The taboo against making students pay fees at state universities is being broken

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 446.

Pay up, young 'uns

Read the article and say if your guesses were right.

Pre-reading questions

Article 2

Translate the following phrases from the article into Russian.

1) the competition is abnormally tough 2) to fall into line with sb/sth 3) to do away with sb/sth 4) retired civil servants 5) student bulge 6) to be strain­ing to keep up with rising demand 7) university enrol­ment 8) to point to a growing "quality gap" with the United States 9) to deregulate universities removing the cap on fee in­creases 10) living expenses 11) to hope for a windfall crop of stu­dents with better than normal grades

What do you know about higher education in Germany?

Do you think the situation there is different from the situation in Great Britain?

For three decades, all state higher education in Germany has been free. Just before last year's general election, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder decided to enshrine this in law, at least for first degree­s. But now, with an ever-tighter squeeze on public spending, a growing number of university heads and goverments of Germany's 16 states are arguing for student fees, to ease uni­versities' crowded lecture halls, update their ill-equipped libraries and improve their declining research performance.

Although Germany's universities are free, less than a third of school-leavers go on to them, compared with an aver­age of nearly half in other rich countries. And nearly a third of those who do go drop out before completing their course - double the British rate; under a fifth actually get a degree. The Diplom, as a first degree is called, is of a higher standa­rd than the American or British equivalent. But Germans take, on average, six-and-a half years to get it. Many take far longer, all at the taxpayers' expense.

As a spur to dawdlers, the Christian Democratic state of Baden-Wurttemberg decided four years ago to introduce fees of ?500 for every half-year of study after six-and-a-half years. The scheme has halved the number of long-term students, while putting extra cash into university coffers. Three other states run by Christian Democrats - the Saarl­and, Hamburg, and Thuringia-plan to follow suit.

Some Social Democrats are also be­ginning to broach what has long been considered a taboo subject among their faithful. Wolfgang Clement, the governnent's superminister for economics and employment, was himself not so long ago keen on the idea. In the general-elec­tion campaign last summer, he said that long-term students in North Rhine-West­phalia, Germany's most populous state, of which he was then premier, would have to start paying fees. Thousands promptly took to the streets in protest. Fearful of losing votes, Mr Schroder hast­ily called Mr Clement to order. A univer­sity place, he declared, should depend on "what a student has in his head, not what daddy has in his wallet". Federal legislation banning fees for first degrees was hastily rushed through.

The idea of fees for long-term stu­dents was not, in fact, squashed flat, as the ban covers only the four or five years deemed normal for a first degree. Baden­Wurttemberg and five other Christian Democratic states have nevertheless de­cided to challenge the ban before the Constitutional Court, arguing that the federal government has no right to inter­vene in education, which is meant to be a strictly state responsibility.

Their challenge could well succeed. Fees could then soon become common, especially if Mr Schroder fulfils another election pledge, to raise the proportion of school-leavers going to university from 30% to the OECD's average of 45%. Many universities feeling the pinch (in Berlin, for instance) would be pleased.

Article 3

Read articles 3 and 4 and say:

1) what can account for the growing number of Chinese students in British universities;

2) what the advantages and disadvantages of this situation are;

3) what difficulties Chinese students face in Great Britain;

4) what differences can be found between teaching and studying in China, Japan, and Great Britain;

5) if there is any difference between Chinese students studying in Great Britain and in Japan;

6) if you see any common problems with higher education in Japan and in Russia.