体的意向，那就做一个开放申请，大学将会为你分配学院。在选择了课程和学院之后，如果你选择了一所学院，而且没有太过纠结，那么是时候考虑你的申请了。

那剑桥大学看重什么呢？我们有很多学术潜力的指标，在申请阶段我们只看重学术潜力。我们想了解你是否能在我们的课程上取得好成绩，如果你可以，就应该给你个机会。我们有一些指标，你必须填写UCAS表格，这是一种英国大学的招生表格。在UCAS表格上，你可以填写目标院校，最多填五到六所大学，取决于具体专业。注意：如果你申请剑桥，就不能同时申请牛津。你必须在两者中做出选择。但如果你通过UCAS申请大学，英国有很多世界一流的大学，我们称之为罗素大学集团。在剑桥和牛津之外，也考虑一下这些大学。在UCAS表格中填上第二、第三、第四和第五种选择。这不需要你额外付费。这些大学很可能会给你offer，你不必接受它。但如果你没有被剑桥录取，这些选择会增加你升学的机会。

不得不说，有非常多人申请我们的学校。例如，去年，工程学，每个位置收到了7个申请。一般来说，我们每个名额每个学科都会收到大约5份申请，所以只有1/5的学生申请成功。但是如果你申请了，你需要相信你会成为一个非常优秀的学生。我们要招哪些人? 我们有很多指标，首先，我们看你的申请。你知道你在上面说什么，你的个人陈述是什么样的?你学习所选科目的动机是什么? 我们会看你们老师的推荐信。他们是怎么评价你的? 我们看看你到目前为止的学业表现，就像我在IB或A-Level课程中说的，我们很容易理解这意味着什么。面试前会有一个测试，一个专业主题的测试，应该说每个学生都要面试，所以没有面试就没有录取。面试只是过程中的最后一个环节，所以我们把所有的信息放在一起，然后决定给哪些人发录取通知。录取通知书是给最有学术潜力的学生。

很多学生对我说，如果我不在国际学校，我是否处于不利地位? 一些人认为公立学校的学生在申请中没有优势。所有申请者一律平等。学校会评估你的学术潜力，如果你能证明你的学术潜力，那你就有希望被录用。申请一开始，面试就要同步进行了，必须在每年十月中旬之前开始。我们会审查这些申请资料，然后决定谁进入面试。我们会派一组面试官，至少在新冠疫情之前是这样，我们希望在疫情之后也能，每年都到中国大陆, 时间是在11月底左右，我们会面试所有学科的学生，然后再把面试情况报告反馈给各个学院，让他们做出决定。

所以面试是整个申请过程中非常重要的一部分。在面试中，你会被问到你所申请的学科的技术基础。所以，也会有很多技术性问题。当我们进行海外面试时，每位面试官进行一个半小时面试，会有一个来自于你申请的学科专业的面试官。如果你收到剑桥的面试邀请，不需要在剑桥接受面试，因为我们要派面试团去中国。然后你将参加学校的两次面试，很有可能是通过Zoom、Teams或Skype在线完成的。

正如我说，面试的全部目的是了解你的学科潜力，所以你会被问到一些和你申请专业紧密相关的问题。所以在工程学中，会有数学和物理问题，在经济学面试中，则会问到数学相关问题。如果是艺术和人文学科，你读过什么，你的兴趣是什么，但这是个技术性面试，为了了解你在我们课程中的表现。如果面试结果认为你是一个优秀的候选人，那么你就会被录取。如果你没有被你申请的学院录取，那我们会把你的申请放到所谓的"候选名单"里，这个名单有学院接受到的大量优秀的申请候选者，但这些学院没办法录取所有的优秀候选人，所以它们把候选人的申请转交给剑桥大学的其它学院。所以你最终收到的录取可能并不来自你最想去的学院。这不重要，就像我之前说的，你还是要学习相同的学位，你具备了同样的资质，否则你也不会拿到录取通知书。大学会基于你当下的学习成绩给出录取通知。

