We continue our Foreign Student Series with a report on theoldest school of higher learning in the United States: HarvardUniversity.

You might have heard that itspresident, Lawrence Summers, gave a speech last month at aconference on women and science. Mister Summers is an economist. Hediscussed possible reasons for the small number of women in top jobsin science and mathematics. He suggested that biological differencesbetween men and women might play a part that should be studiedfurther.

He meant his comments to incite debate. It worked.

Critics pointed to the history of unfair treatment of women inscience and at top schools like Harvard. In the past, Harvardstudents were all white males.

There is some dispute over what he said exactly; no recordingshave been released. But Mister Summers has made apologies. In onemessage, he said: "I do not believe that girls are intellectuallyless able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed atthe highest levels of science."

Last week Harvard created the Task Force on Women Faculty.Another is called the Task Force on Women in Science andEngineering. The university says both new committees will developproposals to reduce barriers to success. Ideas are expected by May,so steps can begin in the next school year. Harvard also plans toappoint a top administrator who will try for more female professors.

In the beginning, in sixteen thirty-six, Harvard had one teacherand nine students. The area around Cambridge, Massachusetts, nearBoston, was an English colony then. The school is named for aPuritan religious leader, John Harvard. He gave the college all hisbooks and half his property when he died.

Today Harvard has almost twentythousand undergraduate and graduate students. More than threethousand are from outside the United States, mostly Asia and Europe.Foreign students also can receive financial aid. One year at Harvardcosts more than thirty-seven thousand dollars.

The university includes Harvard College and Radcliffe College,and ten graduate schools.

Internet users can learn more about one of the top researchuniversities in the world at harvard.edu. And our Foreign StudentSeries is online at voaspecialenglish dot com.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by NancySteinbach. I'm Gwen Outen.