Life in college is always fascinating to those in it and those who are going to attend it. This chapter is going to show different aspects in college life, not only in China but all over the world.

Passage 1 International Students

[A] All around the world, there are international students at institutions of higher learning. The definition of an international student is “a postsecondary student from another country.” The meaning of postsecondary is “after high school.” Another phrase for international students is “foreign students.” The word foreign means “of a different country or culture.” Even so, some people don’t like the word foreign, so they use the phrase “international students.” For institutions of higher learning, they usually say “university,” “college,” or “school.”

[B] International students leave their home countries and go to school abroad. One meaning of the word abroad is “in a foreign place.” 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.

[C] Why do high school and college graduates go to colleges and universities far from their homes? Undergraduates are postsecondary students without college degrees. Often, undergraduates want the experience of life in new cultures. Maybe they want to learn another language well, in school and in real life. Many older students want degrees in business, engineering or technology. These subjects are not always available in their home countries. Some governments and companies send their best graduate students and workers to other countries for new knowledge and skills. And some students from expensive private schools at home save money through study abroad, especially in developing nations.

[D] Why do institutions of higher learning want international students? Of course, students from other countries and cultures bring internationalism to the classroom or campus. They bring different languages, customs, ideas, and opinions from many places around the world. Usually, they study hard. Also, educational institutions need money. Tuition is the fee or charge for instruction, and private schools everywhere charge high tuition. One definition of citizens and immigrants is “legal members of a nation or country.” 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.

[E] For various reasons, many high school and college graduates want or need to study abroad. For other reasons, many nations want or need students from other countries and cultures on their college and university campuses.

Notes to the Text

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.

5.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.

6.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.

7.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.

8.on campuses 在校内，在校园里

Vocabulary

Nouns

industrialization: 工业化

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

engineering: 工程学

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

campus: the grounds of a school, college or university.

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

Verbs

mean: to have as a purpose or an intention; intend 意欲；打算

attend: to be present at 出席，参加    

    

Adjectives

available: ready for use; at hand; accessible.

legal: permitted by law, the adjective form of the noun law. It is widely and frequently used in phrases such as legal affairs (法律事务), legal adviser (法律顾问), legal holidays (法定假日), legal person (法人), legal rights (法律权利).

various: the adjective of variety. Its meaning is equivalent to the noun phrase a variety of, which can be used interchangeably with the adjective word.

Phrases

by far: 到目前为止

attend colleges: 上大学  

college degrees 大学学历 

real life 现实生活        

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

pay fees:to pay a fixed sum of money charged by an institution or by law.

Culture Note

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.