首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
How Europe fails its young Those Europeans who are tempted, in the light of the dismal scenes in New Orleans this fortnight,
How Europe fails its young Those Europeans who are tempted, in the light of the dismal scenes in New Orleans this fortnight,
admin
2010-01-10
79
问题
How Europe fails its young
Those Europeans who are tempted, in the light of the dismal scenes in New Orleans this fortnight, to downgrade the American challenge should meditate on one word: universities. Five years ago in Lisbon European officials proclaimed their intention to become the world’s premier "knowledge economy" by 2010. The thinking behind this grand declaration made sense of a sort: Europe’s only chance of preserving its living standards lies in working smarter than its competitors rather than harder or cheaper. But Europe’s failing higher-education system poses a lethal threat to this ambition.
Europe created the modem university. Scholars were gathering in Paris and Bologna before America was on the map. Oxford and Cambridge invented the residential university: the idea of a community of scholars, living together to pursue higher learning. Germany created the research university. A century ago European universities were a magnet for scholars and a model for academic administrators the world over.
But, as our survey of higher education explains, since the second world war Europe has progressively surrendered its lead in higher education to the United States. America boasts 17 of the world’s top 20 universities, according to a widely used global ranking by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. American universities currently employ 70% of the world’s Nobel prize-winners, 30% of the world’s output of articles on science and engineering, and 44% of the most frequently cited articles. No wonder developing countries now look to America rather than Europe for a model for higher education.
Why have European universities declined so precipitously in recent decades? And what can be done to restore them to their former glory? The answer to the first question lies in the role of the state. American universities get their funding from a variety of different sources, not just government but also philanthropists, businesses and, of course, the students themselves. European ones are largely state-funded. The constraints on state funding mean that European governments force universities to "process" more and more students without giving the TM the necessary cash—and respond to the universities’ complaints by trying to micromanage them. Inevitably, quality has eroded. Yet, as the American model shows, people are prepared to pay for good higher education, because they know they will benefit from it: that’s why America spends twice as much of its GDP on higher education as Europe does.
The answer to the second question is to set universities free from the state. Free universities to run their internal affairs: how can French universities, for example, compete for talent with their American rivals when professors are civil servants? And free them to charge fees for their services—including, most importantly, student fees.
Asia’s learning
The standard European retort is that if people have to pay for higher education, it will become the monopoly of the rich. But spending on higher education in Europe is highly regressive (more middle-class students go to university than working-class ones). And higher education is hardly a monopoly of the rich in America: a third of undergraduates come from racial minorities, and about a quarter come from families with incomes below the poverty line. The government certainly has a responsibility to help students to borrow against their future incomes. But student fees offer the best chance of pumping more resources into higher education. They also offer the best chance of combining equity with excellence.
Europe still boasts some of the world’s best universities, and there are some signs that policy makers have realised that their system is failing. Britain, the pacemaker in university reform in Europe, is raising fees. The Germans are trying to create a Teutonic Ivy League. European universities are aggressively wooing foreign students. Pan-European plans are encouraging student mobility and forcing the more eccentric European countries (notably Germany) to reform their degree structures. But the reforms have been too tentative.
America is not the only competition Europe faces in the knowledge economy. Emerging countries have cottoned on to the idea of working smarter as well as harder. Singapore is determined to turn itself into a "knowledge island". India is sprucing up its institutes of technology. In the past decade China has doubled the size of its student population while pouring vast resources into elite universities. Forget about catching up with America; unless Europeans reform their universities, they will soon be left in the dust by Asia as well.
Germans are trying to create a ______.
选项
答案
Teutonic Ivy League
解析
答案在第三段第七句
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/FLt7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Nodirectrelationshiphasbeenprovenbetweenhighcholesterollevelsandheartattacks.Consumersareencouragedtobuylow-f
Nodirectrelationshiphasbeenprovenbetweenhighcholesterollevelsandheartattacks.Itcanbeeasiertochangeourdieta
Manyteachersbelievethattheresponsibilitiesforlearningliewiththestudents.【B1】alongreadingassignmentisgiven,instr
A、Themanregretsbeingabsent-minded.B、Thewomansavedthemansometrouble.C、Themanplacedthereadinglistonadesk.D、Th
WeknowfromthefirstparagraphthatnorthEuropeansspendtheirsparetime______.Accordingtothepassage,whichofthefol
Almostallcompaniestryingtodevelopnewproductsandcreatenewjobshaveto______.Whenthesaverswanttheirmoneybackt
InNovemberacoldunseenstranger,________________(被医生叫做肺炎),walksaboutthecolony,touchingonehereandtherewithhisicy
A、Thefactthatbythe12thcenturypapermakingreachedEurope.B、TheinventionofmoveabletypeinAsia.C、Thearrivalofthem
Accordingtotheauthor,recentOlympicGameshave______.Whatdidthemanagermeanbysaying,"...HockeyandtheInternationa
Iamnotinfavorof______(母亲卖掉老房子).
随机试题
下列叙述中,正确的是()。
一般来说,继电器是由________、________和________三大部分组成。
设随机变量X的概率密度为试求:D(2-3X).
中药炮制学的定义
血管紧张素Ⅱ受体抑制剂是
依照我国《公司法》,有限责任公司的下列行为中,不需要由代表2/3以上表决权的股东通过并作出决议的是( )。
甲对乙享有60万元债权,丙、丁分别与甲签订保证合同,但未约定保证责任的范围和方式。戊以价值30万元的房屋为乙向甲设定抵押并办理了登记。下列关于丙、丁、戊关系的表述中正确的有( )。
甲房地产开发公司(以下简称甲公司)开发建设——普通住宅小区,向社会公开预售。2008年12月1日,李某与甲公司签订了商品房预售合同(李某为首次购房)。房屋竣工后,经房地产测绘机构测算,该房屋套内建筑面积为70m2,阳台面积为6m2,套内墙体建筑面积9m2,
税收保全措施适用于()。
某工厂去年12月份的产量是去年1月份产量的a倍,则该厂去年月产量的平均增长率为(其中a∈Q+)().
最新回复
(
0
)