如果你在学习A-Level课程，那么你的录取通知书会要求2个A*和1个A的成绩。如果你为了科学专业，在学习IB课程，那么录取大概会要求总分42，并且在高阶的IB科目中有7，7，7分。这些要求在剑桥的所有学院都是一致。你必须达到这些要求获得录取。那些拿到录取通知书却没有达到条件的学生最终不会被录取。我们每年都发出一些额外的录取名额，因为我们预见到每年都有学生达不到录取通知书上的条件。我要传达的最后一个信息是在填写申请时，你必须相信你会成为一个成功的学生，即使竞争很激烈。你必须竭尽所能。学校没有设置隐藏条件。我们只对你的学术潜力感兴趣。你认识谁，谁推荐你，你的家庭关系对剑桥都无关紧要。（剑桥的）申请只看重你的学术潜力。

尽力而为，为面试做最大的准备。准备的方式之一是围绕你的目标专业学习，这样你不仅了解在IB或A-Level课程中学到的知识，你也更普遍地意识到与你目标学科相关的专业问题。并且你也已经准备好探讨这些问题了，这包括思考并回答面试官提出的问题准备。那么，祝你们好运。这是你生命中一段精彩时光。你只有到大学毕业时才会意识到大学时光过得有多快。但对年轻人来说，这是一个惊人的时代。剑桥大学和英国总体上提供了非常好的教育机会给正在攻读学位的学生。希望你们享受京领诺奖创新人才论坛。再见。

结语

当今世界，教育改革创新已非预言，而是现实。第十一届创新人才论坛暨德胜教育二十周年·德胜学校（国际）十周年教育峰会汇聚世界顶尖大学学者和中国顶尖国际学校教育者的先进理念与实践，深刻引领了教育行为，为未来赋能，让改变从现在发生。

English Version

On November 20, 2021,the 11th Innovative Talent Forum & the 20th Anniversary of Desheng Education · DSI 10th Annual Education Summit, hosted by KingLead Beijing and organized by Desheng Education, were successfully held at Desheng School (International).

This is a far-reaching event focusing on international education and academic exchanges, gathering valuable experience, scientific literacy, and wisdom from the world's top scholars. This forum focused on the theme “Innovation”.

As the host, KingLead invited three world’s top university professors from Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford.

National Education Supervisor, Former Department Chief, Policy and Regulations Department, Ministry of Education, Executive Chairman, China Society of Educational Development Strategy Committee.

Vice President, Doctoral Supervisor - China Education Policy Research Institute.

Chairman of the Board & CEO of Desheng Education Group，Well-known international school principals, leadership, and related educators from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other cities.

The guests discussed the cultivation of innovative talents, grounded in the present and the likely future, based on China’s condition, looking around the world.

In this forum, professors from Cambridge University gave a speech on the theme of "Admission Standards for Cambridge University in the UK".

The professor explained the characteristics of the British education system and the admission criteria of Cambridge University.

Review of speech content

Hello, my name is David Cardwell. I'm professor of superconducting engineering at the University of Cambridge. I've been at Cambridge now for almost thirty years, and I've worked extensively in undergraduate admissions over that time. And it's part of that experience that I'd like to talk to you about today. I'd like to wish you all a very warm welcome to the eleventh Innovative Talent Forum, and also to send my very best wishes to the future cultivation of innovative talents in Desheng school.

What I want to explain today is the considerations that you need to think about if you're going to apply to study at the University of Cambridge, what to expect from your application, and how we make our decisions. As part of this presentation, I'll also talk about standards that we expect, and how we can make good decisions all around that are in the benefit of individuals and the university.

I think the first place to start is to comment about education in China more generally, and how that relates to education in the UK. Cambridge is a UK university, and obviously, it's geared to educate UK students. But there are also massive opportunities for international students to benefit from. The very high standard and high quality courses that the UK offers, but in this case, particularly Cambridge. So senior high school in China, students study between nine and eleven subjects. It's very similar to the educational system between sixteen and eighteen in the US. The UK is a very different system, however. It's based mainly on A-Level, and A-Level are taken by students between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. The students now take between three and four A-Level. So an average, it's about closer to three A-Level. So, the education in the UK is deep and narrow.

