Insert the right word from the box .

British, Oxford, Britain, Oxford and Cambridge, the Open University

There are 47 universities in ... . The oldest universities are .... The history of... began in 1249. These two universities are different from all other ... universities. Redbrick universities were built to give technological training. ... universities are private institutions, but they receive financial support from the state. The British government does not think to build new universities. The most interesting innovation is ....

Exercise 5.

Mark the statements that are true.

1. All British universities are private institutions.

2. The admission to the University is by examination or selection.

3. The Department of Education and Science controls appointment of staff.

4. The number and type of faculties is the same at all British universities.

5. Students never work in summer, they work during the academic year.

6. The first postgraduate degree is that of Master.

7. Universities are centres of research.

Exercise 6.

Make a short summary of the text according to the following plan.

The title of the text is ...

The text is devoted to ...

It consists of...

The first passage deals with ...

The second (third, forth, etc.) passage deals with ...

The main idea of the text is ... .

Unit 10 higher education in the usa

Higher education in America is provided by colleges and universities. The main difference between a college and a university is that the latter is a collection of colleges each of which specializes in a different field.

American colleges and universities are either private or public. There are nearly 1900 institutes of higher learning in America. Roughly one-third are state institutions, 1,200 are private ones. Only about half of the school children graduate from the university in America and receive a university diploma. College is getting more expensive every year. Not all American families can afford universities education.

The American universities offer a wide variety of courses. In the same school a student can specialize in economics, chemistry and physics, Latin and humanities, or in automobile mechanics. During the four-year university program, the student studies four or five major subjects per year. In addition the students usually have classes in physical education, music and art. The first two years are a continuation of secondary education; then a student begins an intensive study of his special field. If a student fails a course, he repeats only that course and not the work of the entire year.

Students are classified as freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. A freshman is a first year student; a sophomore - a second year student; a junior - a third year student and a senior - a fourth year student. All students who have graduated from the senior class and who continue studies at a university are classified as advanced students or graduate students.

At the conclusion of studies a college or university grants a Bachelor’s degree. After one or two additional years of studies — a Master’s degree. The highest academic degree is the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). It may take a number of years to complete the original research work necessary to obtain this degree.

College prepares the student for two things: either graduate studies, leading to a master’s or doctor’s degree, or a job immediately after graduation. The majority of college graduates have to apply to public and private employment agencies to get any job, which is not an easy thing.

Task 1.

Answer the following questions.

How many institutes of higher learning are there in America?

Are there private and state colleges in the USA?

Is education getting more expensive every year?

When does a student begin an intensive study of his special field?

The highest academic degree is PhD, isn’t it?

Task 2.

Read and translate the following dialog between a Russian student and his American peer.

A: I could just feel how competitive things are at your universities — no sharing of notes, or whispering answers, or letting others copy your test.

M: What? Why would anyone do that? You’d be giving them the edge. A test separates out the students. You can’t afford to lose out in the competition. We have to compete for grades, especially as professors use the bell curve and give only one or two A’s in the whole class. You’re always being rated against the others taking the course.

A: Again, each for himself. Our teachers don’t grade competitively. Incidentally, our grading system is slightly different from yours. You see, it’s in numbers up to 5, while your grades are letters, with A as the highest.

M: Actually, each letter has a number value: A is 4, В — 3, С — 2, D is unsatisfactory and F is fail. You may be given an E for incomplete if you have a good reason for not finishing the course. And in order to graduate from a university you must get a set number of semester units.

A: Can you choose what courses you want to take?

M: There are courses you have to take no matter what your major: English, one year of science, and humanities. Then, in your major, you should complete at least some 100 units in four years. You have an advisor, usually a professor in the department of your major, who recommends courses to you. But you yourself make the final decision.

A: Is that what electives are? I never did quite get that straight.

M: No, electives are outside' your major. Say I’m a math major but I’m very interested in art. I could take a history of art or a painting course. They would be electives.

A: Unlike your system, the program in our universities and institutes is set. We can pick some course we wish later on, but the basic choice is the same for everyone. But then again, it trains us for a certain profession.

M: Well, American universities have a different goal than yours. They not so much train you for a job as develop your mind. Of course, there are some fields such as the sciences that are very relevant in the job market.

A: But aren’t things changing now?

M: This is a problem. There are a lot of complaints from employers that

graduates are hopeless. They don’t have any work skills and have to be trained on the job. And the graduates themselves complain how tough it is for them to land their first job.

A: Gee, we sometimes have the same problem, even though we do have

specialized institutes and colleges.

M: We don’t have many such institutes in America. Some universities are known for one or another field of study. For instance, if you want to major in business administration, your best bet would be UCLA, for law it’s Harvard, and for medicine — some other school. Non-college students get on-the-job training. They often have blue-collar jobs while university graduates with at least a four-year degree like a B.A. get white-collar jobs. That is, physical work versus desk jobs.

A: What’s the advantage to having a higher degree, like an M.A. or a Ph.D.?

M: With an M.A. you can teach at a high school or university or become a

librarian. And a person with an M.A. starts on a government job at a higher level than one with a B.A. A Ph.D. allows you to do research or be a professor.

A: But quite a few college graduates don’t use their education on their jobs, do they?

M: You’re right. You often wonder why you went to college. But in the long run you have a better chance of getting a good job, or so they say.