Учебнометодическое пособие по дисциплине Иностранный язык (английский)
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Text 1 University DegreesA university or college awards a degree to a person who has completed a required course of study. The institution presents the degree in the form of a diploma, a document which certifies the award. The basic kinds of degrees are called bachelor, master, and doctor. An honorary degree may be awarded for an outstanding contribution in a certain field. Most students wishing to take a degree course seek entrance to a university. In some countries students can take degree courses as external students, through correspondence and television courses. Most universities require a good pass in the final secondary school examination, and competition is keen for entry into such faculties as medicine and law. If possibly, a student planning to study in a university should seek information two years before completing a secondary school course. This will permit a choice of subjects appropriate for the intended course. First degrees. First degrees are generally called bachelor's degrees. They include the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and the Bachelor of Science (BSc). The BA is given for such subjects as history, literature, line arts, and, in some universities, for science. The BSc is given for science, engineering, and economics. Law students receive the Bachelor of Laws (LIB) in some universities, and the BA in others. Until the late 1950's, students could take only two main types of the course: a general, or pass, course, or a special, or honours, course. Many universities still offer such courses, which last for three years. Students following the general course take three or four related subjects. Those taking the special course generally study one subject. The general courses were designed for students who wished to have general knowledge of a group of related subjects, such as science. The special courses were intended for those who wished to specialize in a specific subject, such as chemistry. Some newer universities have tried to avoid rather narrow training provided by the special courses. They plan their studies so that all students follow the same broad course in the first year, and then study at least one science and one arts subject for another three years. Students do not specialize until the second year at the earliest. They may also study both scientific and non-scientific subjects, because the division into families common in many universities, has been abandoned. In non-English-speaking countries, there is no standard name for the first degree. In France, the first degree is called the licencie es lettres. In Germany, it is called the staatsexamen. In Sweden, it is called the filosofie kandidatexamen (FK). The Italian Laurea takes the place of the first and second degrees in other countries. In Japan, the bachelor's degree is called gakushi. It is awarded after four years of study. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, students receive a diploma after studying for four or five years. The Candidate of Science degree is equivalent to a PhD. Graduation. When the student has passed a final examination, he or she is qualified to receive a degree. But students cannot use the letters BA, BSc, and so on, until they have been formally admitted to the degree. This process is called graduation, and at a university or similar institution it is a dignified ceremony. For many students, the first degree marks the end of their university education. Higher degrees. In most universities, students must complete one or two years of advanced study beyond the first degree to obtain a second or higher degree. Many universities require a thesis, a written report of a special investigation in the student's main subject of study. In most English-speaking universities, second degrees are called master's degrees. Such degrees include the Master of Arts (MA), Master of Arts and Economics (MEcon), and Master of Science (MSc). Doctorates. The doctor's degree is the highest earned degree in many countries. There are two distinct types of doctor's degrees. One is a professional degree required to practise in certain professions, such as medicine. The other is a research degree that indicates the candidate has acquired mastery of a broad field of knowledge and the technique of scholarly research. The research doctorate may require at least two or three additional years of study beyond a master's degree. The candidate may be required to complete examinations and present a written thesis or dissertation. The doctoral thesis represents an original contribution to knowledge, and is a more detailed study of a research problem than that required for master's degree. In many English-speaking universities, the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree is the most important research doctorate and may include specialization in almost any academic subject. In some European countries, students of nonprofessional subjects also take a doctor's degree as the second degree. For example, the German degree of Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) is the equivalent of the MA in English-speaking countries. In Russia and in Belarus, the Doctor of Science (doctor nauk) degree is awarded by a special commission. To receive this degree post-graduate students must research new and important material. In Japan the doctorate degree is called nakushil. Honorary degrees. Many universities have adopted the custom of awarding honorary degrees to persons for achievement in their chosen fields. Chief among these are the Doctor of Letters (DLitt) and the Doctor of Laws (LLD). These degrees are often given to prominent authors, scholars, and leaders in professions, business, government, and industry. THE MASTER OF ARTS (MA.) DEGREE IN ECONOMICS The M.A. in economics prepares students for careers as professional economists in business and government. It is also excellent preparation for continued graduate study in economics. Requirements: strong motivation, aptitude and basic intellectual ability are needed for