Students Go Overseas中英留学风向标

By Holly Williams & Jenny Hill

英国大学学费的上涨似乎完全没有削弱中国学生争相申请英国大学的势头，诚如文章中说到的：中国父母为了孩子们的教育可以倾其所有；而英国学生呢，既然无法阻止政府削减对教育的补贴，又付不起高额学费，只好远走他乡，另谋出路。看来出国留学已经不只是中国学生热衷的潮流了。虽然个中原因不尽相同，可出国留学在世界范

围内似乎也越来越走俏了。

Sales 1)patter for Britain’s universities, selling themselves in China.

Consultant A: Leeds is a great city for...for nightlife and also it’s got great shopping. I’m sure that you probably like shopping.

Consultant B: You like shopping?

Students: Yeah.

But this is a serious business. Chinese students are already worth

two billion pounds a year to the UK

economy.

Consultant C: It is the biggest opportunity there is right now. Everyone feels it. Everybody in the UK is very very excited about China. China is what everybody wants right now.

And what China wants is a British education. At Beijing’s New Talent Academy, the students have 2)opted to take 3)A-Levels; and nearly all of them have multiple offers from Britain’s top universities.

For British universities, short of cash, wealthy foreign students are the perfect formula. The British government sets strict limits on how many UK students can go to university; but there are no limits at all on international students from outside the EU because they pay full fees.

British students have rioted because their government 4)subsidized fees are going up. But that wouldn’t happen here. They are happy to pay fees of up to ￡27,000 a year.

Teacher (Beijing New Talent Academy): As you know Chinese parents, they have been preparing for their education from a very young age. They can spend all the money they have just on education.

Their British education might not come cheap, but it’s a price they are happy to pay.

销售人员们喋喋不休地介绍着英国的大学，努力向中国学生们推销各自的学校。

咨询人员甲：利兹有很棒的夜生活，并且是个购物天堂。我相信你们应该喜欢购物吧。

咨询人员乙：你们喜欢购物吗？

学生：喜欢。

但这其实是一门正儿八经的生意。中国学生每年在英国经济中有20亿英镑的价值。

咨询人员丙：这是现在最大的机会。每个人都能感觉到。每个在英国的人都对中国感到非常非常兴奋。如今，中国是大家争相竞争的对象。

中国学生要的则是英国的教育。在北京新英才学校，学生们都选择了英国高中课程，而且几乎所有人手上都有好几所英国顶尖大学的录取通知书。

对缺钱的英国大学来说，富有的国外留学生正是一剂良药。英国政府为本国学生上大学设置了严格的门槛，但对于来自非欧盟国家的海外学生却没有任何限制，原因是他们支付全额学费。

英国学生曾发动暴乱抵制因政府减少对教育的补贴而导致的大学学费上涨。但在这里就不会发生这种事，中国学生乐意支付每年高达2万7千英镑的学费。

老师（北京新英才学校）：正如你们所知，中国家长从很早就开始为孩子的教育做准备。他们为了教育可以倾其所有。

这些中国学生为得到英国教育付出的代价也许并不低，但他们乐于接受这个价格。

You’re looking at the birthplace of the European Union, but there’s so much more to this southern corner of The Netherlands. Maastricht is an old city, it’s a tourist city, and now it’s a student city.

People come from all over the world to study in Maastricht. In fact, 43% of the students at the university here are from outside of The Netherlands. Among them is a small but growing number of youngsters from The UK.

Theresa Bullock (student): I was here for maybe four weeks before I met English people.

These students told us why. UK university places are over-subscribed.

Theresa: We had some Dutch songs, we had some German songs and a few English songs.

It’s also cheaper here. Theresa’s tuition fees: ￡1,500 a year.

Theresa: It’s hard enough getting into university in The UK anyway, and then with all the cuts and everything, it’s just made it impossible, almost, for a lot of people to get to where they want to go. So coming here, it’s…it’s nice, and you don’t have that pressure of “can I actually go to university?” It’s “I can go to university.”

Teacher: The King lost all of his remaining power.

