首页
登录
职称英语
READING PASSAGE 2You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which ar
READING PASSAGE 2You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which ar
游客
2024-01-09
39
管理
问题
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
British Universities Seek Quantity and Quality
A
Pity the poor British professor. Once upon a time in the halcyon 1960s, his students were a privileged few, an academic elite drawn from the top four percent of the population. New university arrivals were literate and numerate; crimes against grammar were the exception rather than the rule. According to a new comprehensive survey of British university faculty and staff, all that has changed. "They [incoming students] don’t know how to write essays--they just assemble bits from the Internet," commented a disgruntled Oxford tutor. "Even the cream of candidates do not necessarily know how to use an apostrophe," added another.
B
The decline in student competence parallels a dramatic increase in British university and college enrolment over the past decade, spurred in recent years by Prime Minister--Tony Blair’s push to get half of all young Britons a university degree. As professors and business owners alike decry the quality of university students and graduates, more than a few observers are questioning the wisdom of packing ivory towers with the masses. Students themselves may begin to question whether higher education is overvalued, with tuition rates set to rise steeply next fall.
C
British universities and colleges are teeming with almost 2.5 million young adults, a 12-fold increase of 1960s numbers, and up almost fifty percent over the past decade alone. A report published last month for the Association of Graduate Recruiters found that almost half of the top 200 employers of university graduates were unhappy with the calibre of candidates. The recent survey, conducted by Oxford University and Universities & Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), listed a catalogue of complaints about freshmen which had led in some cases to year-long courses being deferred by a year.
D
"You are getting students going to higher education now who wouldn’t have done so 20 years ago, and in some ways that’s a good thing, as it widens opportunity," says Geoff Hayward, lecturer at Oxford University’s educational studies department. There were, he adds, "genuine concerns about young people and their capacity to benefit from higher education." Part of the problem, Mr. Hayward says, lies in the way teenagers are taught in school, prepped assiduously for exams at the expense of broader understanding. Despite the students’ academic failings, the Oxford/UCAS survey did find they were more tech-savvy and better at oral communication than their predecessors.
E
Nevertheless, concerns about the state of Britain’s university system are deepening this year as its funding faces one of its biggest shake-ups in decades. Following the lead of America, Australia, and New Zealand among others, universities will introduce a new annual £3000 ($6000) tuition fee for students next year--nearly triple the current fee. The charge, brought in by the government to drum up cash for a perennially under-funded sector, is expected to saddle graduates with debts of at least £12000 ($24000), according to the National Union of Students (NUS), making some think twice about whether to study. Already, official figures show the number of university applicants fell this year for the first time in six years, by 3.4 percent. "
F
We’ve said all along that this policy will deter prospective students from going to university," says Julian Nicholds, NUS vice president for education. "About 13000 fewer prospective students have applied this year, and that is only attributable to the threat of debt in the future." For the government, the fall in applicants is slightly awkward. Tony Blair’s Labour administration has committed itself to boosting the number of young people in higher education to fifty percent by 2010. That might prove tricky if teenagers--and their parents--are deterred by the burgeoning cost of study.
G
Alison Wolf, an expert at King’s College London and author of a book called "Does Education Matter," concedes that the added fees might make students think twice but says the price increase won’t turn them away. "When a degree has become as important as ours, all the evidence is that fees will not have an impact because it’s still economically worthwhile to get a degree," says Ms. Wolf. Estimates suggest graduates will still earn as much as £400000 ($800000) more over a lifetime than non-graduates: A little debt will be worth it in the long run, she says.
H
Bill Rammell, higher education minister, says Blair’s target of fifty percent enrolment is "an economic and social necessity." He also points out that by 2012, an estimated 6.8 million graduate jobs will have been created, requiring increasing numbers of university-educated workers. "It is therefore crucial that we are able to produce sufficient numbers of highly skilled, employable graduates to fill those posts," says Mr. Rammell. "Most industrialized countries have targets to expand university numbers."
I
However, Wolf says the government’s fifty percent target is "nuts." "There is no evidence that it is important for economic growth," she contends. "Switzerland is the richest country in Europe and has one of the lowest numbers of graduates." A market-based society, she says, is capable of working out what kind of workers it needs without government-mandated quotas, which may end up encouraging people to go to university who might do better pursuing vocational endeavours. "It would make more sense for society if lots of people didn’t go to university for the wrong reasons," she says, "but as long as employers continue to use degrees as a filter device for screening candidates, demand for degrees will remain high."
选项
答案
E
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3347614.html
相关试题推荐
DirectionsforQuantitativeComparisonQuestions:Someofthefollowingquest
DirectionsforQuantitativeComparisonQuestions:Someofthefollowingquest
DirectionsforQuantitativeComparisonQuestions:Someofthefollowingquest
DirectionsforQuantitativeComparisonQuestions:Someofthefollowingquest
DirectionsforQuantitativeComparisonQuestions:Someofthefollowingquest
DirectionsforQuantitativeComparisonQuestions:Someofthefollowingquest
Questions:Seethegraphsonthefol.-lowingpageforinformationtoanswerthe
Questionsrefertothefollowinggraph.[img]2012q1/ct_egreqm_egreqtbz2_0290_2
Questionsrefertothefollowinggraph.[img]2012q1/ct_egreqm_egreqtbz2_0290_2
DirectionsforQuantitativeComparisonQuestions:Someofthefollowingquest
随机试题
Watchdogsaregrowlingatthewebgiants,andsometimesbitingthem.Europea
[originaltext]HuangYiworksforacompanythatsellsfinancialsoftwareto
关于缩放Word中文本框的描述,正确的是()。A.仅缩放文本框本身,框内的文字或
导线测量外业包括踏勘选点、埋设标志、边长丈量、转折角测量和下列中哪一项的测量?
某学校兴趣小组开展“调香本地虫资源及其分布”的活动,这属于课外活动中的()A.
下列哪项不是胎膜早破的原因A.生殖道病原微生物上行感染 B.铜元素缺乏,胎膜抗
根据《证券公司监督管理条例》第二十八条的规定,下列选项中属于证券公司为客户开立证
少腹拘急冷痛,苔白,脉沉紧,其病理为A.下焦受寒,厥阴之气失于疏泄 B.肾阳不
《计价规范》中的工程量清单综合单价包括( )。 A、人工费 B、企业管理
小儿肥胖症主要的治疗手段是A.不控制食物总量的摄入 B.培养良好的饮食习惯
最新回复
(
0
)