Language activity

Task 3. Put the verbs in brackets in the right grammar forms (active or passive) and translate the sentences.

1. Students … (become) reliant on alternative sources for funding next decade.

2. Employers … (have to start) playing a bigger funding role in the nearest future.

3. We constantly hear businesses complain about graduates without the right skills sets; its time business … (put) its money where its mouth is.

4. If we … (need) to rely on industry funding for university courses we may lose even more control of our curriculum.

5. Distinctiveness may become not just about what universities … (do) but how they do it.

6. Some institutions may … (force) to concentrate and specialize in order to effectively distinguish themselves and compete.

7. Alternative institutions and open educational spaces … (provide) a different view to traditional centres of learning.

8. Recently the Internet … (create) not only a new form of knowledge, but a radical new form of access to it.

9. Participation shouldn't be a numbers game: one of the most important issues for the future … (be) understanding that widening participation shouldn't be about getting a certain percentage into higher education.

10. Anyone with an Internet connection can … (get) an incredible education essentially for free, from the point of view of accessing lectures and supplementary material.

11. Nowadays global higher education …. (become) more driven by market dynamics rather than academic incentives.

12. If governments … (continue) to move away from an “HE as public good” approach, the sector … (become) to become more marketised and less research focused. Research may become “the luxury of the few”.

13. One of the tasks for universities in the future … (be) to proudly speak out for and in the language of humanness and quite frankly inefficiency.

14. In ten years we … (see) a huge increase in diversity of universities, and probably an ever growing demand for higher education across the world - both for teaching and research.

Task 4. Complete the text with the verbs: download, look up, argue, include, learn, enhance, help.

Education on the Internet

In today’s society, the internet has become a very important learning tool. It is used for day to day activities, such as a place to … (1) research, a method of getting in touch with friends and family, and somewhere to go to find information about almost anything imaginable. The most popular uses of the internet … (2) entertainment and education. Many people … (3) that the internet should be used for educational purposes only. The internet is very useful when it comes to research. There are many search engines that can … (4) a person find a related topic. There are online catalogs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses to help … (5) a person’s learning capabilities. Other ways the internet is useful is that it can be used now as a classroom. Technology has made it possible for a person to … (6) a visual image of a teacher teaching a class online. Many programs now have courses that can be studied over the World Wide Web. These courses are very helpful to students who … (7) easily from outside of the regular classroom atmosphere. It is also possible to go online with other people and actually be able to see them. This can be useful for faculty meetings or other conferences that would benefit the public.

Task 5. Match the phrasal verbs in italics in the sentences to the definitions a) – j) below.

The Principal handed in his resignation. The students turned up late for class. The teacher got her ideas across very well. We worked out the answers very easily. He stayed on at university another year. I got down to work as soon as I arrived. A taxi picked them up and took them to college. She kept up with the other students. We carried out a survey on staff attitudes. He went over the exercise with his students.

arrived collected managed to understand stayed level with performed examined to a person in charge suffered started remained communicated looked

Complete these sentences with the phrasal verbs in the correct form.

1. Haven’t your notes … yet? Perhaps they are in your coat.

2. Are you … after class tonight or going home?

3. Who’s going to … that experiment?

4. It is time I … marking the papers.

5. … your answers carefully.

6. I haven’t … my homework yet. It is still in my bag.

7. I can’t … all the latest technology.

8. Come and … your old coursework from my office.

9. He didn’t really … his meaning … to the students.

10. We are trying to … the best way to meet students’ needs.

Task 6. Ask and answer the questions in pairs.

Student A’s questions

1. What springs into your mind when you hear the word ‘university’?

2. What are the good and bad things about universities?

3. Are all of the universities in your country very good?

4. What would you like to study at university?

5. Is it important to go to university?

6. What would happen if all universities closed down?

7. Are universities the best system of educating people?

8. Is university life more about studying or having fun?

Student B’s questions

1. Do you think everyone should go to university?

2. Should university education be free?

3. Do you think university today is different from one hundred years ago?

4. Do you think there are many places that call themselves a university but aren’t good enough to be universities?

5. How are the universities in your country different from each other?

6. What’s the difference between college, school and university?

7. What university would you really like to study at and why?

8. Will all universities change over to distance learning one day?