威廉王子新年伊始“拋妻棄子”去上學

Great responsibilities will rest on his shoulders one day. But in the meantime, Prince William is going back to being a student.

The future king starts a ten-week course in agricultural management at Cambridge University next week.

The ‘bespoke’ course has been organised for the 31-year-old Duke of Cambridge to give him an understanding of issues affecting farms and rural communities.

It will also, no doubt, come in handy when he inherits the Duchy of Cornwall, one of the biggest private estates in the country, from his father.

The second in line to the throne, who has a geography degree from St Andrew’s University, will have around 20 hours a week of timetabled lectures, seminars and meetings.

He will also be expected to undertake extensive study in his own time and may be sent on field trips.

Although he will still be based at Kensington Palace with the Duchess of Cambridge and son George, staff have organised private accommodation for the prince when he needs to stay in Cambridge.

He is likely to be away from home two or three nights a week. The course is run by Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, an institution within the university’s School of Technology and has Prince Charles as its patron.

However, Prince William will be based in the Department of Land Economy, teasingly referred to by other students as the ‘Department of Grass Management’.

The Duke will not be awarded any qualification at the end of the course, which he is set to finish in mid-March – shortly before he sets off on an official tour of New Zealand and Australia with his family. An aide said: ‘Like his father, the Duke is very much a countryman, he enjoys and is passionate about the countryside and its people.

‘He will continue to take an interest in and champion rural communities but this course will also, of course, be useful to him in future years.’ The cost of the study and accommodation is being met privately, a Kensington Palace spokesman said yesterday.

Aides were also quick to stress that as it was being organised specially for the prince, there was no question of any other student places being affected.

Prince William quit operational service with the Armed Forces in September after more than seven years. His most recent posting was as a search and rescue pilot with the RAF based in Anglesey, North Wales.

In the autumn, Kensington Palace announced that the Duke did not plan to become a full-time working royal immediately, preferring a ‘transitional period’ in which he would undertake public service and work experience-style placements ranging from government departments to charity offices.

Critics, however, have accused the prince of being ‘workshy’ and derided that plan as little more than an extended gap year.

Prince Charles graduated with a 2:2 degree in history at Trinity College Cambridge after studying there from 1967 to 1970. His father, the Duke of Edinburgh, served as chancellor of the university from 1976 to 2011.綜合外國媒體12月30日報道，英國劍橋公爵威廉王子將從下週開始在劍橋大學就讀農業管理課程。

該課程屬於劍橋大學可持續發展領導力項目，以講座、研討會等形式授課，每週20小時左右，主要目的是讓威廉瞭解當代農業經營和農村社區。威廉將自行承擔大量研究，撰寫論文，可能還會去農村實地考察。該課程將持續10周，從1月初開始，到3月中旬結束，結業後不會授予證書。

毫無疑問，此次學習會在威廉從父親手中繼承康沃爾公爵領地時派上用場，該領地橫跨23個郡，佔地面積13萬英畝（約5.26公頃）。一位助手說：“和他的父親一樣，（劍橋）公爵在很大程度上是個鄉下人，他喜歡農村和農民，對他們充滿熱情。”

肯辛頓宮發言人日前表示，學費和住宿費還在私下商討中，將由王室自付。助手們強調，該課程是爲威廉專門設置的，不會影響其他學生。另據報道，威廉仍然和凱特王妃、喬治小王子一起住在肯辛頓宮，但是工作人員也爲他在劍橋安排了私人住宿，一週中他可能有兩三晚不能住在家中。

威廉今年9月從英國皇家空軍退役，他將在未來幾個月裏承擔大量的王室工作，替女王和愛丁堡公爵分憂。不過肯辛頓宮此前曾宣佈，威廉並不打算馬上承擔全職的皇家工作，他更傾向於有一個“過渡期”，在這個期間裏他想從事從政府部門到慈善機構的一些公共服務。

早在2005年，威廉就獲得了聖安德魯斯大學二等一級地理學學位，並在這裏遇到了現在的妻子凱特。此後他在桑赫斯特英國皇家陸軍軍官學院接受了44周的軍事訓練，並於2008年進入英國皇家空軍服役，在近期退役前擔任皇家空軍搜救直升機的駕駛員。