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英語四級聽力美文第88篇:University Life under Strain
The quality of university life is under strain from the relentless expansion of highereducation, leading independent schools in Britain complained.
The warning followed survey of the impressions of campus life gained by former pupils of theschools.
Infrequent contact with tutors, worries over student safety, and even grumbles over the foodwere all seen as symptoms of the pressure on universities.
Head teachers said that standards could well drop if the squeeze on university budgetscontinued.
A survey was carried out because of fears that the level of pastoral care in universities hasdeclined.
A number of students'suicides had raised concerns among head teachers.
Although most of the 6,000 students surveyed were enjoying university life, almost a third wereless satisfied with their course.
About one in ten had serious financial problems and some gave alarming accounts of conditionsaround their halls of residence.
Incidents quoted included a fatal stabbing and shooting outside a hall of residence, the petrol-bombing of cars near another residence, and two racist attacks.
Nine percent of women and seven percent of men rated security as unsatisfactory in the areawhere they lived.
The survey confirmed head teachers'fears about contact between students and tutorsslipping, with a quarter of the students seeing their tutor only every three weeks.
New students, used to regular contact with their teachers, found it hard to adapt to thechange.
Interview techniques were a cause for concern, with the school calling for more training of theuniversity staff involved in admissions.
Some headmasters complained that interview were increasingly “eccentric”.
One greeted an applicant by throwing him an apple.
Another interview lasted only three minutes.
About a quarter of the students found the workload at university heavier than they hadexpected.
There were differences between subjects, with architecture, engineering, veterinary science, medicine and some science subjects demanding the most work.
The survey also confirmed previous concerns about possible racial bias in admissions tomedical courses.
Applicants with names suggesting an ethnic minority background had been rejected by whitecandidates with the same qualifications.
