I agree with you. And I also think that

That's a good point. Don’t you also think that…?

I see what you mean, but …

Well, personally I think that ...

I don't really agree because…

I don't quite agree because…

That's an interesting point of view, but I think...

3. Working with another student, take turns to respond to each opinion. Make sure you say more than just a few words in response.

LISTENING

1. Work in small groups and discuss the following questions.

a) At what age do you think you should ...

- stop listening to parents and teachers and do what you feel is right?

- be financially independent?

- leave the family home?

b) Have you ever taken your parents' advice and regretted it?

c) Do you intend to follow in your parents' footsteps?

2. Listen to parents talking about their eighteen-year-old daughter. Decide which of the following sentences best summarises their feelings about daughter's plans for the future.

a) They want their daughter to go to university but they're worried about supporting her financially.

b) They think she should get a university degree before she tries to become a pop singer.

c) They think that it would be a waste of time for her to go to university because she really wants to be a pop singer.

3. Listen again to the conversation and complete these extracts, using the phrases in the box.

taste of freedom up to her out of her system behind her make it

a) Now she reckons she's going to … in the pop world.

b) That's true, but once she gets a …, she'll find it more difficult to go back to college.

c) At least if it doesn't work out she'll have a qualification … .

d) We're just hoping that she'll get it … and then come to her senses and go back to her studies.

e) ... we can't afford to pay for her to live in London, so it's … to make it work.

4. Work with a partner. Decide whether you agree or disagree with the following statements. Do you think your parents would have the same opinion?

a) If you want to go travelling, it's best to get it out of your system before you start a career. Afterwards it's too late.

b) Once young people have had a taste of freedom, it's difficult for them to go back and live with their parents.

c) The more qualifications you've got behind you, the better your chances are of getting a good job.

d) You don't need musical talent to make it in the pop world these days: just good looks and a good manager.

e) Whether or not you succeed in life is up to you. Nobody else can help.

WRITING

1. Using the following diagram explain the hierarchy and links in the system of higher education in writing.

Allocation of the HEI students along the forms of study

Public higher educational institution

54.3% Extra-mural students

45.6% Full-time students 0.1% Shifting students

Non public higher educational institutions

35.5% Extra-mural

student

0.8% Shifting

students

63.7% Full-time students

Part b. The Belarusian State Economic University

USEFUL VOCABULARY

academic а – академический, academic year - учебный год

accomodation n - жилье

admission n - прием , admit v - принимать

assistance n - помощь

apply (to) v - обращаться

appoint v - назначать

approach n - подход

award v - награждать

education by correspondence - заочное обучение

council n - совет

term n - семестр

extra-curricular а - внеаудиторный

diploma n - диплом

to enter the University - поступить в университет

faculty n - факультет, Syn. school

found v - основывать, создавать

grant v - предоставлять

the humanities n -гуманитарные науки

junior а - младший

lecture n - лекция

lecturer n - лектор, преподаватель

lodging n- жилье

obtain v- получать, достигать

philosophy n- философия

postgraduate (student) n - аспирант

recreation n - отдых

research n - научно-исследовательская работа

scientist n - ученый

scientific а - научный

self-governing а - самоуправляющийся

senior а - старший

session n - 1) сессия, 2) учебный год

subject n – предмет

support v - поддерживать

thesis n - диссертация

enrolment n – зачисление в вуз

train v - обучать

tutor n - преподаватель (в университетах)

tutorial system - система прикрепления студентов к преподавателям-консультантам

READING

1. Read the text and sum up what the text says about Belarusian State Economic University.

The Belarus State Economic University was formed in 1992 on the basis of the Belarussian State Institute of the National Economy which was founded in 1933. It is the biggest educational establishment in Belarus training specialists in the field of economics and management, finance and banking, accounting and statistics, commerce, international economic relations, economic policies, business communications techniques, marketing, logistics, economic law, economics and management of tourism, economics of labor and nature use, advertising activities, and price formations. The graduates of the university work in all the sectors of the national economy both in the country and abroad. The University management is done on the principles of democracy and collective leadership. Its structure includes a university administration, a university council, a scholarly-methodological council, an education-methodological council on part-time education, councils of schools, branches and institutes. The University is headed by the Rector. The university’s main activities are headed by the First Deputy Rector, the Deputy Rector in charge of research, the Deputies Rector in charge of curriculum and the Deputy Rector in charge of administrative work. The BSEU has a well developed infrastructure which provides training and research within twelve schools:

• School of Management. The students major in: State Management, Enterprise Economics and Management (with specialization in managing agro-industrial complex companies and labour economics), Economic Cybernetics, Economic Informatics, Environmental Economics.