The education at senior high schools is broad, but a little bit more shallow. So, the issue isn't which is the best education. The issue is that they're both different. We've seen a number of international high schools emerged in China over the last twenty years. I've been going to China now. And these international schools offer international curricula, like A-Level, and the International Baccalaureate, which is offered by Desheng. Now, the reason international schools do this is that these qualifications are easily recognizable by UK institutions. For example, we can make offers on A-Levels or IB in a very standardized way. We understand those qualifications, and we know students, if they achieve certain levels that may satisfy the criteria. They will do well if they're admitted to UK University. So, you know, the first point is that we're very comfortable with international qualifications such as the A-Level and the IB.

So, what's important in considering whether to apply to Cambridge University or not? Well, wherever you apply, the most important thing to do is to choose the right course for you. There are a number of reasons why you should study, or why you might want to study, at any university, whether it's Cambridge, whether it's in the UK or elsewhere. The first reason is that you're going to get a good degree. And that good degree will buy you opportunity. It will enable you to follow a career of your choice, and to develop your future in whatever way you want to. So it's really important that you get a good degree. And I think a very respectable GPA, in the case of UK University, it's at least upper-second class honors degree. So, that's the standard that you need to be aiming for. The second reason that you might want to go to university is to enjoy yourself and to take advantage of all the other.Non academic, extracurricular activity is a run offer. You know, there's a good chance that those who go to university will meet their future long term partner there as well. So it's about much more than just a good education, but it is essential that you come out with a good education.

How can you achieve all these things? Well, it's very simple. You need to choose the right course. So quite often I come across people who apply to Cambridge just because it's Cambridge, and when I talk to them about the course they want to apply for, they have very little idea.That doesn't create a good impression. So, you need first and foremost to make sure that Cambridge offers you the course you want to study. And Cambridge courses are very academic. So for example, if you want to do accountancy, well, Cambridge doesn't do it, it's economics. You can't study nursing at Cambridge, it's medicine,and medicine is a very academic course at Cambridge. Our science degrees start very broadly, so engineering, you have to study all elements of engineering for two years. Natural sciences, you don't specialize in terms of a specific discipline, materials, physics, chemistry, until you've studied for two years.

So unless you want to follow a very academic course, Cambridge is not the place for you. So make sure you understand the academic rigor of our courses and that they are the course for you before you apply. Having decided that Cambridge is the place for you, then you need to choose a college.

Now there's much anxiety about choice of college, and I think it's most unnecessary. The key thing is that you choose the right course. Cambridge is different to most universities, and that it's the colleges that admit students, not the department. So if you take my department, engineering, then we have twenty five undergraduate colleges, all admitting engineers, and they all descend on the Department of Engineering on the first day, and commence their studies. The Department of Engineering doesn't choose those students, the colleges do. But the point is that regardless of which college the student is admitted via, he or she will receive exactly the same education.There's not a particular educational advantage in going to one college rather than another. The key thing is you are admitted to the course you want to study, which is run by the university, is examined by the university,and the degree is awarded by the university, not the college. So the college is just a vehicle to gain admission.

If you can't choose which college to apply to, then make an open application, in which case came into an allocated college to you, and that's perfectly fine.However, you may have a reason, there may be a large number of students in your subject at that college, there are students in all subjects, all colleges. There may be a large number of teaching fellows at that college, You'll go to your college for small group supervisions twice a week. So you will have some education experience there, but the vast majority will be in the department, with every of the students following exactly the same course, as I've said. It may be the location of the college, but if you have a reason for choosing a college, fine, choose that college. But if you can't, then make an open application, and the universal allocated college for you. So having chosen your course and having chosen your college, if indeed you choose a college, obviously not having lost sleep over choosing the college. Then it's time to think about your application.

So what does Cambridge look for? Well, we have a number of indicators of academic potential, and that's all we're looking for at the application stage. We want to know if you're going to do well on our courses, and if you are, then you should be made an offer. And we have a number of indicators.

You have to fill in a UCAS form, which is a national UK universities admissions form.And on that you can identify universities that you wish to apply to, up to five or six, depending on subject.Note that if you apply to Cambridge, you can't also apply to Oxford. You have to choose one or the other. But if you are applying through UCAS, you know, we have a number of world-leading universities in the UK. We call them Russell Group Universities.and you know, have a look at those as well. And populate your UCAS form with second third, fourth and fifth choices. It won't cost you any more. And those universities may well make you an offer, you don't have to accept it. But it will increase your opportunities in case you don't get into Cambridge.

