TWO Harvard students have condemned Oxford University, where they are both Rhodes scholars, as “outdated” and “frustrating” and dismissed its world-famous Bodleian library as “less than inspiring”.

The students, whose courses are due to finish this summer, published their comments in a joint article in The Harvard Crimson, a newspaper produced by the Ivy League university.

Rhodes scholarships — founded by the 1902 bequest of Cecil Rhodes, the adventurer-magnate who gave his name to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe — fund 90 American and Commonwealth citizens to study at Oxford each year and are regarded as among the world’s most notable academic prizes.

Alumni, known as Rhodies, include Bill Clinton, the former American president, Naomi Wolf, the writer, and Kris Kristof-ferson, the singer and actor.

But the glitter has now worn off, according to Melissa Dell, 23, from Oklahoma, and Swati Mylavarapu, also 23, from Florida. In the article published last weekend, they advise Harvard students considering following in their footsteps to Oxford to “think twice”.

They add: “For those of us who have spent time at Oxford on the renowned scholarship, the title bespeaks a frustrating academic experience . . .

“As enchanting as the university’s ancient spires may seem, Oxford’s outdated academic system is far less charming.”

Dell, studying economic and social history at Trinity college, and Mylavarapu, taking the same subject at Wolfson, complain of staff who “spend more time avoiding e-mails than supervising students”.

They warn that many dons farm out teaching to inadequate junior researchers.

“If you have visions of debates with famous Nobel prize winners, expect instead to be taught in a lecture hall by an apathetic postdoc,” they write.

Their complaint is echoed by British students about some of our leading British universities. History students at Bristol complained earlier this year of teaching time being cut to two hours a week. Last year, Erik Ringmar, then a lecturer at the London School of Economics, was reprimanded for telling prospective students: “If you want a highflying academic career you have to publish.

“This means the first-class teachers will usually have their minds elsewhere than on undergraduate teaching . . . if they are not absent in body, they may be absent in mind.” Ringmar has since moved to a university in Taiwan.

Last weekend’s article, headlined “Oxford Blues”, is scornful about the resources available to students at the university. The pair write: “The ancient walls of the Bodleian library house a less than inspiring collection. You will likely spend most of your time in touch with Harvard librarians accessing materials not available at Oxford.” The whole experience, they complain, is made even harder by the challenge of “foraging for edible food” and “getting berated by customer service representatives, but never after 5pm, when everything closes”.

The article has provoked more than 130 online comments on the Harvard Crimson website, many from Oxford alumni and mostly hostile. One calls the students “spoilt dumbos” and a current Rhodie writes: “You’ve made [the] American Rhodes Scholar community look ungrateful and pretentious.”

The article fuels a long rivalry between Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford. In rankings published last year, the two British universities leapfrogged the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and Stanford to be ranked second and third behind Harvard as the world’s best university.

The article’s concerns about lack of resources reflect a serious fear that Oxford is simply not wealthy enough to compete with its American rivals. Oxford’s endowment of about £2.7 billion compares with the £13.3 billion enjoyed by Harvard, which enables it to pay higher salaries and have better facilities.

This weekend the pair said in a statement: “We do not by any means presume to speak for all Rhodes scholars, but merely wished to make public what some students at Oxford privately complain about. We think that these views, no matter how unpopular or controversial, need to be voiced.”

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