• School of Accounting and Economics. It incorporates six departments: Accounting, Analysis and Auditing in Industry; Accounting, Analysis and Auditing in Agro-Industrial Complex; Accounting, Analysis and Auditing in Sectors of the National Economy; Accounting, Analysis and Auditing in Commerce; Statistics; Higher Mathematics.

• School of Finance and Banking. Full time students of the School have the following majors: finance and credit (specialization in finance, banking, insurance, finance and credit in foreign economic activities, taxation); accounting, analysis and auditing (specialization in accounting, analysis and auditing in banks).

• School of International Economic Relations. It trains specialists majoring in: world economics and international economic relations (specialization in economics and management of foreign economic activities); world economics (specialization in management of foreign economic activities).

• School of Trade Management. It trains specialists within five specializations: commercial activities in the market of consumer goods; commercial activities in the foreign market; commercial activities in the market of services (catering services); commercial activities and foodstuff merchandise expertise; commercial activities and manufactured merchandise expertise.

• School of Marketing. It incorporates five departments: Marketing; Industrial Marketing and Communications; Logistics and Pricing of the Main Industrial Branches; Technology of the Main Industrial Branches; Security of Life Activity.

• School of Law. It consists of four departments: Civil Law and International Law, Jurisprudence, Law History and Theory, State Law Disciplines.

• School of International Business Communications. It incorporates seven departments and provides teaching to students of all departments, including international students of all levels of study. The faculty gives classes in modern Belarusian and Russian as second languages, reads a series of special courses. The School does research in the field of motivation increase among international students within the course of academic writing and speaking; teaching international undergraduate students (non-linguists) and graduate students to use the written language for specific purposes.

• Institute of Social Liberal Education. It consists of 6 departments: Philosophy, Political Science, Economic History, Economic Sociology, Pedagogics and Psychology.

• School of Pre-University Training. The main goals of the school are: the organization and coordination of professional orientation, profound specialized and economic training, additional learning, repeated and parallel learning, refreshing of knowledge and additional training, profound expanded education and self-education of students, personification of teaching process, unification of traditional and new progressive methods of training applicants for the university level on a scientific methodological basis.

• Higher School of Tourism. It trains specialists majoring in Enterprise

Economics and Management (specializations ”Tourism Economics and Management” and ”Hotel and Restaurant Catering Economics and Management”).

• Higher School of Business and Management offers professional training within the following majors: Enterprise Economics and Management, World Economics, Finance and Credit, Accounting, Analysis and Auditing, Marketing. It trains masters of economics, specialists in the field of economics and administration on the basis of higher education (the second higher education); specialists in economics on the basis of general secondary or technical education; raising of professional skills in accordance with the latest achievements in science and technology.

In addition, BSEU incorporates Bobruisk and Pinsk branches, Consulting Center for Commerce, Institute for Updating Qualification and Retraining Personnel, and a Specialized School of Psychological and Teaching Updating. The university has a Research Centre, an International Relations Division, and a Publishing Centre. The university library is one of the best supplied and equipped in the country.

The training of students is done on a multi-level basis. The degrees pursued are those of bachelors, specialists and masters. The graduates can also continue their education in a post-graduate school called aspirantura (full-time or part-time), where they pursue a Ph.D. degree, and in a post-doctorate school called doctorantura to pursue a post-doctorate degree (doctor habile).

The Belarus State Economic University has 59 departments (of which 39 are graduating ones). This year 5571 students have been enrolled to our University, 39% of whom are internal students and 61% are external ones. The total number of students (both full-time and part-time) amounts to 27,000. Among them are international students from 23 countries. The students are trained in 20 majors and 48 specializations. There are over 1,300 faculty members. Almost half of them hold advanced degrees and scholarly titles, including 100 doctors habil (Dr. hab.) and full professors and 610 with a Ph.D. degree.

Training specialists with higher scholarly qualification is done at the graduate school (12 majors of doctoral programs) and post-doctoral courses (6 majors), both full-time and part-time. Under the auspices of the BSEU there function 5 councils on defending dissertations, with 154 successful defenses in place over the recent five years.

