Passage Two (1) With the political mood in the U. S. and U. K. growing

游客2023-11-24  20

问题     Passage Two
    (1)  With the political mood in the U. S. and U. K. growing more introspective, French business schools are sensing an opportunity to attract more international students to their campuses at home and abroad.
    (2)  In recent years the focus of French business schools has been on consolidation and mergers, such as those that created both Neoma and Kedge in 2013. Some have been more successful than others and the trend may be coming to an end. "I don’t think we will see many more mergers," says Jean Michel Blanquer, dean of Essec.  "The mergers that made sense have been done. "
    (3)  This return to greater stability at home is one factor encouraging some French schools to look outward. There is also pressure from government. French higher education lags behind the world’s main providers of general transnational education—the U. S., U. K. and Australia—and a recent report by government-affiliated think-tank France Strategie, highlighted an "urgent" need for a new approach.
    (4)   While French business schools are among the more active higher education institutions overseas, teaching some 3,000 students outside France, there is awareness that there is potential for growth. In order for a French school to gain accreditation (鉴定合格) from the ministry of national education for its academic awards, it must now demonstrate a clearly defined strategy for international expansion.
    (5)  But being international is not enough, says Bernard Belletante, director-general of EMLyon. "We’ve been sending students abroad for many years and internationalisation is not a problem thanks to the EU," he says.  "Now we have to move to globalisation. "
    (6)  Financial pressures are also an important driver pushing French schools to seek new markets. There are several categories of business school in France-, those part of a public university (the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises network); privately-run business schools that operate like companies with shareholders; some that operate as non-profits under the status of etablissement d’enseignement superieur prive d’interet general (private higher education institutions with a public interest) ; and the ecoles consulages, a final group that includes big schools such as HEC and ESCP Europe, which are overseen, in part, by the French Chambers of Commerce.
    (7)   " Although each category has its specific challenges, all are faced with the significant decrease of public funding," explains Frank Bournois, dean of ESCP Europe, referring to cuts in funding from the French Chambers of Commerce and the local apprenticeship tax. Also, while France offers attractive tax incentives to philanthropists, French business school foundations are still learning the art of attracting wealthy donors.
    (8)  French schools therefore spy new revenue opportunities abroad. " The domestic market is already mature, so growth lies in the recruitment of international students," says Jean Guy Bernard, the dean of EM Normandie.
    (9)  For some, that recruitment strategy means opening campuses in different continents. The latest to open, at the end of September, is Shenzhen Audencia Business School (SABS) , a joint venture between Audencia business school, based in Nantes, and Shenzhen University in southern China’s Guangdong Province.
    (10)  Launching three programmes in 2017—an MBA, a DBA and a masters—SABS aims to attract 500 students in three years. Audencia also plans to launch a campus in Latin America within three years, while an agreement with the Ivory Coast’s Institut National Polytechnique Felix Houphouet Boigny was announced earlier this year.
    (11)  In September, Paris-based Essec began teaching in Rabat, Morocco, where its new Africa-Atlantic campus opens next year, with the aim of attracting students from across west Africa, complementing its east Africa-Indian Ocean campus in Mauritius. "Our goal is to be multi-polar, present in the business hubs of each continent," says Prof Blanquer, its dean.
    (12)  EMLyon, which already serves Africa with a campus in Casablanca and is stepping up its partnership with East China Normal University to create a joint school in Shanghai named Asia-Europe Business School, is now targeting South America, according to its dean.
    (13)   "I’m convinced that in 10 years the international accreditation bodies will be demanding evidence of the internationalisation of a school’s graduates, for example, 50 percent of graduates who are not French," predicts EMLyon’s Belletante.  "That’s impossible if you are not going abroad. "
    (14)  French schools must beware of a copy-and-paste approach, says Francois Bonvalet, dean of Toulouse Business School, which now has international campuses in London, Barcelona and Casablanca. " We need to pull from the French savoir-faire (机敏) ," says Prof Bonvalet, but applied work and teaching practices must be adapted to local norms. He also cautions that the cost of establishing campuses abroad can be detrimental to the home campus.
    (15)  "It’s expensive to operate abroad especially in areas where tuition fees cannot be raised," he explains. " As we want to have harmonisation within our programmes taught across multiple campuses, the expenses of one campus limits what we are able to do in France.  So our business model must be well defined. "
    (16)  Other schools, such as HEC Paris, are stopping short of investing in new campuses abroad, choosing instead to partner with business schools around the world to offer joint and double degrees and student and faculty exchanges. Schools that perform well in global rankings can leverage the power of their international brand to attract more international students to their programmes in France, often using overseas offices and fairs.
    (17)   Whatever their strategy, globalisation is causing many schools to reflect on their French identity, consider how best to market the strengths that have cachet (声望) abroad and discard French specifics that hold them back.
    (18)   For example, the traditional French system of classes preparatoires (preparatory classes), which organises the selection and preparation of students for competitive exams into the leading business schools, is not accessible to international students. All classes are in French, with a strong emphasis on maths and French humanities or liberal arts.
    (19)   But a growing number of students are now entering bachelor degree programmes that have been introduced alongside the classes preparatoires. "It’s drastically changing the game," says ESCP’s Prof Bournois. "This new track is becoming more attractive to non-French students. "
    (20)  According to Eloic Peyrache, associate dean of HEC, many French business schools tend to be more multi-disciplinary than their U. S. or British counterparts and offer more academic content and greater contact time with faculty.
    (21)  Prof Peyrache thinks French schools also excel in the personal development of students. "We work on three dimensions at HEC. Know yourself, know the market and match yourself with the market," he says. "French business schools spend more on the ’ know yourself . We tend to have slightly longer programmes, which leaves more time for broadening horizons and opportunities to learn. We give students longer time to ask questions and find answers. " [br] What is the purpose of the author in writing the last five paragraphs?

选项 A、To illustrate the influence of globalisation on French business schools.
B、To show the improvement in traditional French education system.
C、To introduce the advantages of French business schools.
D、To make a contrast between French and overseas business schools.

答案 A

解析 主旨题。本题涉及作者写作最后五段的目的,应纵观最后五段进行解答。第十七段主要论述了全球化促使法国商学院反思其法国身份,要在海外扬长避短;第十八段和第十九段则以法国预科班体系的转变为例说明该问题,法国预科班体系从过去不对国际学生开放到如今被引入到国外;第二十段和第二十一段介绍了巴黎高等商学院副院长埃卢瓦克.佩拉什的观点,他认为法国商学院比英美同类院校做得更好,并从三个方面分析巴黎高等商学院的优秀教学方法。由此可知,第十七段是总起段,后面四段从传统法国教育体系的转变和法国商学院的优点这两方面进行论证。因此,作者意在阐明全球化对法国商学院的影响,故[A]为答案。
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