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Chelsea plans to study at Oxford

Shyam Bhatia
India Abroad Correspondent in London

Former United States president Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea is said to be casting her eye on her father's old digs, ahead of taking up a place at University College this October.

No formal announcement has been made either by the university or the Clinton family about Chelsea's plans to study at Oxford, but sources at the university confirmed that she attended a series of interviews last week and has been offered a place on a two-year MPhil course, to study international relations.

Chelsea was in Oxford last week, where her father opened the Rothermere American Institute, but refused to say anything about her academic aspirations.

Clinton, however, was overheard telling guests at a champagne reception in his honour that he was looking forward to returning to Oxford to visit his daughter.

A spokesman for Oxford University told India Abroad, "As far as we understand things at the moment, Chelsea Clinton is considering various options, and Oxford is one of them."

A spokesman for University College refused to comment. But a source at the university said she had applied to study international relations and was offered a place last Friday, when she visited Oxford with her father.

Bill Clinton was a Rhodes scholar at University College between 1968 and 1970. The college-owned digs where he stayed, a single bedroom and adjoining sitting room, are at Helen's Court, overlooking Magpie Lane.

A team of American secret service agents has already scrutinised the rooms, according to the university source who did not want to be named.

A graduate of Stanford University in California, Chelsea has been described as "very bright" by tutors who interviewed her.

Her two-year course provides "basic training in the recent history of world politics" and will include a series of exams as well as a 30,000 word thesis on a topic she will have to decide on with her academic supervisor.

As a graduate, she will not be expected to attend many lectures, but she will have extensive one-to-one tutorials with some of Oxford's leading academics. Her day-to-day welfare will be the responsibility of University College fellows headed by Lord Butler, the master, a former head of the British civil service.

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