British universities, groaning under the burden of a huge increase in student numbers, are warning that the tradition of a free

admin2012-07-17  25

问题     British universities, groaning under the burden of a huge increase in student numbers, are warning that the tradition of a free education is at risk. The universities have threatened to impose an admission fee on students to plug a gap in revenue if the government does not act to improve their finances and scrap some public spending cutbacks.
    The government responded to the universities’ threat by setting up the most fundamental review of higher education for a generation, under a non-party troubleshooter (调停人),Sir Ron Dearing.
    One in three school-leavers enters higher education, five times the number when the last review took place thirty years ago.
    Everyone agrees a system that is feeling the strain after rapid expansion needs a lot more money—but there is little hope of getting it from the taxpayer and not much scope for attracting more finance from business.
    Most colleges believe students should contribute to tuition costs, something that is common elsewhere in the world but would mark a revolutionary change in Britain. Universities want the government to introduce a loan scheme for tuition fees and have suspended their own threatened action for now. They await Dearing’s advice, hoping it will not be too late—some are already reported to be in financial difficulty.
    As the century nears its end, the whole concept of what a university should be is under the microscope. Experts ponder how much they can use computers instead of classrooms, talk of the need for lifelong learning and refer to students as "consumers".
    The Confederation (联盟) of British Industry, the key employers’ organization, wants even more expansion in higher education to help fight competition on world markets from booming Asian economies. But the government has doubts about more expansioa The Times newspaper agrees, complaining that quality has suffered as student numbers soared, with close tutorial supervision giving way to "mass production methods more typical of European universities".
The chief concern of British universities is______.

选项 A、how to tackle their present financial difficulty
B、how to improve their educational technology
C、how to expand the enrollment to meet the needs of enterprises
D、how to put an end to the current tendency of quality deterioration

答案A

解析 本题问英国大学主要关注的是什么。从第一段中,我们可以了解到英国大学警告说传统的免费教育将不复存在,因为学生人数的迅速增加,已使大学不堪重负。大学当局还威胁说要对学生入学收费以弥补收入的不足。所以,本题的正确答案应是A“如何解决目前的经费困难”。而B“如何改进教育技术”,C“如何扩大招生以满足企业的需求”,D“如何结束目前教育质量下滑的趋势”,这三个选项都不是本题的正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/XLXO777K
0

最新回复(0)