The priorities in the organization of teaching are thorough training, a creative approach to mastering knowledge, as well as making conditions for the realization of individual abilities. The focus is made on providing the systematic level of studies, making connections among the subjects taught, establishing interdisciplinary courses, developing independent work skills, implementing active forms of the teaching process, and effective methods of testing. The university is proud of its technical equipment. It has about 40 computer classrooms, training bookkeeping centres, as well as automated PC-based training offices for specialists in management, finance, banking, and commerce. Lecture halls have slide projectors and other required technical equipment. Classes are fully equipped for language study. Satellite TV, Internet and local computing network are widely used in the teaching process. Acquiring new techniques of teaching and exchanging experience in teaching combined with doing research on topical issues of economic development are made possible due to fruitful contacts with companies, agencies, and related universities, including those beyond Belarus. Annually about 3000 students graduate from the University with specialisation in economics, every third student graduates with distinction. The university continues to upgrade the quality of education and aims at high standards of contemporary university, able to meet the challenges of domestic and global economic development.

The university occupies 9 buildings. The conditions for study are good. Numerous tutorial rooms, lecture halls, modern laboratories, computer and foreign language classes, audio- and video-facilities, a big library, several spacious reading halls and canteens are at the students' disposal. The tuition is free, but those who failed to get the necessary score during their entrance tests, have to pay for their study. Many students get hostel accommodation and most are given state grants.

The academic year is divided into two terms: the winter term and the summer term. Each term ends with examinations. At the end of the full course of study which is five years, students pass their final state exams. Many of them also prepare their senior projects, usually a research work in their future specialities. During their final year of study students are sent to practical training in their future profession to different state and private companies, banks, factories, etc. Many of them usually combine work and study. The university provides a high standard of theoretical and practical knowledge. Many subjects are learned here, both those providing fundamental theoretical background for future practical application in professions chosen by students (finance, banking, accounting, statistics, commodity expertise, etc.) and those that develop their world outlook and make them educated and knowledgeable people (political science, history of Belarus, economic geography, world economy, foreign languages). Many of the university professors are noted scholars, and a great number of advanced students are engaged in research.

The University’s international activities are aimed at developing relations with the leading universities of the CIS countries, France, Germany, Italy, and China. For over 10 years now, we have been closely cooperating with the University Paris-1 Pantheon-Sorbonne in France. At present, the BSEU has bilateral agreements with 64 universities and research institutions from 16 countries. The Belarus State Economic University put forward an initiative to conclude bilateral cooperation agreements with several Chinese institutes in the educational sphere. The matter concerned introduction of a new educational program “2+3”, which provides for training Chinese students at an institute in China for two years and then taking an exam to get the right to continue studies at the BSEU. Chinese students will also get an opportunity to get bachelor’s degrees and to take post-graduate courses in the Belarusian establishments of higher education.

The BSEU authorities have been also holding talks with Dalian Informatics University on training Chinese students at the BSEU for degrees in “Economic Informatics” and “Economic Cybernetics”. Creative contacts with the national and overseas universities help enrich the process of teaching with practical information and provide a wide exchange of experience, as well as conduct research on relevant issues of the economic development and identify the most promising trends of training specialists based on the needs of the national economy and domestic labor market.

Learning foreign languages is getting increasingly popular. Many students get so successful in learning one or two of them that they can easily understand lectures delivered by visiting professors from Western countries in a foreign language. Some of them go to other countries, such as the USA, Great Britain, Germany, where they easily cope with a foreign language academic environment. Their exposure to other cultures, languages, and especially to economic realities of advanced countries gives them a lot of new experience, which will be highly valued back home.

A lot of activity is being done outside the curriculum as well. There are many societies, sports and art circles that students are engaged in. Going to the cinema, theatre, concert halls, clubs or dancing parties is also very popular. Time at the university passes very quickly, but memories about it stay for a long time.

2. Answer the following questions:

• What educational establishment do you study at?

• When was the BSEU founded?

• In what fields does it train specialists?

• How many schools are there at the University?

• How many departments are there at the University?

• What is the number of students at the University?

• How long does the usual course of studies last?

• When are state examinations held?

• What types of graduate degrees are available after completing a 5-year

University program?

• What are the main forms of learning at the University?

• What are the main priorities in the organization of teaching at the

University?

• What can you say about the conditions for study at the BSEU?

• The academic year is divided into three terms, isn’t it?

• Do you receive a monthly allowance? What does it size depend on?

• Is tuition free at the University? How much is tuition at BSEU today?

• How do our students spend their spare time?

