Oxford and Cambridge universities, two of the top universities in the United Kingdom, announced their decision to consider students with diploma qualification for admission into the elite institutions.

It will be the first time the Oxbridge are accepting students from vocational background, which combines both practical and theoretical learning.

Both universities will start taking in diploma students, starting with engineering diploma, beginning on September 2009. The number of the first batch is expected to be small compared to A-Levels students but will gradually increase as the years go by.

As a pre-requisite, students wishing to enter the two schools will be made compulsory to take Physics and Mathematics For Engineering as part of their diploma courses.

Both Oxford and Cambridge however are still reluctant to take students with other diploma such as IT, Hospitality and Hair & Beauty. As for other courses, such as Languages and Science, the admission committee will make consideration based on case to case basis.

In the THES-QS World University Ranking 2008/2009, Oxford, Cambridge and Yale University of US were ranked joint-second behind Harvard. Other top 10 universities include Imperial College, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University College London (UCL), University of Chicago, Columbia University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

An Oxford University medical graduate from Malaysia created history after achieving a remarkable feat of swimming across the Straits of Gibraltar, which is considered by many as ‘the Everest of open water swimming’.

Lennard Lee, who has just finished his medical degree and set to receive his graduation scroll this weekend, was joined by his Oxford colleagues Nicholas Berry and Harry Fisher to swim a distance of 22km from Gibraltar to Morocco.

They accomplished the mission in three hours and thirty eight minutes, and joined the list of other only 185 people in the world who have crossed the straits. Lennard became the first Asian to have completed the feat.

Four years ago, Lennard also made name after swimming across the English Channel. While the English Channel has a longer distance, the Gibraltar Straits presented a greater risk, with the danger of freezing temperature, sharks and killer whales. The straits separates Europe from Africa, connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

Oxford University is a highly reputable institution in a myriad of academic fields, and was ranked as the third best medical school in United Kingdom for the 2008/2009 by The Guardian, after Dundee and Cambridge.

Image (from left: Nick, Lennard and Harry) credit to OxfordMail.net.