Foreign Exchange

American educators may look at students with mobile phones glued to their ears as a nuisance.

But British educators apparently take a different view. In fact, they are lobbying to give high school seniors such phones linked to the Internet—for free.

The University and Colleges Admissions Service, which coordinates the admissions process for all 336 colleges and universities in the United Kingdom, is negotiating with telephone companies to provide mobile phones for "6th formers"—the British equivalent of 12th graders—so they can track...