I am a student.
I am K. Т. I am a student now. I'm a second-year student of the day-time department. I've entered National University of the State Tax Service of Ukraine after finishing a secondary school. I realize now mathematics is a corner-stone of all sciences.
I worked hard to pass my entrance examinations well. And now I am a happy member of the great, young family of students.
Many new things and notions came into my life with it. At first, I didn't know what they meant. Now I became familiar with such words as "a freshman", "a sophomore", "an undergraduate" and such terms as "a period", "a seminar", "labworks". I know what it means "to make notes", "to pass thousands", etc.
I'm still to know more, and first of all how to save time to be able to not only study well, but to take an active part in the students' life, to join some students' scientific society and to sing in our Academy choir, to become a member of our Academy famous football team and to visit interesting students' evening-parties.
I'm fond of everything at my Academy. I like its great beautiful building, sport complex, it's lecture halls, laboratories, studies.
2. Higher education in Ukraine
Our country needs specialists in all fields of science and all branches of industry and agriculture. Institutes exist not only in big cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, but in many towns of Ukraine like Irpin.
Higher educational establishments of our country fall into three main types. The first type includes the universities and institutes where there are only full-time students, which receive state grants. Students who do not live at home get accommodation in the hostels.
The second and third types of higher schools provide educational facilities for factory and office workers who combine work with studies. The second type of higher education in establishments includes evening faculties and evening higher schools for those who study in their spare time.
The third type covers extra-mural higher schools where students take correspondence courses. Every year extra-mural students receive from 30 to 40 days' leave to prepare for their exams.
The diplomas by the evening faculties and extra-mural higher schools have the same value as the diplomas of all other institutes and universities.
The period of study at higher schools is from 4 to 6 years. According to the subjects studied there exist three groups of higher schools' universities, polytechnic and specialized institutes.
3. Higher education in Great Britain
All British universities are private institutions. Students have to pay fees and living costs, but every student may obtain a personal grant from local authorities. If the parents do not earn much money, their children will receive a full grant which will cover all the expenses. Students studying for first degrees are known as “undergraduates”. New undergraduates in some universities are called “fresher”. They have lectures, there are regular seminars.
After three or four years the students will take their finals. Those who pass examinations successfully are given the Bachelor’s degree: Bachelor of Arts for History or Bachelor of Science. The first postgraduate degree is Master of Arts, Master of Science. Doctor of Philosophy is the highest degree. It is given for some original research work which is an important contribution to knowledge. Open Days are a chance for applicants to see the university, meet students and ask questions. All this will help you decide whether you have made the right choice.
The most famous universities in Britain are Oxford and Cambridge. They are the two oldest English universities and they both have a long and eventful history of their own.
4. Economy of Ukraine Ukraine is an agro-industrial country.
In the current structure of Ukraine’s industry a great proposition is occupied by heavy industry, especially, the iron, and steel, machine-building and coal industries.
However, today’s industries are unable to satisfy the consumers’ wants because they are not integrated into the world process of economic , technological and scientific progress. The national industries have low standard in processing raw material and outdated and worn-out production equipment.
Ukraine is one of the world’s most productive farming regions and is known as ”Europe’s granary”.
Two interrogated processes characterize Ukraine’s economy today, namely its assertion as that of an independent state, and its transition from planned-centralized to market-controlled.
Ukraine has currently achieved macroeconomic stability. Prices, domestic and foreign trade have been liberalized. Tax and budget systems are also being reformed. A twin-level banking structure took shape: the National Bank of Ukraine, and commercial banks of all types and forms of property
”Small-scale” privatization is nearly completed in Ukraine today. Privatization has sped up for large and medium size enterprises, including enterprises in the agro-industrial sector.
Ukraine’s foreign policy is aimed at wide and long-term co-operation. Ukraine is acting on the assumption that this is the most effective way of solving not only economic but also political problems.
5. British Economy Great Britain is a highly-developed naval and industrial power. Its economy was primarily based on private enterprises. Now it has a mixed private- and public-enterprise economy. The government controls the coal-mining and electric power industries, ferrous metallurgy and shipbuilding. Part of public transport, civil aviation and national bank are also managed by the state.
Coal-mining, metallurgy, textile, shipbuilding are the older branches of industry. The new industries are the chemical, electrotechnical, automobile, aeromissile and electronics. The new industries have developed hand in hand with science and technology and are equipped to meet present technical demands.
Services play an important role in British economy and make up1 an increasing proportion of the national income2. They account for about 60 per cent of gross domestic product and 68 per cent of employees. This sector includes health, education, retail and wholesale trade3, tourism, financial and business services, insurance4, transport, etc.
Banking, finance, insurance, business services and leasing account for 14 per cent of the British economy’s total output. Britain has an open economy. About one-quarter of its gross domestic product comes from the export of goods and services. It is the fifth largest trading nation in the world.
Agriculture is one of the most important sectors in British economy. There are more than 250 thousand farms in Great Britan. Most of them are small family farms.
6. US Economy.
The economy of the United States is the largest among all the nations of the world. At 14.52 trillion USD, the GDP generated by this colossal economy is the highest. Its Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is also among the highest, and is estimated at US $47,240.
The major sectors comprising the economy of Untied States are Retailing, Energy, Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Finance. The country remains the second-largest consumer of energy in the world, and most of the energy needs are fulfilled through petroleum. Even though manufacturing is not the leading sector of the economy, it is enough to remain number one in the whole of the world. Airplane manufacturing is a major activity in this sector. The country is also the largest trading nation of the world, with most of the trade happening with Japan, China, and European Union.
