Listening: What Happens If University Is Free for Everyone?

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C1 | Listening from video | 15 min

What Happens If University Is Free for Everyone?

Watch the whole video. You can watch more than once. Then answer the questions below. (7:50)

Choose the best answer.

1. What is the main purpose of the video?

____ To argue that every country should make university free, as Germany does.____ To compare how countries and periods have shared the cost of university, with trade-offs.____ To explain why England introduced high university fees and how students reacted.____ To show that high fees buy better teaching, as the top-ranked universities prove.

2. Why did the British government introduce upfront fees in 1998?

____ Students had asked for a fairer way to share the costs.____ A national committee had advised that students should pay part of the cost.____ The number of applicants was falling and universities needed more students.____ Public funding for each student had dropped sharply in the previous years.

3. How did applications in England compare with Scotland when the higher fees first applied in 2012?

____ They fell more in England, where fees had risen, than in Scotland.____ They fell by a similar amount in both, because of the 2010 protests.____ They fell more in Scotland, where places were limited by a cap.____ They rose in England, because loans made study easier to afford.

4. What happened to tuition fees in German states after the 2005 court ruling?

____ Seven states kept their fees permanently, while the others stayed free.____ The fees stayed in place because most protests were ignored.____ Public resistance meant that every state dropped them again within about ten years.____ The court ruling was reversed by a federal court the following year.

5. What does the economist Bruce Chapman argue about free university?

____ It helps students from poorer families more than other systems do.____ It lowers the quality of teaching because universities get less money.____ It works only in small countries where few people attend university.____ It makes poorer taxpayers help pay for people who will later earn more.

True, False or Not Given? Choose Not Given if the video does not say.

6. After 2016, the number of students from poorer families at Chilean universities rose sharply.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

7. In Scotland, there can be more qualified applicants for some courses than funded places.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

8. In the ten years to 2024, funding per student fell in England but not in Scotland.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

Complete each sentence with the words you hear.

A NUMBER from the video.

9. In England, a graduate's loan is paid back out of their earnings for as long as ____ years.

A NUMBER from the video.

10. Paying for one year of fees at an English university takes more than ____ weeks of a typical worker's pay.

A NUMBER from the video.

11. In 2023 to 2024, the Scottish government spent almost ____ million pounds on tuition fees.

A NUMBER from the video.

12. In the 2026 QS World University Rankings, American and British universities filled the first ____ places.

What Happens If University Is Free for Everyone?

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