British and American rowing: Rowed scholars SPECTATORS at the annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race on the Thames each spring are used to seeing a hefty dollop of giant Americans in each crew, many of them postgraduate students. But the tide has ebbed. The Oxford and Cambridge squads of 16 rowers apiece, from which the top "blue" boats and the reserve crews (Isis for Oxford and Goldie for Cambridge) are drawn, have now been chosen from a pool of 24 rowers from each university. There are only four Americans apiece in the Oxford and Cambridge squads. Compare that with the Head of the Charles, a time-trial event rowed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is the biggest rowing event in the world, with more than 8,000 competitors each year. Last autumn the winning Harvard heavyweight crew of eight included three Britons - two from England and one Scot. The senior and junior men's rowing squad at America's oldest university had fully 13 rowers from Britain out of a total of 58. A small country is pulling well above its weight. One reason for the depleted American contingent on the Thames is the imminent Olympics. World-class rowers tend to stay at home to join their national teams aiming for global glory (although America's Olympic rowing performance has so far been poor, partly because money is lacking). As for the British contingent in America, that is a matter of talented supply meeting deep-pocketed demand. Rowing in English private schools is often excellent. But at university level, with the exception of Oxbridge, Oxford Brookes, London and Durham, British rowing is not up to much. Ivy league colleges such as Harvard, Yale and Cornell enjoy far better facilities and coaching - and results to match. American university crews have won the college event at Henley in eight of the past 11 years, with only one British victory. Ivy League rowing coaches cruise the boating tents at Henley each summer, talent-spotting. They now have a good pitch. In September fees in many English universities will almost triple to £9,000 ($14,000). Together with a cap on the numbers allowed into British universities, this is encouraging students to look abroad. Maastricht University in the Netherlands, which runs many courses in English, has reported a large increase in applications from Britain, with 400 applying compared with only 35 in 2010. British applications to Harvard rose by a third between the last academic year and the present one. Going overseas to study is not necessarily cheap. Harvard costs about $59,000 (£38,000) a year all-in, including tuition fees, bed, board and books. But with endowment funds of more than $27 billion, it offers generous scholarships to students from families on low and middling incomes. Harvard entry is on a "need-blind" basis largely on the result of aptitude tests, with no trace of the sports scholarships that American state colleges use to lure students. Once accepted, about six out of every ten Harvard students receive some sort of financial support, and this applies equally to Americans and foreigners. A talented British rower may have little to lose, and could even gain, from heading across the pond.