British Universities

British universities are not open to everyone. To get a place, you normally apply in your last year at school, before you have taken you’re a levels. The university makes you an offer; for example, it will give you a place if you get at least one grade A and two Bs in you’re a levels. The offer depends on market forces; for popular, high-prestige courses, the university will ask for very good A level results.

The number of students on a particular course (for example, Economics at Cardiff University) is strictly limited. The system does not allow students to follow full-time courses in a casual way, having a job or living in another town as they study. Students are quite closely monitored, and have to see their teachers regularly. Consequently, drop-out and failure rates are low.

The negative side of the system was that, compared with other countries, a rather small percentage of British school-leavers actually went on to university. But there has been a dramatic improvement; the numbers have doubled over the last 20 years. One explanation of this is that in the 1980s many polytechnics and higher education colleges were given university status. As a result, many cities now have two universities – an old one and a new one. For example, in Bristol there is Bristol University and the University of the West of England; in Oxford there is Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University.

Officially, all universities in the country are equal in status. But they differ greatly in reputation and public image. In general, the older a university is, the higher its status. So the most prestigious are the ancient ones – Oxford and Cambridge – followed by long-established ones such as London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Some of this is just based on tradition and snobbery. In fact, each university has strengths and weaknesses, and sensible students make their choices according to their own particular needs and priorities.

About half of British students go away to university, rather than attend the one closest to home. This is an expensive thing to do; the government used to give grants (money to live on during studies), whereas now students have to borrow money or get their parents to pay. But still many students find that combining study and family life is impossible.

British universities are very popular with overseas students. There are about 70, 000 – mostly from Africa, the Arab world and Far Eastern countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The Erasmus programme arranges exchanges (from three months to one year) for students and teachers between universities in 24 countries including all the members of the European Union. In fact, the UK is the most popular destination, receiving over 25 percent of all Erasmus students.

33. Read the text and answer the questions:

a) What kind of teachers does the author describe in the text?

b) How does the author describe the task of a school teacher?

c) How is the task of a university teacher described?

d) What qualities are necessary for either work?

Would you Like to Be a Teacher?

There are two distinct kinds of teachers. The kind which springs to the mind more readily is the school-teacher, whose duty is to give pupils a certain, clearly-defined quantity of knowledge - this knowledge consists of the basic facts forming the foundation on which further specialization can be built. The teacher of children has the power to mould ¹ the development of young minds, of individual characters. A good teacher will also take pleasure in creating a thirst ² for knowledge in the child, inspiring an appreciation of education and desire for self-fulfillment. The teaching of younger children is undoubtedly a vocation ³ requiring patience and dedication.

The second kind is University teaching, which, under the English system bears little or no resemblance to school teaching. The function of a lecturer in an English University is not, first and foremost ⁴, to give knowledge in the form of facts; it is rather to provide guide-lines along which students may direct their individual duty, to provide the student with the main tools of analysis for his particular specialty, to arouse the student’s interest in particular aspects of his subject for further research work after graduation. The lecturer is allowed more free time in which to conduct his individual research, thereby being able to make a positive contribution and keep up with current ideas in his subject.

Thus, under the English system of education, school teaching is the field of those people whose interests and talents lie in giving knowledge, while lecturing requires some original contributions to the subject on the part of the lecturer and also requires a desire to encourage an interest in a special sphere in future teachers and research-workers.

Notes:

1.mould - формировать

2.a thirst - жажда

3.vocation - призвание

4.first and foremost - прежде всего

34. Read the text and render it in Russian or in English.