And I should say that we get large numbers of applicants for our place. So for example, last year, engineering, we had seven applications per place. And typically we get around about five applications per place for every subject, so only 1/5 students who apply are successful. But if you do apply, you need to believe you're going to be the successful student. And what are we looking for? Well, we have a number of indicators, first of all, we look at your application. And you know what you say on it, what's your personal statement like？What's your motivation for studying the subject you've chosen. We look at your teachers' references.What do they say about you？We look at your academic performance to date, and as I said in IB or A-Level, it's very easy for us to understand what that means. Then, you will be set a test, a subject specific test before your interview, and I should say that every student is interviewed, so no interview, no offer. And the interview is just the final piece in the jigsaw, so we put all that information together, and then we decide who we want to make offers to. The offers go to the students with the greatest academic potential.

So many students say to me，am I disadvantaged that I'm not at an international school? Some students think that's a disadvantage because they are at a state school.Nobody is disadvantaged. You are being evaluated on your academic potential, and if you can demonstrate your academic potential，then you can expect to be made an offer. So the interview process, starts with your application which is in, has to be in by the middle of October each year. And we will then look at the applications. We will decide who we're going to interview. And we send a team of interviewers, or, at least we did pre-covid and we expect to post-covid, to China each year,and that happens at the end of November, and we interview students across all subjects, and then we feed our reports back to the colleges who make individual decisions. So interviews are critical to the process that one part, but a critical part. And in interviews, you'll be asked about the technical basis of the subject of which you've applied. So expect lots of technical questions. When we interview overseas, it's one half an hour interview with one colleague.And that will be a colleague in your particular subject. If you are interviewed in Cambridge, and there's no need to be interviewed in Cambridge, since we are sending teams of interviewers to China. Then you will receive two interviews by the college, and it's likely that they would be done online using Zoom or Teams or Skype.

And I said the whole aim of that interview is to understand your technical potential, so you will be asked questions that are too relevant to the subject for which you've applied. So in engineering, it'll be questions of maths and physics，and in economics, it will be maths. If it's arts and humanities, it will be about what you've read and what your interests are, but it will be a technical interview to understand how well you're there in our course. And if as a result of that process, you're deemed to be a good candidate, then you'll be made an offer. And if you're not made an offer by the college that's processing your application, then we may put your application in what we call "the pool", and that's a pool of candidates that applied to colleges that had large numbers of good applications, and they can't take all their good candidates, so they make them available to other colleges. So you may end up with an offer from a college that wasn't your first choice of college. It doesn't matter, as I said earlier, you still do the same degree in the same qualification, or you'll be rejected. And that offer will include performance based on what you're studying at the moment.

So if you're doing A-Level, it will be two A stars and the great A. If you're doing the IB for science subjects, it will probably round about 42 overall，with seven, seven, seven in your higher IB subjects. And that's fairly consistent across all Cambridge colleges, so that's what you can expect. And then you have to make your offer. So students who made offers and who don't make them tend not to be admitted. We make a small number of additional offers above the number of places we have, because we except each year some students do not make their offer. I think the final message from me has to be that if you apply, you have to believe you're going to be the student that is successful, even though it's competitive. And you have to do your best.There are no hidden variables. We are only interested in your academic potential. Who you know, who recommended you, your family relations to Cambridge is all irrelevant. The application is only about your academic potential.

So do your best. Prepare well for the interview. Sure, you can read around your subject that you don't just know what you've learnt at IB or A-Level，but you're more generally aware of the technical issues that relate to your subject.And you're prepared to have a conversation about them, and that includes time to think to answer questions that your interviews will post to you.So with that, I'd just like to wish you good luck. It's an exciting time in your life.You won't appreciate how quickly your time at university will go until it's over. But it is an amazing time for young people. And the University of Cambridge and the UK in general offer an extraordinary education opportunity for students who are studying degrees.

So good luck and enjoy the rest of the talent forum.Good bye.

Summary

Nowadays, education reform and innovation is not an expectation but reality. 11th Innovative Talent Forum & the 20th Anniversary of Desheng Education· DSI 10th Annual Education Summit gathered scholars from high-ranking universities and educators from top international schools. The forum leads the education behavior and empowers the future. Let the change starts now.

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