II. Write down new words into your vocabulary.

III. Make up a plan of the text in the form of questions.

IV. Discuss the content of the text in the form of a dialogue.

TEXT 21

I. Read the text and determine the subtitles of it.

Work or Studies

Accord­ing to research the most cash-strapped university students are jeopardising their chances of exam success by combining their studies with long hours in low paid jobs.

Half of those surveyed said they com­bined paid work with their studies dur­ing term-time and half focused solely on their academic work. Students who worked admitted they spent less time on academic work because of the demands of regular term-time jobs – typically in bars, pubs, cafes and shops – and often skipped lectures and handed work in late. For those working 15 hours a week the odds of obtaining a first class degree were cut by more than a third.

The results of the three-year study confirm the phenomenon of students who are forced into regular employment to pay for basics such as food and rent. It also shows that students from the poorest homes and ethnic minority backgrounds most likely to be working long hours to help pay bills.

The study, by researchers at London South Bank University and the Open University, is the first to confirm that students forced to work as a result of financial hardship suffer in terms of aca­demic performance.

The research project was commis­sioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Umbrella group Universities (UK). Around 1,500 undergraduates attending seven universities across the UK completed the survey in spring 2011.

Students tended to work in low-paid jobs and reported that their studies suf­fered as a direct result of their work. Many admitted missing lectures, producing poor quality assignments and having difficulty accessing libraries and computer facili­ties.

More than 80% said they spent less time studying because of their term-time jobs and nearly three-quarters spent less time preparing coursework. Many stu­dents believed that term-time working damaged academic performance – wor­ries that were well-founded. The more students worked during term-time, the lower their average end-of-year marks or final degree results.

Three-quarters of students had con­cerns about debts. Of those forced to work, more than a third (37%) spent most of their earnings on basics such as food and rent. Less than two students in every 10 spent most of their earnings on social life and entertainment.

II. Write down new words into your vocabulary.

III. Ask questions to the content of the text and give short answers.

IV. Make up a brief summary of the text.

V. Match each English word in the left column with its Ukrainian equivalent in the right column:

1. debt a) заробіток

2. research b) студент

3. term-time c) якість

4. to obtain d) борг

5. earnings e) розвага

6. undergraduate f) отримувати

7. hardship g) семестр (у коледжі, університеті)

8. quality h) труднощі; нужда

9. entertainment i) відвідувати

10. to attend j) дослідження

TEXT 22

I. Read the text and define the main idea of it.

Shaping Campus Facilities

An institution's ability to respond to new trends directly affects its ability to compete in the academic arena and fulfill its mission. As a result, institutions are developing long-term strategic plans for resources including capital, people, tech­nology, information and, of particular importance, facilities.

Colleges and universities, like the pri­vate business sector, commonly have viewed their facilities as a necessary evil that is non-returning. However, funds deployed in institutional facilities, in fact, must be expected to produce a return by advancing the institution's mis­sion and competitive advantage.

But how can an institution make this happen? Institutions can produce a return from their facilities by strategically control­ling those costs that do not directly support their mission and productivity. At the same time, they must gain additional advantages from those costs that do. In other words, if an institution's real estate is directly adding value to its mission – advancing learning through technology and cabling infra­structure, meeting the new needs of users, creating innovative real-world learning environments – then that same real estate is systematically providing a return.

Given the trends facing higher educa­tion today, how can institutions design their facilities as strategic resources? Each member of a project team – including the client, architect and other designers, and engineers – must strive to fully understand the trends and their long-term implica­tions. This understanding helps team mem­bers consider design guidelines and meas­ure the effectiveness of potential solutions as they plan for change.