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
Barack Obama invited a puzzling group of people into the White House: university presidents. What should one make of these stran
Barack Obama invited a puzzling group of people into the White House: university presidents. What should one make of these stran
admin
2015-08-29
47
问题
Barack Obama invited a puzzling group of people into the White House: university presidents. What should one make of these strange creatures? Are they chief executives or labour leaders? Heads of pre-industrial guilds or champions of one of America’s most successful industries? Defenders of civilisation or merciless rack-renters?
Whatever they might be, they are at the heart of a political firestorm. Anger about the cost of college extends from the preppiest of parents to the grungiest of Occupiers. Mr. Obama is trying to channel the anger, to avoid being sideswiped by it. The White House invitation complained that costs have trebled in the past three decades. Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, has urged universities to address costs with "much greater urgency".
A sense of urgency is justified: ex-students have debts approaching $1 trillion. But calm reflection is needed too. America’s universities suffer from many maladies besides cost. And rising costs are often symptoms of much deeper problems: problems that were irritating during the years of affluence but which are cancerous in an age of austerity.
The first problem is the inability to say "no". For decades American universities have been offering more of everything—more courses for undergraduates, more research students for professors and more rock walls for everybody—on the merry assumption that there would always be more money to pay for it all. The second is Ivy League envy. The vast majority of American universities are obsessed by rising up the academic hierarchy, becoming a bit less like Yokel-U and a bit more like Yale.
Ivy League envy leads to an obsession with research. This can be a problem even in the best universities: students feel short-changed by professors fixated on crawling along the frontiers of knowledge with a magnifying glass. At lower-level universities it causes dysfunction. American professors of literature crank out 70,000 scholarly publications a year, compared with 13,757 in 1959. Most of these simply moulder: Mark Bauerlein of Emory University points out that, of the 16 research papers produced in 2004 by the University of Vermont’s literature department, a fairly representative institution, 11 have since received between zero and two citations. The time wasted writing articles that will never be read cannot be spent teaching. In "Academically Adrift" Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa argue that over a third of America’s students show no improvement in critical thinking or analytical reasoning after four years in college.
Popular anger about universities’ costs is rising just as technology is shaking colleges to their foundations. The Internet is changing the rules. Star academics can lecture to millions online rather than the chosen few in person. Testing and marking can be automated. And for-profit companies such as the University of Phoenix are stripping out costs by concentrating on a handful of popular courses as well as making full use of the Internet. The Sloan Foundation reports that online enrolments grew by 10% in 2010, against 2% for the sector as a whole.
Many universities’ first instinct will be to batten down the hatches and wait for this storm to pass. But the storm is not going to pass. The higher-education industry faces a stark choice: either adapt to a rapidly changing world or face a future of cheeseparing. It is surely better to rethink the career structure of your employees than to see it wither(the proportion of professors at four-year universities who are on track to win tenure fell from 50% in 1997 to 39% ten years later). And it is surely better to reform yourself than to have hostile politicians take you into receivership.
A growing number of universities are beginning to recognise this. They understand that the beginning of wisdom in academia, as in business in general, is choosing what not to do. They are in recovery from their Ivy League envy. They are also striking up relations with private-sector organisations. And a growing number of foundations, such as the Kauffman Foundation, are doing their best to spread the gospel of reform and renewal.
All the following are mentioned in the passage to deal with problems of college EXCEPT
选项
A、active reform.
B、sensible choices.
C、structural adjustments.
D、cost reduction.
答案
D
解析
细节题。第七段第三句指出“The higher-education industry faces a stark choice:either adapt to arapidly changing world or face a future of cheeseparing.”,此处提到“调整适应”和“面对举步维艰的未来”两种选择,之后对于解决问题提出个人建议,以及高校采取的解决办法,这些办法中没有提到减少开支的问题,故[D]为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/cKOO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Contrasttoresearchers’expectations,dysfunctionalfamilyrelationshipsandpoor【M1】______.communicationstylesappearto
Whichisthebestwordtodescribeairtravellers’reactiontoairlinealliances?WhichofthefollowingisNOTaperceivedadv
Studentslivinginthecampushavedifferentviewsonvisitationhoursestablishedforgirls’dormitory,whileyoucanvisitboys
Britainhasthefollowingpapersexcept______.
WhichofthefollowingworksisNOTwrittenbyWilliamShakespeare?
IfAmericahadanationalpoetinthe20thcentury,itiscertainly______.
TheAustralianNationalDayischosentocommemorate
ThelikelycauseoftheincreasedratesofHIV/AIDSisthelackof______.
WhathavetheleadersofEuropeanUnionagreedtodo?
(1)Cheatinginsportisasoldassportitself.TheathletesofancientGreeceusedpotionstofortifythemselvesbeforeacont
随机试题
我们可以用红外线在计算机之间建立连接。()
Intheprocess,themoistureinthiswarmairproducesrain,andwithitthehealisconvertedtoenergyintheformofstrongw
A型不良反应包括
组织固定后用乙醇脱水,下面的描述不正确的是
A.皮质酮B.胰岛素C.血管升压素D.胰高血糖素E.甲状旁腺素促进糖原分解和葡萄糖异生的主要激素是()
《矿山安全法》规定的矿山建设工程的“三同时”,是指矿山建设工程的安全设施必须和主体工程()。
某七氟丙烷气体灭火系统防护区的灭火剂储存容器,在20℃时容器内压力为2.5MPa,50℃是的容器内压力为4.2MPa。对该防护区灭火剂输送管道采用气压强度试验代替水压强度试验时,最小试验压力应为()MPa。
某实行出口免抵退税办法的机械厂(增值税一般纳税人)2016年2月末留抵税额3000元,3月份发生下列业务:(1)购入生产用A材料10吨,取得增值税专用发票上注明价税合计金额351000元,支付不含税运费1863.64元,取得一般纳税人开具的增值税专用发票
假设某商业银行的业务如下:①各项存款2200万元;②各项贷款1400万元;③库存现金10077万元;④向央行办理票据再贴现100万元;⑤开办信托投资业务150万元;⑥发行金融债券300万元;⑦在央行存款200万元;⑧承诺向水电厂贷款80万元。根据上述资料
(2005上网工)HTTPS是一种安全的HTTP协议,它使用______来产保证信息安全。
最新回复
(
0
)