[originaltext]W: Good evening, I’m Nancy Johnson. The guest on our radio talk t

W: Good evening, I’m Nancy Johnson. The guest on our radio talk this evening is Professor Wang Gongwu Hello, Professor Wang.
M: Hello.
W: Professor Wang, you’re now Professor Emeritus of Australia National University, and in your long academic career, you’ve worn many hats as tutor, lecturer, department head, dean, professor, and vice chancellor. However, as I know, you’re still very fond of your university days as a student.
M: That’s right. That was in 1949. The university that I went to was a brand new university then, and the only one in the country at that time. When I look back, it was an amazingly small university, and we knew everybody.
W: How did the students like you, for example, study then?
M: We didn’t study very hard, because we didn’t have to. We didn’t have all this fantastic competition that you have today. Mmm. We were always made to feel that getting a first degree in the Arts Faculty was not preparation for a profession. It was a general education. We were not under any pressure to decide on our careers, and we had such a good time. We were left very much on our own, and we were encouraged to make things happen.
W: What do you see as the most striking difference in university education since then?
M: University education has changed dramatically since those days. Things are very specialized today.
W: Yes, definitely so. And, in your subsequent career experience as an educator and later administrator in various institutions of higher education in Asia and elsewhere, Professor Wang, you have repeatedly noted that one has to look at the development of education in one particular country in a broad context. What do you mean by that?
M: Well, the whole world has moved away from elite education in universities to meet the needs of mass education, and entering universities is no longer a privilege for the few. And universities today are more concerned with providing jobs for their graduates in a way that universities in our time never had to be bothered about. Therefore, the emphasis of university programmes today is now on the practical and the utilitarian, rather than on a general education or on personal development.
W: Do you think that is a welcome development?
M: Well, I personally regret this development. But the basic bachelor’s education now has to cater to people who really need a piece of paper to find a decent job.
W: So you’re concerned about this development.
M: Yes, I’m very concerned. With technical changes, many of the things that you learn are technical skills, which don’t require you to become very well educated. Yet, if you can master those skills, you can get very good jobs. So the technical institutions are going to be increasingly popular at the expense of traditional universities.
1. According to the interview, what do we know about Professor Wang?
2. What was education like in Professor Wang’s days?
3. According to Professor Wang, what is the greatest difference of university education between now and past?
4. According to Professor Wang, what is the purpose of the present-day education?
5. In Professor Wang’s opinion, what are technical skills?