Background introduction: education and globalization

In today’s open and communicative world, every year a lot of students choose to go abroad to continue their study. According to the official statistics, the number of Chinese international students all over the world has reached 460, 000; most of them are in the United States and Britain. China now has become one of the major sources of the international students in America. A recent new phenomenon in this trend is an alarming increase in a “younger” group—high school graduates. Similarly, students in other countries choose to go overseas to study. However, there is a noticeable difference in their choices. Chinese parents would like to send their children to developed countries despite the huge economic pressure, while the western parents are more free and open-minded. They would make a decision according to their children’s opinion and the family finance. They don’t mind if their children choose a country less developed than their own. One thing we should not ignore is that when they go to another country, the cultural immersion is a precious opportunity for their learning, both academic and experiential.

Para. 1

1.institutions of higher learning 高等学府，高等院校

2.international students 留学生

3.postsecondary: postsecondary education is one of the stages in the educational system, which can be generally divided into three phases: primary education—secondary education—postsecondary or tertiary education.

For primary education, we have primary schools (British English, BrE. for short)or elementary schools (American English, AmE. for short).

For secondary education, the British have secondary schools, while the Americans have high schools. Whether it is a secondary school or high school, it includes both junior grades and senior grades. 单说“初中”是junior high school或middle school,不用junior middle school;单说“高中”用senior high school, 不用senior middle school.

For postsecondary or tertiary education, institutions of higher learning are the most important part. Various colleges, junior colleges and universities provide a lot of choices for the high school graduates. Vocational schools or training schools are another outlet for them.

4.foreign: the word suggests a feeling of strangeness, alienation or inferiority between people. Sometimes it sounds unfriendly and impolite. That’s why some people don’t like to use this word.

Now answer the following questions in your own words.

 

Q1: What are international students?

International students are students who go to another country to attend college or university. It is a better term than “foreign students”, which does convey the meaning but sounds unpleasant.

 

Q2: What are institutions of higher learning?

For institutions of higher learning, they are where students go after their graduation from the senior high school and pass the college entrance examinations. They are quite general and inclusive in that what we usually say “university” and “college” come under this umbrella.

 

Para. 2

Q: Where do most international students go to school?

By far, the country with the most students from abroad is the United States. Canada, Great Britain, and some European countries also have a lot of students from other countries. But more and more, students from around the world attend colleges and universities in the developing nations of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Developing nations don’t yet have a high level of industrialization or technology.

1.industrialization: 工业化

2.developed and developing countries Countries are so called in this way to show their economic strength. We make this division based on GDP and people’s average income 待补充

 

Para. 3

Q: Why do students want to attend colleges and universities far from home? There are many reasons. Firstly, undergraduates most often want the experience of life in new cultures. Secondly, maybe they want to learn another language well, in school and in real life. Thirdly, many older students want degrees in business, engineering or technology. These subjects are not always available in their home countries. Fourth, some governments and companies send their best graduate students and workers to other countries for new knowledge and skills. And lastly, some students from expensive private schools at home save money through study abroad, especially in developing nations.

1.Undergraduate: 本科生

In college, students are called according to different phases of study and the degree they are going to get. After undergraduate study, if a student continues to further his or her study, then he or she becomes a postgraduate. After that, if they still choose to continue study, they will become a doctor. If the study is further after doctoral studies, then they become post-doc.

2.Degrees 学位

Generally speaking, there are three levels of degrees in colleges and universities around the world:

Bachelor’s Degree 学士学位; Master’s Degree 硕士学位; Doctor’s Degree or PhD 博士学位

3.engineering: 工程学

4.subjects: a course or area of study学科，研究领域

5.available: ready for use; at hand; accessible.

6.recreation: refreshment of one's mind or body after work through interesting activities or plays.

 

Para. 4

Q: Why do institutions of higher learning want students from other countries?

Many reasons stand for the institutions to have international students. First, students from other countries and cultures bring internationalism to the classroom or campus, which means different languages, customs, ideas, and opinions from many places around the world. Also, educational institutions need money. International students are not citizens or immigrants, so they pay full tuition and fees to state or government schools. And all students away from home spend money for housing, food, recreation and other things. For these reasons, many schools and groups of schools want students from other countries.

 

1.internationalism: the condition or quality of being international in character国际性

2.charge tuition: to collect the educational fees. When the object being charged is mentioned, the preposition from should be used.

3.Public schools & private schools Generally speaking, a public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. Private universities are typically not operated by governments, although many receive tax breaks, public student loans, and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. This is in contrast to public universities and national universities. Most private universities are non-profit organizations.

4.full tuition and fees: Public universities in a country usually receive subsidies and other forms of economic support from the national government to improve the campus facilities and environment so as to better serve the needs of college students. Basically speaking, the government’s money is for the students of its own, ensuring better education and well qualified college graduates. Native citizens naturally enjoy this privilege. Under the governmental support, they should just pay part of the whole tuition and fees. However, international students who are not legal members of a nation cannot enjoy this “privileged” treatment. Without the governmental support, they have to pay full tuition and fees. In the United States, the situation is even more obvious in state universities. Students from out of the state should pay out-of-state tuition rate, which is usually the double of the in-state tuition rate. That is because each state will contribute money from its state revenue to its colleges and universities to ensure the education of its people. People who are not in the state do not make its due contribution to the state; therefore they are not under the state coverage.

5.Housing is indeed an important part of campus life and can bring some money to schools. Some international students study on full or partial scholarships, which means that they can save a lot of tuition fees. However, the fees for housing and food are not covered. As board students they have to pay for that part, whereas day-students, who do not live on campus but do the commute every day, do not have to.

Para. 5

Q: How is the conclusion made in the last paragraph? It gives a comprehensive summary of the main body in this passage by using some general expressions, such as “for various reasons”, and “for other reasons”. Besides, these two phrases also form a parallel structure, which is easy for readers to identify the two sides mentioned in the previous part.

on campuses 在校内，在校园里