Text 7 а заграница лучше

Сегодня общее число студентов, ежегодно уезжающих из своих стран на уебу за границу, составляет около 2 млн. человек, большую часть из которых традиционно поставляют Индия, Южная Корея и Китай. Эта тенденция сохранится и впредь, однако, вследствие экономического роста в Азии, сопровождаемого ростом численности тамошнего среднего класса, уже к 2005 году число «экспортируемых студентов» резко возрастет.

При этом в 90-е годы в мире появились новые подходы к обучению иностранцев. Страны со стареющим населением, например Канада и Германия, стали прибегать к тактике переманивания к себе высококвалифицированных кадров из-за рубежа. Там набирают талантливых студентов на самые перспективные направления образования и вдобавок всячески поощряют их остаться в стране после получения диплома о высшем образовании.

Способствуют изменению мирового рынка образовательных услуг и такие страны, как Китай, Индия и Сингапур. Здесь рассматривают обучение своих студентов за рубежом только как способ обеспечить высококвалифицированными кадрами свои собственные университеты. («АиФ. Семейный совет»)

Text 8 Examinations for sale

Italy - A judge in Camerino sits watching a video that could be hard-core pom, except that the “stars” are an elderly professor and a young student. In Messina, another professor jumps to his death from the balcony of his flat. Pupils arriving at a school in Crema, near Milan, are greeted not by their teachers, but by police officers, who escort them to a classroom for questioning.

These bizarre events all point to a rottenness in Italy’s education sys­tem. A rash of scandals has shown that qualifications, including degrees, are for sale. The two professors were accused of offering higher grades for sex. One chose suicide. The other fought, claiming that it was charm, not high marks, that had seduced his students. On June7th, he was acquitted; but he must pay compensation of €120,000 ($150,000) to his university for damaging its reputation.

The school in Crema was among 34 private secondary schools caught up in an investigation into a vast trade in bogus exam passes. The going rate for a diploma di maturita, Italy’s school-leaving certificate, was said by prosecutors to range from €2,000 to €8,000. Since a diploma is needed to apply to university or get a white-collar public-sector job, that seemed a bargain — the more so since the organization behind it, called Diploma No Problem, offered such good service. Answers were supplied for written and oral exams; attendance records were fixed. Conversations taped by the police suggest that the company even booked flights and hotels for “cli­ents” so they could sit exams in places where the outcome was assured.

One school south of Rome seems to have existed almost solely to pro­duce study-free passes. It had 40 normal pupils, but around 1,000 external ones. The school was owned by a man with a criminal record, identified in court records as one of the bosses of Diploma No Problem. Police reckon the enterprise had an annual turnover of €5m. (The Economist)