Read the following dialogue in parts

Q: What do you do after you receive your bachelor’s degree?

A: With a bachelor’s degree you can apply to a graduate school and start working towards a master’s degree. If you have a bachelor’s degree you can also go to a professional school.

Q: What is professional school?

A: Law and medical schools are considered professional schools. If you go to a medical school it’s a four years program, basic program, and then you usually have internship. You usually have to be on intern for a year. But it depends on your speciality. If you’re going into surgery you may have another year. Well, anyway it can be a far longer program than four years. In the end you get a M.D., Doctor of Medicine degree. Medical schools are run by the American Medical Association, A.M.A. and law schools by the American Bar Association, A.B.A. It’s a three year program and you get a J.D., Juris Doctor degree.

Q: And if you go to a graduate school, how many years does it take to get a master’s and a doctorate?

A: I think it depends on the program and every program is different. Usually a master’s is a couple of years and a doctorate is another two or three years. Usually Ph. D. and master’s programs are in the same place and you simply continue. The master’s degree is not very important, it’s a step on the way to get a Ph. D. You simply stay on the same program and continue. But you can change. You can get a master’s degree in one place and then change schools and get a Ph. D. degree in another one.

Q: What do you know about honorary degrees?

A: I don’t know much about that. But I do know that my college gives honorary degrees. For example at the graduation ceremony when I got my bachelor’s degree they awarded some very accomplished elderly man a Doctor of Letters degree. It’s an honorary degree and it means the institution recognizes that person.

Q: What is the most important division at an American university?

A: It’s a department. But you don’t belong to a department. You’re a student and you have a major. Your major is in one department and usually your advisor is also in that department. So the department requires certain courses. In order to major you have to do these certain courses. Perhaps a quarter or a half of your courses are in the direction of your major department.

Q: Could you name the positions which are occupied by the university teachers?

A: O.K. I’ll start with the bottom. A private institution can hire anyone. The lowest rank is instructor. Actually he teaches anything they need. For instance, you can have a native speaker who teaches some conversation courses. You hire that person and he may have no advanced degree whatsoever. I think the assistant professor is the next highest. Usually when you hire an assistant professor that’s someone who is likely to be on a tenure track. That’s a lower rank and it’s assumed you eventually would achieve a higher rank. They do anything, they do whatever the department decides. An assistant professor usually has a master’s degree. Now when there are so few university jobs they are usually people who have almost a Ph.D. or already have a Ph.D., people who are writing their dissertations or are close to a Ph.D. and it’s assumed they will finish their Ph.D. They couldn’t move you up until you get your Ph.D. You really have to have it before you get an associate professor or full professor.

Q: What is a tenure position?

A: Each department has some tenure positions which are lifetime positions. It’s an academic protection. You can’t fire that person. An associate professor who after a number of years has done his Ph.D. is considered for tenure. Say, there are four tenure positions and someone is retired and if you’re considered qualified enough you get tenure. It’s a very long and difficult process because the college or university is committing itself to you, to that person. And if you don’t get tenure, and you’re turned down, you usually quit and go to another university.

Q: It is important not only what position you have but also where you work?

A: That’s right. Each organization, basically, runs its own show. A major university, Berkeley, for example, has its own research organizations connected with the university. If you’re associated with the university you may have an academic title or simply be a part of the research organization at Berkeley, I think in a lot of areas you’re considered important and accomplished if you’re a senior associate at Berkeley research institute. Because Berkeley is very important. Because Berkeley is a big name. Every field has its big names.

 

Discuss the problems in the dialogue

Make a list of the most important points for a person to be qualified as a scientist in an English-speaking country

Reading about the world of science

Read the experts from the newspaper article for information on the

Roles of scientists in American society. Use the information when discussing the

questions that follow:

Research Universities Key to State’s Economic Recovery

By Venky Narayahamuri

America's research university system has long been the envy of the world. The strength and excellence of its infrastructure has contributed enormously to America's economic growth and improved quality of life. Its basic research efforts have advanced our knowledge base which in turn has driven our technological progress over the last half century, and its educational efforts have produced a strong American work force. But the world as we have known it is undergoing major changes. With the end of the Cold War has come a dynamic shift in emphasis from defense to civilian concerns. More and more the United States is competing in an expanding global marketplace. This changing environment is posing many new challenges and expectations for our institutions of higher education, including a great fiscal impact, and it has caused universities to come under heightened public scrutiny…

We must show society that we can produce broad-based graduates who are able to solve today's pressing national needs, among them environmental protection, better health care, alternate means of transportation, industrial productivity, and improved manufacturing processes. Universities can accomplish this goal by developing a holistic approach to education through integrating education and research - the two are inseparable in my mind - by fostering more effective partnerships with industry and government agencies to better respond to strategic research opportunities, and by continuously emphasizing quality and excellence in everything we do.

Here is why America's research universities are its treasured institutions. Research universities attract the best and brightest faculty. Such faculty are highly dedicated individuals who innovate and lead frontier research efforts, who demonstrate excellence in teaching, and who show excellence in community service. Who better to teach our students, engaging them in discovery, development and application processes, and motivating them to aspire to greater achievements…

…Research universities engage in creative multidisciplinary research projects, further increasing the range and number of opportunities undergraduate and graduate students have for supervised research. But it is not only students enrolled at the university who benefit from exposure to first-rate research, working alongside world-class faculty. Research universities also simulate and fire the imaginations of those in the educational pipeline - America's K-12 students and their teachers…

…As the deans of UCSB's College of Engineering, I am listening to government, industry and the public, and I am hearing that they want to see in new graduates - quality, excellence and teamwork ability. Their call to action has not gone us heard. We have undertaken here a major reevaluation of our curriculum and are implementing a new freshman year sequence that integrates oral and written communication, computing skills and engineering concepts. We have initiated a new mechanical engineering design thrust, one that increases hands-on real-world experience by emphasizing synthesis and the fundamentals of design and manufacture. We also have started a new undergraduate research seminar series to further broaden student experience…

… We already are an information society. The need for an increasingly technologically oriented work force for the 21st century, competent in computing, mathematics and information technology, certainly will not diminish. If we abandon the research university, which has provided much of America's knowledge base and education infrastructure, how can we possibly train future generations of workers? How will we solve tomorrow's problems? How will we develop tomorrow's needed technologies? We need research universities that are strong and vital more now than ever before.

 

Discussion

1 What are the points raised in the article?

2 What are the key factors in the relationships among universities, industry, and government in the USA and Russia?

3 What points would you stress if you had to describe to an American student the relationships among universities, industry, and government in Russia?

 

2.1.2 Read the experts from an interview by Boris Saltykov with MN’s correspondent on the problems of Russian fundamental science. Use the information when discussing the questions that follow: