Modern universities

With the advance of industrialization in the nineteenth cen­tury and the growth of manufacture the government needed tech­nicians and scientists. The older universities did not produce them. Therefore, the government organized science classes in in­dustrial centres and they developed into either technical colleges or the “Modern Universities”, e.g. London, Durham, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, etc.

Every university is autonomous and responsible only to its governing body. The regulations differ from university to university. While there are similarities between them, they all differ considerably from Oxford or Cambridge, where there is a number of separate colleges, each with their own regulations and courses of study. The new, so-called “redbrick” universities which have various faculties, e. g. Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social and Economic Studies, etc., differ from university to university. In each faculty there may be a number of departments dealing with separate subjects.

The University of Stirling is the first new university built in Scotland. There are more eight new universities that appeared in Britain after the war.

The University of Sussex at Brighton is probably the best known modern one. The University of York, in contrast, is conser­vative and adopted many of the traditions of older universities.

Among professional educationalists the new Universities pro­vide an opportunity for a wide experiment in teaching methods, and an outlet for the energies and enthusiasms of young and revolutionary teachers: Sussex, East Anglia, and Essex experi­ment with multi-subject schools of studies instead of the tradi­tional single-subject departments. At Sussex, for example, all students take a preliminary course in philosophy and history as well as their major subject. York, on the other hand, believes that most students will still want single-subject courses, but it intro­duces a completely new way of studying music at the university.

They also experiment with the social side of university life. At Sussex, for instance, tutors follow students at meals and live in a common room with the students. At most of the universities the students are themselves largely responsible for discipline.

The British government does not think to build more new universities. There is a tendency to expand the older ones and make colleges of technology into universities. An old university can take 3,000 more students by adding staff and laboratories whereas a completely new university for 3,000 students costs up to 15 million pounds. Even at Stirling where the Government al­ready owns the site, the buildings alone cost about 8 million pounds, not including halls of residence. There are thir­teen subject departments not to mention the cost of building libraries and buying other equipment. One must mention that many educationalists say that it is better to enlarge the older universities.

We know that the entrance examinations at British universi­ties are very strict. However, at the University of Sussex and some others one can see some relaxation at entrance exams, for the British government needs a large number of capable scien­tists.

UNIT 10

TAPESCRIPT 10A

New Orleans

New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, is the largest city in Louisiana and second most important seaport after New York City. At different times in its history, the area was occupied by the Spanish and the French.

There is still a French-speaking community – the Cajuns. They are descended from French Canadians who went from another French colony called Acadia to Louisiana in the eighteenth century. They became known as Acadians, and the word was shortened to Cajuns.

The music and food of the area is a combination of many influences. Jazz originated in New Orleans as a blend of French and Spanish music, blues, brass-band music, and African slave songs. Cajun music is played on a guitar, accordion, and washboard, and blends French dance tunes, Caribbean music, and the blues.

A typical Louisiana dish, jambalaya, is made of rice and shrimp or chicken, something like a Spanish paella but spicier. Gumbo, a soup or stew, takes its name from a West African word for okra, one of its ingredients.

TAPESCRIPT 10B

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