success in graduate study in economics. Program requirements: all students are required to take courses in advanced economic theory and economics. Students preparing for professional careers choose additional applied courses in industrial organization, international economics, natural and human resources, and urban and public economics. Students preparing for doctoral studies select from these and additional courses in economic theory and mathematics. Students must satisfy all University requirements for the M.A. degree. Courses should be selected with the approval of graduate advisor. Required courses: - microeconomics: microeconomic behaviour of consumers, producers, and resource suppliers; price determination in output and factor markets; general market equilibrium. - aggregate economics: advanced macroeconomics analysis of income; employment; prices; interest rates and economic growth rates. - econometrics I. - econometrics II. THE MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEGREE (M.B.A.) The Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) is a professional degree designed to prepare graduates for managerial roles in business and non-profit organizations. Graduates will develop the necessary skills and problem-solving techniques that will permit them to make an early contribution to management and eventually to move into broad, general management responsibilities at the executive level. Text 2 Major Developments in Higher Education Today The new century has brought changes practically in all spheres of global communication and global economy. This directly made an impact in education sector leading to several structural changes in the form, organisation and delivery of educational services. • Expansion:The share of highly-qualified persons is increasing. This is a world-wide trend not limited to economically advanced societies. Changing employment structures, increasing expectations of educational participation and the academization of a growing number of professions, promote the expansion of higher education. • Differentiation:Apart from providing scientific training in a given subject, study programmes must meet differentiated social requirements and convey technical skills which higher education has not offered so far. • Greater flexibility:The disappearance of traditional professional patterns and growing individualisation call for a multiplication of study options. Individual combinations of studies should be allowed; students should acquire self-organisation and self-upgrading skills. In terms of contents, the emphasis lies increasingly on the transmission and acquisition of key competencies, or multi-functional skills. These skills comprise competencies to be acquired in addition to subject-matter know-how and are to enable students to cope with the requirements of different work settings and cultures, as well as with work-related crises. • Employabilityis to ensure a stronger link between higher education and practice, since higher education which is purely based on technical contents is no longer considered adequate to meet the needs of professional practice. • Internationalisation strategies are designed to promote international mobility and convey intercultural skills. • Lifelong learningstands for further qualifications which employed persons acquire independently and for which universities offer demand-driven qualification programmes, a process which increasingly blurs the borders to traditional subject studies. The notion of lifelong learning is to enable and widen participation in higher education regardless of age, status or gender. • Acting with a view to quality and competitiveness: Trends which are making themselves felt already today will be prolonged in a quest for quality and competitiveness. New methods of teaching/learning The use of media (transparencies, posters, flipcharts) to visualise interrelations, and beamers including related software applications, electronic media for large-scale projections and videoconferencing. • Exemplary learning by experience, i.e. forms of knowledge transmission which consist in effective guidance towards a self-reliant acquisition of knowledge and a rational and critical handling of information using simulation and exercise studies in lectures, project work and project-oriented learning (POL) to replace structured ex-cathedra lecturing. • Study programmes which integrate different places of learning, e.g. dual study programmes which combine company-based training with university studies, or integrated study programmes for students with a professional background which combine three places of learning: the university, professional practice, and self-studies in a private setting. • Mobile learning(“ubiquitous” learning), i.e. exploiting mobile technologies which enable learning at any place, such as CD ROM-enabled learning, and Web-based teaching and learning. • Problem-oriented learning(POL), which employs teaching and learning methods for working on issues in small-size groups, is currently used in blended learning arrangements. POL wants to lead students to study specific issues independently in selected steps that are characteristic of a profession. Typical of POL, an exemplary learning process with a specific link to practice that is geared to interaction and self-reliance is triggered in small groups, and prompts different forms of student cooperation. By exemplary learning from experience, students are empowered to cope with tasks during their studies in a problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approach. Text 3 Qualification Raising and Staff Retraining Education of adults. Deviation from the command-and-control system of management required to review the role and place of the postgraduate staff education system, bringing it in compliance with the social and economic situation in order to adapt the existing postgraduate education system, considering prospects of the national economy development, to market requirements and thus ensure its effective functioning. Proceeding from the actual conditions of the Republic of Belarus, a decision was made to create, within the educational system, such educational institutions according to the levels of education where efforts will be concentrated on scientific support of this trend and on improvement of qualification and retraining of educational officials and specialists. For this purpose the Republican Institute of Vocational Education, the Republican Institute of Innovation Technologies were established within the Belarusian State Polytechnic Academy. There are 130 after graduation educational institutions where about 450,000 persons are retrained annually. Approximately 40,000 students are educated annually in 120 professional areas at 23 qualification and retraining educational institutions within the system of the Ministry of Education. The head organization in the qualification raising system is the Postgraduate Education Academy. It is charged with the functions of organising, scientific supervision, co-ordination and methodical supply of target training of scientific-pedagogical and scientific staff for regional institutes for qualification raising and retraining of education personnel. In the Academy, they established the data bank for advanced innovation methods and pedagogical experience on which basis the assistance is rendered to region and other institutes of qualification raising, to all teachers and pedagogues. The Academy computer network is connected to the International Internet Network. The state policy in the field of postgraduate education is based on the principles of complete satisfaction of educational institutions needs in highly qualified staff, drawing up efficient strategy of development of functioning mechanisms of the qualification improvement and retraining system, ensuring economic, legal, organizational and other warranties in this field. In compliance with the Law of Education in the Republic of Belarus, people have the right to obtain education independently, for this purpose people's universities, schools, including evening and correspondence departments of secondary special and higher educational institutions, the external system, various programs of retraining, qualification improvement for adults, etc. have been created. Adult self-education is also carried out with the aid of libraries and other information centers and public associations. Most scientific pedagogical investigations are performed in the National Institute of Education, the Republican Institute of Vocational Education, the Republican Institute of Higher School at the Belarusian State University, the Academy of Postgraduate Education and higher pedagogical educational institutions. Text 4 The History of University Education in Belarus The universities of Europe appeared during the Middle Ages in connection with the growth of cities, in Italy, Spain, France and England first universities were founded between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. As for Russia's oldest universities, Moscow University was founded in 1755. Education and science have a very old tradition in Belarus. In the past Belarus formed a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The oldest university in the Soviet Union was the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which dated from the sixteenth century and enrolled about 500 students in the beginning. It was renamed Vilnius University in 1579. During the Middle Ages the University had a preparatory faculty, the faculty of Arts, that prepared students for entering one of the three higher faculties - of Law, Medicine and Theology. Later this preparatory faculty was renamed the Philosophy faculty with Latin as the main language of instruction. Students studied seven liberal arts subjects consisting of the trivium of Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectics, followed by the quadrium of Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music. Students became Bachelors of Arts after finishing their trivium course. On completing tire quadrium, students were awarded a master's degree. At each higher faculty master's degree and doctor's degree were conferred in accordance to the requirements of a faculty. The University was a leader in many areas. In 1645 Vilnius University became the first university to recognize and adopt the Copernican view of the universe. A Ukrainian graduate of the University, Milenty Smotritsky, published the Old Church Slavonic Grammar. Another outstanding academician and professor of History, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Matsey Kazimezh Sarbevsky, was well known all over Europe for his Latin verses. The first works of Francis Skoryna were published by the Vilnius University Printing House, and in 1753 an observatory was commissioned which continues to function today. There were no institutions of higher learning on the territory of Belarus before the October Revolution. Vitebsk Pedagogical Institution and Mogilev Pedagogical Institution were founded in 1918. Vitebsk Architectural Institution functioned from 1918 till 1923. The Narkompros (the People's Committee on Education) passed a resolution in 1919 to open 15 new Soviet universities but the resolution was never implemented into life because it was the period of foreign intervention. The Belarusian Polytechnic Institution was opened in 1920; Vitebsk Veterinary Institution in 1924; and the Medical Institution in 1930. The Belarus State University was opened in 1921. The University consisted of the RABFAK (Pre-University Training subdivision for working youth), the Social Sciences Division (which trained lawyers and economists), the Medicine Division, the Agricultural Division and the Physics and Mathematics Division. The Division of Social Sciences opened its doors for the first time to 237 students. Later this division changed its name several times. Starting from 1925, it was called the Law and Economics Division, it had four brandies in it, namely: Industry & Administration, Planning & Statistics, Finance and Cooperative Societies. For the first time in many years, the republic got 85 graduates from this university to work in all spheres of industry, finance and credit. The Belarus State Economic University deserves the name "grandfather of the country's economists". The state's growing need for educated specialists was reflected in the Communist Party Central Committee Plenum resolution 'on national economic leadership' in 1929. The resolution stressed the importance of training of economists. In 1930, the Department of National Economy was formed which comprised five subdivisions, namely. Industrial Economics, Agricultural Economics, Planning, Statistics, and Cooperative Societies. The Department's student body accounted initially for about 300 students but the number rose to over 700 students by 1931. The Soviet of Peoples' Commissars of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic passed resolution #215 on July 7, 1931. It ordered to transform the Social Sciences Department into three independent institutions - the Economic Planning Institution, the Financial Planning Institution, the Institution of Consumers' Co-operatives. These three Institutions are the forerunners of our university. In the two years of their functioning, they trained 335 graduates, but there was still a lack of experienced economists in Belarus, it was partly because of the fact that the graduates were distributed across the entire Soviet Union, from Brest to Kamchatka and the Far East. On May 20, 1933, the Soviet of Peoples' Commissars of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic passed resolution #721 to form a new university which had to join these three Institutions. This date is the birthday of our university. Located in Minsk, this university was originally called the Belarusian State National Economy Institution. At the request of the University's faculty members, the government issued a decree to name the University after the distinguished economist V.V. Kujbyshev. The University carried this name from 1935 till 1992. With constantly succeeding reforms, the learning methods improved and the student body number increased. Better facilities and equipment also worked for success. Each year several graduates from the University took assignments to work for GosPlan BSSR (the Ministry of State Planning for BSSR). In fact, the University's graduates were distributed across all the country. During the Great Patriotic War the invading Fascist Army caused severe damage to the University. Many pre-war graduates did not survive the war; classroom buildings, laboratories, offices and equipment were destroyed and the library partly burnt. After World War II the University was restored. The SNK BSSR passed a resolution on the University reopening on October 28, 1944. Regular classes started in the premises of Secondary School #12 in March, 1945. When the University restarted its activity, only 12 faculty members gave classes for 54 students. The following year, however, there were already 38 staff members and 252 students. The library already had the collection of 6,000 books. In 1945, the Republican Council on Science awarded graduation diplomas to the first students of the pre-war alumnus class of 1941. First post-war graduates received their diplomas on March 2, 1946. This group numbered no more than 71 students, 22 of them fought in the battle-fields of the Great Patriotic War. From 1946 till 1950, 455 students graduated from the University. The main University's building (7 Sverdlov st.), started functioning on January 3, 1950. Those days one section of this building served as a dormitory for girl-students, for there was a constantly growing number of students those days. Today the University's premises complex comprises 8 students' dormitory buildings. We remember with respect the faculty members, veterans of the Second World War, who fruitfully worked for the University for many years. Among those outstanding professors are Belokhvostikov, Dudich, Frolov, Zubchenok, Lasovsky, Kulikov, Levanovich, Kuchinsky, Petukhov, Skuratovich, Tsygankov, Protaschik, Galchenja, Satsunkevich and others. Over 100 war veterans worked as teachers and employees for the University. Among them are Visjulin, Borovik, Gapanovich, Gnevko, Zakharov, Zavidova, Zarubin, Zjatikov, Zavjalov, Komlev, Kruk, Lisitsin, Myskov, Mitukov, Mavrischev, Milovanov, Nekhay, Osmolovsky, Pekun, Piko, Pusikov, Potaenko, Pominov, Surdo, Sapeshko, Svirjakin, Tolkachev, Tsvelodub, Tsygankov, Chentsov, Tschukovich, Bankov and many others. Our graduates are our pride, many of them went on to distinguished careers. An alumnus of the class of 1936, former BSSR Minister of Finance, Prime Minister of the State Planning Board, the deputy-chair of the Board of Ministers of BSSR, F. L. Kokhanov celebrated his 90th birthday on October 9, 2001; another alumnus, M.G. Tkachev (the class of 1939) became a writer, worked as the Secretary-in-chief for the Writers’ Union of BSSR, he was also the director of the 'Mastatskaja Literatura' publishing house. I.V. Protaschik (the class of 1947) fought as a partisan in World War II, made all the way to Berlin. After the war he did research for the Academy of Sciences' Chemistry Institute in the area of topochemical transformations and was honoured with the title of the 'Inventor Emeritus of the USSR' in 1980. His discoveries in lubricant materials saved the country a great deal of money. Among the graduates of 1949 is A. E. Gurinovitch, he was the Foreign Affaires Minister from 1966 till 1990. F.V. Borovik (the class of 1950) was the Rector of the University from 1969 till 1991. N.A. Sukhy (the class of 1953) was awarded the title of the 'Labour Hero of the USSR'. V.V. Miloserdov, Ph.D. in Economics, full member of the Soviet Union's Agriculture Academy, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; later he served as the Director of the Science and Technology Experimental Complex for the Agro-Industrial Association of the Soviet Union. E. I, Krivejsha, Ph.D. in Economics, was awarded the title of the 'Honorary Professor of BSEU'. M.S. Kimjavsky (the class of 1957), Ph.D. in Economics, served as the President of the Entrepreneurs and Lessee Union; while I.N. Stashenkov (the class of 1957), Ph.D. in Economics and Honorary professor, served as the BSSR Minister of Trade. |