The Marshall Scholarship Program recently awarded grants to seven Harvard students--the largest number of recipients from any college in the country--the director of fellowships of the Office of Career Services and Off-Campus Learning (OCS-OCL) said yesterday.

Margot N. Gill yesterday attributed Harvard's success to "more outstanding, better qualified students." The Marshall Program searches for the best full-focus academic undergraduate records in the country," she added.

Receiving the Marshall Scholarship are Alan D. Albert '79, Julia M. Gibert '79, Jeremy Goodman '79, Juretta J. Heckscher '79, Kurt R. Johnson '79, Kathleen E. Kells '79 and Mark T. Whitaker '79.

These seven recipients were the largest group Harvard has ever sent to the United Kingdom, Gill said. Last year Harvard had four winners.

The major requirement of the scholarship is academic excellence, Gill said. "Students should be in Group I or high Group II," she added.

The scholarships provide for two or three years of study at any university in the United Kingdom.

Barbara Eachus, vice consul of the British consulate general in Boston and a member of the regional Marshall selecting committee, said yesterday her committee reviews 200 applicants from the North Eastern region and sends an initial list to an advisory committee in Washington, D.C. The British government committee in London chooses the final group of 300, she added.

"We look for people who gain for themselves but also from whom we will gain," Eachus said yesterday.

Gill said a lack of publicity surrounding the scholarships is due to the character of the committee which chooses the recipients.

Eachus said the program's youth is a reason for its relative obscurity. "We're still young at this game," she said.

The Scholarship Program began 25 years ago to promote the international understanding exemplified by General George C. Marshall.

Goodman, who hopes to study astrophysics at Cambridge University, said yesterday, "I've always wanted to study in England, especially because I'm half English."

"Besides, Cambridge is the best place in the world to study astrophysics," he added.

Harvard students in recent years have elected to go to other universities besides Oxford and Cambridge, Eachus said. "We welcome Marshall students to go to the other universities because we want them to get to know the British," she added.

Johnson said yesterday he decided to attend Sussex University next year because the other major universities did not offer programs in social psychology, his field of study.

The Marshall Scholarship Program expanded recently to include awards for those who want to study in pre-professional academic fields.

Heckscher said yesterday she plans to study aesthetics and the principles behind critical writing about the arts.

"England is a nice country to live in if you have the time and money," she said, but added, "If you're just going to study, why go over there?"