3. Complete the following sentences:

1) The university provides a high standard of theoretical and practical

knowledge. Many subjects are learned here, …

2) The University’s international activities are aimed at developing relations

with the leading universities of …

3) The Belarus State Economic University put forward an initiative …

4) Creative contacts with the national and overseas universities help enrich …

5) Learning foreign languages …

6) Their exposure to other cultures, languages, and …

DEVELOPING VOCABULARY

1. Match the following words with their definitions:

a) diploma b) study session c) tutorials d) register e) degree f) graduate g) curriculum h) seminar i) lecture j) dean k) department l) assignment m) accreditation n) academic year

1) a course of study in a university 2) a university qualification 3) a kind of certificate 4) somebody with a university qualification 5) period of time used for study 6) individual contacts with lectures 7) a list of students’ names used to check attendance 8) a period of formal academic instruction, usually extending from September to June 9) approval of universities by nationality recognized professional associations 10) a form of small group instruction combining independent research and class discussion under the guidance of a professor 11) common method of instruction in university courses 12) director of a department 13) administrative subdivision of a college or university in which instruction in a certain field of study is given 14) work to be done outside of class time, required by a professor and due by a specified date

2. Match the synonyms:

1) to major in 2) to study 3) a profound knowledge 4) a schedule 5) a term 6) a grant 7) lodging 8) an institution 9) final exams 10) a dean’s office

a) degree exams b) accommodation c) a timetable d) a faculty office e) to specialize in f) a deep knowledge g) to learn h) a semester i) a scholarship j) an establishment

3. Match English and Russian equivalents:

1. higher education 2. private institutions 3. university curriculum 4. to receive grants 5. local authority 6. academic session 7. to pass exams 8. research centre

a. получать стипендию b. местные власти c. учебный триместр d. сдать экзамены e. учебный план университета f. высшее образование g. научно-исследовательский центр h. частные учебные заведения

4. Use the words in capitals to form a word that fits in the space.

EXAMINE SUCCESS QUALITY EDUCATE MIX KNOW FAIL LUCKY MAJOR IMPRESS INTELLIGENT

TESTS

All students throughout the world sit for … at some point in their lives. If students are …, they get a formal … that enables them to get a job or continue with further … .Most formal testing involves a … of techniques, but the most common form requires students to show that they have a detailed … of the subject area. Students who do not pass, are not considered as …, they simply need more time to study. Some of them are simply …. The … who pass, do so because they have made a good … on the examiner and have also succeeded in showing their ….

5. Insert the necessary words to the following sentences:

rectors, higher education, national school, fields of study, education, standards, abilities, integration, take into account, state policy, principles, space

1) Every institution has several departments specializing in various… .

2) Higher educational establishments are headed by … .

3) The republic is reforming its system of … today with the aim of creating an independent, qualitatively new …, corresponding to International … .

4) The government guarantees each citizen the right to education according to his … .

5) It trains specialists at all levels of … over a wide range of fields of study.

6) Curricula and programs … both specific features of the national system of higher education and necessity of its … to the world’s educational space.

7) The national system of higher education is based on the … of … in the field of education.

6. Translate from Russian into English:

Для абитуриента выбор факультета является поступком, первичнo задающим цель собственной жизни. Ошибки и просчеты, допущенные молодым человеком при выборе специальности, имеют довольно высокую цену. Для части абитуриентов неудача при поступлении на желанный факультет является стрессом и часто оценивается как жизненный кризис. «Счастливчики» - те молодые люди, которые продемонстрировали довольно высокий уровень знаний и умений в стрессовых ситуациях экзаменов, - зачисляются на первый курс.

DISCOVERING LANGUAGE

1. Transform as in the models:

Mоde1 1: to educate people — education of people

to found the university, to regulate the studies, to examine students, to appoint the tutors;

Mоde1 2: degree of a bachelor — bachelor's degree

degree of a master, life of the students, parents of a student, the report of the scientist;

Mоde1 3: Department of Education — Education Department

centres of research, history of the University, School of Management.

2. Choose aortheorno articlein the following sentences:

1) … first-year students of our University have … lot of things to do.

2) If you are not … university student at … age of 18, you have to go to … army to serve.

3) After I leave … school, I want to go to … University.

4) … women are often better teachers than … men.

5) … friend of yours is now having classes at … University.

6) … lecture was interesting on … whole.

7) I go to … University in … morning.

8) How many people go to … university in your country?

9) Nick left …. University without doing his exams.

10) You had … difficult text to translate and you did not take … trouble to consult … dictionary.

11) He is … student you wanted to speak to.

12) It is … translation from … English.

13) … two students entered … room.

3. Give adjectives corresponding to the following nouns: