Education after 16 is voluntary in the United Kingdom. Students, who live in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland must take at the age of 16 the examinations for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). In Scotland students receive the Scottish Certificate of Education. After this exam students can choose to stay on in school or attend colleges of further education.
British universities are self-governing and are guaranteed academic independence. Funding for education and research is provided by funding councils set up by Parliament. The number of universities jumped in 1992 when polytechnics and some other higher education establishments were given the rights to become universities. By the end of 1994, there were some 90 universities, almost half of them former polytechnics, including the Open University.
Many of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge universities were founded in the 12th and 13th centuries. All other universities in Britain were founded in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Open University, based in Milton Keynes, England, was founded in 1969. It uses extension techniques of correspondence courses, television and radio programmes, and video cassettes, supported by local study centres and summer schools, to provide higher education opportunities to a wide variety of people.
During the 1960s there was a significant increase in the number of new universities, reflecting a fast growth in student numbers. During the 1980s, an expansion in higher education places led to another large jump in student numbers. In the 1992-1993 academic year there were more than 1.4 million students in full or part time higher education in Great Britain, compared with just under 850,000 a decade earlier. About one quarter of young people are in higher education in England, Wales, and Scotland; one third in the Northern Ireland. About 90 per cent of students get state grants to cover tuition fees and living costs.
The size of the grant is determined by parents income. Since the late 1980s, however, grants have been frozen; students can apply for a student loan.
Answer the questions.
1. When did you graduate from the school?
2. Did you like your school? Why? Why not?
3. What subjects did you like? Why?
4. Do you know when your school was founded?
5. Do you know anything about the Academy? What do you know about it?
3. Look at the Vocabulary:
to turn out
a science
a Reader
a Higher Educational Institution -
Soviet of Peoples Commissars
at present
a contingent
a graduate
to transfer
an economic dislocation
means
to reorganize
the Committee on Higher School
the Faculty of Agricultural Mechanization
Ecological and Land-Improvement faculty
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the faculty of Technology of Production and Processing Agricultural Products \
full-time student
correspondence- course student
specialized secondary educational institution -
to train
an education - methodological centre
an accelerated training program
to carry out
a department
deserved
a post-graduate
a competitor
a post graduate course
a hostel
a residential house
a canteen
a fleet of motor vehicles
a center of amateur art activities
a centre of pedagogical skills
a printing-work
peoples economy
a capability ,
mental outlooks
to expand
Fill in the missing words:
Conditions, deserved, hostel, Higher Educational Institutions, science, Readers, accelerated training program, postgraduate courses.
a. There are a lot of Professors, Candidates and Doctors of and .
b. They are trained according to the .
c. Many postgraduates are studying at the .
d. He is a worker.
e. I live in a students .
f. There are a lot of in Volgograd.
g. They live in very good .
4. Read the text: My Academy and put the sentences in the correct order to make the plan of the text:
1. The faculties at the Academy.
2. The traditions of the Academy.
3. The opening of the Academy.
4. The Pedagogical Staff.
5. The students at the Academy.
6. The History of the Academy.
7. VSAA nowadays.
MY ACADEMY
Within the years of its existence the academy has turned out over 42 thousands of qualified specialists has trained hundreds of Candidates and Doctors of science, Readers and Professors. Our Higher Educational Institution is the biggest Agricultural Academy of the country at present.
In July, 1944, Soviet of People's Commissars took a decision to pen the Stalingrad Agricultural Institute in the town of Urupinsk. The contingent of students admitted to the first course was 400 people. The opening of the Institute took place on October, 14th, 1944.
In spring, 1948, the first graduates were turned out, 178 specialists were sent to the farms of the region and the country. The same year the Institute was transferred to Stalingrad. In spite of all the difficulties and economic dislocation, the Government managed to find necessary means for the construction of a new complex of buildings for the Institute in Stalingrad.
In April 1994 the Institute was reorganized into the Volgograd State Agricultural Academy according to the decision of the Committee on Higher Schools of Russia. By that time over 8 thousand students were studying at the 7 faculties and the turnout of specialists was over 33 thousand people.
The faculties in the Academy were:
Agronomical faculty;
Zoo veterinary faculty;
Faculty of Agricultural Mechanization;
Ecological and Land-Improvement faculty;
Faculty of Economics;
Faculty of Agricultural electrification.
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And in July, 2004 the 7th faculty of Technology of Production and Processing of Agricultural Products was opened.
10 thousand students, both full-time and correspondence-course students are studying at 7 faculties on 18 specialities. Besides, an educational-methodological centre is functioning successfully where hundreds of graduates from specialized secondary educational institutions are trained according to the accelerated training program.
The educational process is carried out at 49 Departments by 560 teachers and scientists, including 3 Academicians of Russian Academy of Agricultural science, 6 deserved men of Science RF, 17 deserved workers in various branches of peoples economy, 65 Professors and over 250 Readers.
At present almost 200 post graduates and over 100 competitors are studying at the post graduate courses.
Nowadays the Volgograd State Agricultural Academy includes 6 educational buildings, 6 students hostels, 4 residential houses for Teachers, a canteen, a fleet of motor vehicles, Gornaya Polyana economic base. This is also a scientific research complex, post-graduate courses, information and analytical center, centers of amateur art activities, center of pedagogical skills improvement, lecture rooms, laboratories, museums, a library, printing-works, and other subdivisions.
The Academy is rich in good traditions but the most wonderful one is to create all the necessary conditions for students so that they could develop their capabilities, expand their mental outlooks, improve their cultural level, physical state and political education.
5. Answer the questions:
a. When and where was the opening of the VSAA?
b. When was the Institute reorganized?
c. How many faculties are there at the Academy?
d. When was the 7th faculty opened?
e. How many divisions does the Academy have?
f. What do you know about the pedagogical staff?
g. What does the Academy include nowadays?
h. What do you know about the traditions in the VSAA?