We 5)tagged along to the first lecture of the day: the French Revolution. Most courses are taught in English. Entrance requirements are relatively low, but Dani, like all the other students here, must take exams every eight weeks.

你现在看到的是欧盟的诞生地，但是这个荷兰南部一角的意义可不仅限于此。马斯特里赫特是一座古老的城市，也是一座旅游城市，而现在它也是一座学生城。

学子们从世界各地来到马斯特里赫特求学。实际上，这里的大学有43%的学生都不是本国人，其中就包括人数不多，但却在不断增加的英国年轻人。

特蕾莎・布洛克（学生）：我来这儿差不多四个星期之后，就遇到了英国人。

这些学生们给我们解释了原因。英国的大学都人满为患。

特蕾莎：我们学到了一些荷兰语歌曲、德语歌曲，还有几首英文歌曲。

这里的学费也较为低廉。特蕾莎的学费是每年1500英镑。

特蕾莎：不管怎么样，要想进英国大学实在太难了，再加上种种限制，基本就是进不了，对那些有自己目标大学的人更是难上加难。来到这儿也很不错，你不会有“我到底能不能上大学？”的压力，而是会觉得：“我可以上大学。”

老师：国王失去了自己所有的保留权利。

我们跟随大家上了今天的第一堂课：法国大革命。大多数课程是用英语教授的。虽然入学的门槛相对较低，但是跟这里其他的学生一样，丹尼照样每八周就要参加考试。

Dani Older: They have the places to offer at the moment, and I think that 6)willst not to change over the next few years. The attitude to education here in general is just very different. They want to offer everyone the opportunity, which does mean you do tend to get quite a few drop-outs in the 1st year. But, again, this just sort of focuses, then, that the quality towards the 2nd and 3rd year is really high, because the people that are studying really want to be there.

Gerard Mols (Professor, Maastricht University): We are a very international university, and the international classroom is quite an experience for students. It’s an international experience, because they meet students from different countries, with different languages, with different political and religious backgrounds, and they learn to work together.

The students we met here expect to graduate with no debt and a much higher chance of getting a job. The university does expect tuition fees to rise. Still, to study here, they’ll tell you, is to invest in the future.

丹尼・奥尔德：他们现在为我们提供这样的环境，我相信这在未来几年内也不会改变。总体看来，这里对教育的态度很不一样。他们想给每个人提供机会，这意味着可能有个别学生会在第一学年就被退学。但是同样地，这在某种程度上说明，进入第二、三学年的学生质量就比较高。想在这里上学的人也会很上进。

杰拉德・莫尔斯（马斯特里赫特大学教授）：我们是一所非常国际化的大学，国际化的班级对学生们来讲也是一种不同寻常的体验。这是一种国际化的体验，因为他们可以认识来自不同国家的学生，听到不同国家的语言，了解不同的政治宗教背景，他们可以学习一起合作。

我们在这里遇到的学生有望在毕业后不用背负债务，并且更容易找到工作。这所大学的确有可能提高学费。在这里上大学，他们还是会跟你说，是为自己的未来投资。

翻译：小寒

文化

交流站A-Level

A-Level是英国的高中课程，全称为General Certificate of Education Advanced Level。它是英国的普通中等教育证书考试高级水平课程，是英国的全民课程体系，也是英国学生的大学入学考试课程。A-Level课程证书被几乎所有以英语授课的大学作为招收新生的入学标准。由于该课程体系的权威性得到了国际上的广泛认可，迄今为止，全球已有5000多个教育机构开设了英国高中课程，每年有数百万学生参加由这些考试局组织的统一考试。

英国的大多数中学开设的A-Level课程科目相当广泛，有文科、商科、经济、语言、数学、理科、计算、法律、媒体、音乐等。而A-Level课程一般在中国开设数学、进阶数学（或称高等数学）、物理、计算机学、会计学、商业学、经济学等课程供学生选择。

A-Level课程适用于年龄在15―18岁之间，初中毕业以上的在校中学生或具有同等学历的职高生。通常国内A-Level学校招收的是高二毕业的学生，并要求参加相关的入学考试，由于A-Level课程包括教学及试卷习题等都是英文形式出现，所以这要求学生有较高的英文水平。