Students from others countries that I met at university often took a long time to get used to the system. The university terms lasted only six months' and you were free to do what you liked in the vacations. Attendance of lec-tures was optional, and the only compulsory assignment was to write an essay once a week and present it to your tutor. The idea was that you were not sup-posed to be there to obtain an academic qualification, but to extend your knowledge of the subject in your own way. It was all there in the libraries and laboratories and lecture halls if you looked for it. A poor American student who had attended all the tutor's lectures once reproduced them almost word for word in his essay, and the tutor said: I know what I think. What do you think? The life of an undergraduate was relaxing and enjoyable, but you had to work things out for yourself.
Note: In British universities, there is normally only one Professor for a given subject; otheruniversity teachers are called lecturers. They are also tutors when they give individ-ual students classes in small numbers.
1. Is this system similar to that of your country? If not what is the difference?
2. Why do you think people go to university? Do you think they go for the right reasons?
3. What did an American tutor expect his students to do? What similarities and differences have you noticed compared with out system of education?
Maria Brown tells us about her educational background. Com-plete each sentence with one of the words or phrases from the box below. Then speak on your own educational background. You may use Marias as a model.
| apply | graduated | grant | higher degree |
| honours degree | job | option | PhD |
| place | primary school | scholarship | secondary school |
| stay on | study | subject | thesis |
1. I started at in London when I was 5.
2. At the age of 11, I went on to , also in London.
3. At 17, I to university.
4. I got a at Manchester to Engineering.
5. In fact I was awarded a .
6. But at the end of the first year I changed to another
7. I from University in 2003.
8. I have a first class in Economics.
9. I decided to at university.
10. So I did a in business administration at the University of California.
11. During the course, I did an on small business development.
12. I found the topic so interesting that I applied for a to do a doctorate on the same subject.
13. Once I had got the money, I had to write a 50,000 word
14. So now I have a BA, an MBA and a
15. All I need now is a
English speaking countries, especially Great Britain and Amer-ica, have much in common in their systems of education. But still there is a great difference due to their different cultural and historic backgrounds. Spot these differences after reading the text Higher education in the USA. How do you account for the diversity of the American system of education?
