SESSION 7: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
2.1 THE TOP SPOT: Who/what gets the top spot for the following things? Why?
- university
- sport
- sportsman
- company
- person
- musician
- pop group
- English / Languages
- IT
- Medicine
- History
- Event Management
- Accountancy
- Engineering
- Astrophisics
- others.....
a) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘university’?
b) What are the good and bad things about universities?
c) Do you think universities today are better than those in the past?
d) How important is it to go to a university?
e) Do you think it´s important to have a university degree for opportunities in jobs?
f) What do you know about Harvard University and Caltech?
g) What are the universities like in your country?
h) Why do you think so many of the top unis are in the U.S.A.?
i) How might your life improve by getting a degree from a top university?
j) Is it more difficult to be successful in life without graduating from university?
k) Why is funding for research so important for universities? Do universities in Spain also get these funds from private companies?
l) In some countries, a university education is free. Do you think it should be free?
m) Which are better, public or private universities?
n) What would you really love to study at university? What would you really have liked to study at university?
o) Who gives funds to universities and why?
p) Do you think universities will be totally online in the future, with no necessity of buildings?
q) What do you think of Oxford and Cambridge university?
r) What do you think of the University of Granada and Almería?
s) Should all university subjects be practical?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 7, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- Private versus Public Universities, express your opinion.
- Do you believe the best universities are in the USA or the UK only? What about the rest of the world?
Recently, the highest spot universities all over the world have been listed in an English magazine. The result of the news does not have any surprise because the fight universities have to get the highest ranking is always from the USA and the UK. But what reason makes these universities be the most important.
ReplyDeleteThere are several reasons why universities in the USA and in the UK are the best all over the world. Firstly, they fight with each other in order to become the most famous. In this way they call the attention of new possible pupils, so they have granted a good budget to keep the university in the best conditions. Secondly, they attract donors to invest their money there, so that they can develop researches which help students to learn properly and of course these studies will be applied in real projects in the future.
Another important aspect is that universities are completely integrated in society, because citizens know that everything students study at colleges will be useful in the future, so it is a positive thought because it helps these countries to be ones of the most developed of the world.
On the other hand, although there are other countries which have important universities too, they cannot compete with the USA and the UK ones. The reason is very basic, universities are not important enough to call the attention of donors who could invest money. So the first drawback is that teachers do not have the proper ways to develop new researches which might help universities to get fame and prestige. Another downside is that everybody knows how important new tools and instruments are in order to have knowledge about real life. In my opinion, universities should go ahead real life or at least go at the same speed, but not behind. It is also known that we have had a complicated economic crisis recently, but I think this situation should be the best moment to invest money to teach students properly, and maybe we can learn to give education the importance it has actually.
On balance, universities in the USA and UK are so important because they have lots of founding which are even more important than the fees students pay to get education and this money is well used. So that, when we can have this important income in our universities, we will be able to have some opportunities to compete with them.
Miguel Ruano
In the last few decades, the Spanish educational system has improved dramatically. However, universities are still overcrowded in many cities and people who can afford it are forced to pay for private education. As a matter of fact, in Spain there are more than 50 universities and getting an entrance fee is almost impossible owing to the high scores required. Consequently, a wide number of students opt to the Private education (Public in UK) as the only way to get a degree.
ReplyDeleteAttached to that, in Public universities (in UK Private Universities), teachers are paid salaries by Government and must be certified by the state in which they are teaching. In fact, overcrowding is a huge problem, particularly in first year classes. Though, many students drop out after the tough exams set at the end of the first year, it tends to have a negative effect on matriculation data, consequently, the most affected are students because there is no room for them in those universities they have chosen in advance.
By contrast, Private education is responsible for hiring and firing teachers. Hence, the selection of the teachers is like in private companies, looking for people not only highly qualified but also highly motivated, it means, that the certificate is valid for a set number of years and must be renewed. Needless to say, (with no aim to generalize) teachers in private universities are more implicated with students, they participate more in training courses, activities, and so on, but at the same time theirs students have more rigorous requirements. As a result, they take more demanding courses, they are forced to work harder and mostly, and they perform better on achievement tests.
Despite the difficulties, in my view, it is important to consider the individual needs before making major decisions. What I wonder, is it necessary that all teenagers attend to university after finishing high school? Do Spanish Universities create graduates or professional people? and finally, why do students have more theoretical classes and less practical?. It is clear that only those that are determined to graduate, no matter where they are, they normally achieve successfully their purposes.
Based on the traditional definition of university, most of us think of it as an institution of learning of the highest level where our children study in order to become a very well-prepared professional and achieve a high status in our society.
ReplyDeleteWhen the moment comes, parents and students have to choose the best option depending on the rating students got in lower levels and the income their families earn. So, the country which you live in and the educational system that it has, can have a big influence, letting or not poor students access to important universities, what happens, for example, in the USA where most of them are private and just students from rich families can study there. Because of this, there is a kind of vicious circle in which poor people have very difficult to scale positions in terms of wealth and well-being.
Another side of the universities less known or at least less followed by the people is their activity of investigation which has implied big technical advances for our society in many occasions. This side needs economical support usually given by private companies to private universities trying to obtain profits of this investment in the future.
Referring to this ranking, USA universities maybe occupy the first positions because most of the main companies all over the world are located in the USA. Apart from that the institution which makes this research is British what means that prefers British standards which of course you easily find in USA and Great Britain.