# Read the text and say which of the Robinsons is in a better position.

**PRIAZOVSKIY STATE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY** **1.** PSTU is a _higher educational establishment_. It was founded in 1930. It _trainsspecialists_ for different branches of economy. It _provides_ full-time and part-time education. (In other words there are students who study at. day and students who _study on correspondence_.) **2.** Most, of the students are _local_ , but there're also _non-local_ ones; they live in hostels/halls of residence/dormitories. **3.** In general _tuition_ is _free /of charge_. But there are also students who study on contracts, i.e. they pay for their education. Most of the students recieve/get grants/stipends. **4.** The _Academic year_ is divided into 2 _terms_. At the end of each term students _take_ their _exams_.  
During a term they _attend_ lectures, seminars, tutorials, _work on_ their _course/term - papers_. There are many laboratories and work-shops at the University. They are _well-equipped_ with _up-to-dateinstallations_ and _instru­ments_ /_devices_. The students are _engaged_ /:_involved_ in research there. **5.** The University is headed by the _Rector._ /= The head of the University is the Rector. The head of a faculty is the _Dean_. Well-known professors and lecturers, experienced teachers are _on the staff_ They _deliver /give_ lectures on different subjects and _hold tutorials_ and _seminars._   
Henry Robinson is twenty-two and is in his final year at Cambridge. Liz Robinson is twenty and is at a **redbrick university** in a northern industrial city. Patricia, who is nineteen, has just started at one of the **new universities**. Patricia's university, like several. of the other new universities, is on the edge of an ancient cathedral city, about two miles from the centre. It is planned on the American "campus" system, that is to say, students live in halls of residence grouped around the main university buildings,‘I like it because we are a real community’ said Patricia. ‘We've got comfortable common rooms and bars. We arrange dances and panties. We've got clubs, theatre groups, choir and so on. And we've got an orchestra, I play the drums in it’. ‘We've got bars and common rooms and clubs too’, said Liz. ‘But I hate to live in the sort of closed community you live in, Pat’. Liz and two other girls rent a house in the middle of the city, about ten minutes' walk from university. The house is falling- to pieces. It is damp, and there is no proper heating. The district is poor and could almost be classed as a slum, ‘I couldn't work in a place like yours’, said Henry. ‘Nor could I’ said Patricia, ‘You re - couple of snobs', said Liz. ‘We live among real people, who treat us as real people, we could try to eat into one of the halls of residence, but we prefer to be independent. It's nice to belong to the city and to do things outside the university.’ ‘What sort of things do you do outside the university?’ ‘Well, there's a group of us who go and help in a home for **handicapped** children. And I sing in the city Back choir. We get on well with the local people - not like Henry and the people in Cambridge!’ ‘Oh, most of us get on very well with the local people’, said Henry. ‘Cambridge isn't a big place.’ ‘So you're sorry you chose Cambridge?’ "No, I'm reading chemistry and Cambridge is one of the best universities for any science subject. Besides, Cambridge, like Oxford, has got a special atmosphere.’ Patricia chose her university because of its progressive ideas on education and its broader and more varied courses. Many of the new universities are experimenting with new subjects. ‘I am doing comparative literature’, she said. ‘At the moment I'm comparing English, French and Russian novels, we write papers on our work, and then about ten of us meet with our professors and read them and discuss them.’ This ‘seminar’ system is common in the new universities, ‘It works, because we get on well with the professors and lectures’, said Patricia. ‘Some of them aren't much older than us and they don't mind at all if we disagree with them.’ ‘You're lucky’, said Liz. ‘We have classes, but we hardly ever ask questions or discuss anything. The **profs** don't seem to be able to do anything but lecture. Besides, the course itself is out of date. It hasn't changed for twenty years.’ Henry, like Liz, is critical of his professors and lectures, some of whom are more interested in their own research than in helping him in his studies. However, he attends lectures given by some of the most brilliant scholars in the country. Henry goes to classes as well as to lectures, but most important person in his academic life is his tutor. Henry enjoys his weekly tutorials. Both Henry and Patricia think that friendly relations with the teaching staff are especially good at British universities. **the redbrick universities** \- these include all the provincial universities of the period 1850-1930, as well as London university **the new universities** \- these are all the universities founded since the Second World war **handicapped** \- mentally retarded **choir** [kwai ] **profs** (coll,) = professors  
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