One particular concern for the US economy is the rising debt, which as of 2009 was at US $50.7 trillion. This is more than 3.5 times the GDP, and is owed by various businesses and governments. The recession in 2008 hit the economy very hard, and the recovery is still being effected. This was popularly known as the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Experts are divided on the economic prospects of the country, as was reflected in the credit rating agency Moody's "negative" outlook on the economy of the United States.
7. WHAT IS ECONOMICS
Economics was defined as the study of mankind in the everyday business life. This means that economics deals with production, distribution, exchange and consumption.
Economics is a social science. Economics is therefore concerned with activities relating to wealth, i.e. production, consumption, exchange and distribution.
Economics like any other social science has its own vocabulary. To understand economics, a review of some key terms is necessary: needs, wants, and demands.A need is a basic requirement for survival.
A want is a means of expressing a need. The point is that the range of things represented by the term «want» is much broader than those represented by the term «need».
In economics the term value means something having a worth that can be expressed in dollars and cents.
Another economic concept is wealth — the sum of those economic products that are tangible, scarce, useful and transferable from one person to another. Most economic goods are counted as wealth, but services are not. The reason for this is that it is difficult to measure the value of services accurately.
8. FACTORS OF PRODUCTION
These factors of production are called land, labour, capital, and organization or entrepreneurship. As an economic term land means the gifts of nature or natural resources not created by human efforts. Land has a broad meaning. It is not only land itself, but also what lies under the land, what grows naturally on top of the land, what is around the land in the seas and oceans and under the seas and oceans. It includes deserts, fertile fields, forests, mineral deposits, rainfall, sunshine and the climate necessary to grow crops.
The second factor of production is labour — people with all their efforts and abilities. Unlike land, labour is a resource that may vary in size over time.
Labour is the human input into the production process. It may be mental or physical. But in many tasks it is necessary to combine mental activity with physical effort.
The third factor of production is capital — the tools, equipment and factories used in production of goods and services. It is a produced factor of production, a durable input which is itself an output of the economy.
Capital is unique in that, it is the result of production.
Entrepreneurship, the managerial or organizational skills needed by most firms to produce goods and services, is the fourth factor of production. The entrepreneur brings together the other three factors of production — land, labour and capital. When they are successful, entrepreneurs earn profits, the return or reward for the risks, innovative ideas and efforts put into the business.
9. ECONOMIC SYSTEMS There are three major kinds of economic systems: traditional, command and market.
Traditional Economy.In a society with a traditional economy nearly all economic activity is the result of ritual and custom. Individuals are not free to make decisions based on what they want or would like to have. The main disadvantage of the traditional economy is that it tends to discourage new ideas and even punishes people for breaking rules or doing things differently. So it tends to be stagnant or fails to grow over time.
Command economy — one where a central authority makes most of the What, How and for Whom decisions. Major economic choices are made by the government.
In a market economy, the questions of What, How and for Whom to produce are made by individuals and firms acting in their own best interests. In economic term a market is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to come together to conduct transactions.
A market economy has several major advantages that traditional and command economies do not have. First, a market economy is flexible and can adjust to change over time. The second major advantage of the market economy is the freedom that exists for everyone involved. The third advantage of the market economy is the lack of significant government intervention.
10. forms of business ownership
Although forms of business ownership vary by jurisdiction, there are several common forms:
Sole proprietorship: A sole proprietorship is a business owned by one person for-profit. The owner may operate the business alone or may employ others. The owner of the business has unlimited liability for the debts incurred by the business.
Partnership: A partnership is a business owned by two or more people. In most forms of partnerships, each partner has unlimited liability for the debts incurred by the business. The three typical classifications of for-profit partnerships are general partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships.
Corporation: A corporation is a limited liability business that has a separate legal personality from its members. Corporations can be either government-owned or privately-owned, and corporations can organize either for-profit or not-for-profit
Cooperative: Often referred to as a "co-op", a cooperative is a limited liability business that can organize for-profit or not-for-profit. A cooperative differs from a for-profit corporation in that it has members, as opposed to shareholders, who share decision-making authority. Cooperatives are typically classified as either consumer cooperatives or worker cooperatives. Cooperatives are fundamental to the ideology of economic democracy.
11. MARKETS and MARKET STRUCTURES
In short, markets can be classified according to certain structural characteristics that are shared by most firms in the market. Economists have names for these different market structures: pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly.
Pure competition is a market situation in which there are many independent and well-informed buyers and sellers of exactly the same economic products. Each buyer and seller acts independently.
To monopolize means to keep something for oneself. A person who monopolized a conversation, for example, generally is trying to stand out from everyone else and thus attract attention.
By making its product a little different, a firm may try to attract more customers and take over the economic market. When this happens, the market situation is called monopolistic competition.
The one thing that separates monopolistic competition from pure competition is product differentiation.
The term market, as used by economists, is an extension of the ancient idea of a market as a place where people gather to buy and sell goods.
Today, however, markets such as the world sugar market, the gold market and the cotton market do not need to have any fixed geographical location.
In a free market, competition takes place among sellers of the same commodity, and among those who wish to buy that commodity. Buyers and sellers may meet in person, or they may communicate in some other way: by telephone or through their agents. In a perfect market, communications are easy, buyers and sellers are numerous and competition is completely free.
It is possible to distinguish in practice four kinds of monopoly.
State planning and central control of the economy often mean that a state government has the monopoly of important goods and services. Some countries have state monopolies in basic commodities.
A different kind of monopoly arises when a country, through geographical and geological circumstances, has control over major natural resources or important services, as for example with Canadian nickel and the Egyptian ownership of the Suez Canal. Such monopolies can be called natural monopolies.
They are very different from legal monopolies, where the law of a country permits certain producers, authors and inventors a full monopoly over the sale of their own products.