Business 2.0
Audio book
Audio for the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLkqKg5lROM CD 1
Education policies
Classwork for today (From the Harvard article, page 11 "What Price a Degree"? : [I incorrectly stated page 7]
Reading for detail Read the article again and choose the best answer to each question.
1 Which education policies have caused unrest across the world?
a) wider access b) lower subsidies c) wider access and lower subsidies
2 How much does the UK government contribute towards the cost of a degree?
a) around £100,000 b) between £50,000 and £100,000 c) less than £50,000
3 How do scholarships appear to favour students from wealthy families?
a) they are better prepared b) they have equal opportunities c) they can pay for awards
4 What evidence suggests that the social benefits of education do not justify their cost? a) taxpayers have other resources b) taxpayers have other agendas c) taxpayers have other benefits
5 Why might universities show a preference for foreign students? a) they accept larger classes b) they exclude deserving locals c) they accept higher fees
6 Why don’t private business schools need to increase class sizes or cut faculty pay? a) they can justify higher fees b) they have no subsidies c) they have resisted increase
Supplement for the Harvard article today
Supplement to the Harvard article today: The education system in America » Pre-school to PhD » The grading system in America is from A to F with pluses and minuses
Glossary
Recordings (audio transcripts) starts on page 138 of out book.
Unit 1 Building a career 1.1 About business: The education business Speaker 1: Education for all - what a ludicrous idea! It’s an incredible waste of resources. In countries where anybody can go to university, at least half the students drop out after the first year. If resources are limited, which they obviously are, then we should use them wisely to train the brightest and best - those who can benefit most from a university education.
Speaker 2: I think it’s unrealistic to keep pumping public money into universities. That way, there’s no incentive for them to become more competitive. It makes much more sense to use government funding to provide loans to students, and let universities compete with private schools for their business. They’d soon sort out their finances!
Speaker 3: It’s not right that students should have to mortgage their future. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to education. Universities should remain not-for-profit. It would be disastrous if they were forced to become profit-making businesses.
Speaker 4: This whole debate is a complete waste of time. A university degree just isn’t relevant any more. You spend three or four years learning outdated theories that have nothing to do with modern life, and there isn’t even a guarantee of a good job at the end of it, or a job at all for that matter. You just waste three years when you could be earning money and gaining valuable real- world experience.
The Glossary starts on page 148 Glossary for the education of business. Any question on these words?
