Unit 2.

Lesson 1. Contemporary Universities.

I. Starting up

Look at the diagram in fig. 6. Study carefully the presented overview of UK Higher education. Compare the system with the system of Higher education in Russia. What differences and similarities can you state?

Figure 6. UK Higher Education.(the source: http://employment.alberta.ca/Immigration/12807.html )

Read the text and find out how modern universities have transformed higher education in the 21^st century.

Several years of significant funding challenges followed the FE and HE Acts and the unit of resource in higher education declined. However, modern universities brought a new dynamism to higher education to the benefit of students, staff and society.

Twenty years on, what has been achieved? All the evidence confirms that modern universities have proved beyond doubt they can compete on equal terms in terms of academic quality and excellence; they have driven student-centred teaching and innovative curriculum design. They continue to offer traditional courses such as history, philosophy, economics and the sciences. But these universities also developed new subject offers and multidisciplinary courses to respond to emerging markets and technologies. This is one reason why the UK is now a world leader in design and the creative industries.

Modern universities promoted more flexible approaches to modes of study, pre-entry qualifications and age restrictions. In 2012, these universities still recruit many more people who want to study part-time or start degree courses when they are older.

In research and knowledge transfer, modern universities have also changed the landscape. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise – like every RAE since 1992 – confirmed that modern universities supported world-leading research including in niche areas not found in more traditional universities. In spite of campaigns to try and ensure that research funding is concentrated, the closed shop has been breached by modern universities, notwithstanding unduly modest amounts of research funding.

Modern universities have also been highly successful in bidding for European research funding and have led the agenda in developing transnational partnerships and collaborations throughout the world. Promoting and maintaining the UK brand for reputation and quality in higher education, they are now global universities and net contributors to UK exports and to regional economies.

Of course, there are some who still want to claim that only a small number of universities are worth attending. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, others opine that too many people in the UK are studying for a degree. Time and again these pessimists are proved wrong by students who actively choose to study for an undergraduate or postgraduate degree at a modern university, and who graduate with knowledge and entrepreneurial and employability attributes required to meet the challenges of the world of work. Last year alone, almost 250,000 students in the UK graduated from a modern university. (the source: adapted from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/mar/07/modern-universities-transformed-higher-education )

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Queen Victoria	\|	II. Reading

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