托福写作原创满分范文3：大学应改善设施还是聘用教授

TOEFL ESSAY NO.3

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Universities should spend more money in improving facilities (libraries, computers, laboratories, etc.) than in hiring famous professors. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Facilities or professors? That is the question, common in the field of higher education. Fancy libraries, top-of-the-line computer centers and laboratories and so forth in those “elite” universities might have given the answer. But isn’t it evident that hardware does not teach and that only professors, by instructing students and conducting academic research, lay a university’s intellectual groundwork?

First off, hardly ever is a top-notch university renowned primarily for its upscale facilities; it is noted professors who establish a university’s prestige. One of the reasons why Yale University is praised as the dream school by prospective students around the globe is that even an undergraduate freshman could be taking a class from a Nobel Prize winner. Every other Ivy League research university shares the same quality. In contrast, even though facilities in major Chinese universities have constantly been upgraded, the number of Chinese undergraduate students in the United States has been on the rise for the past decade. Are they after the US-made, more advanced hardware?

Also, famous professors create long-term economic benefits for the university. Let me explain. It is a common misunderstanding that university professors only teach, but the fact is that they are employed mainly as academic researchers. As for those already famous ones, they have the credibility to solicit funds from the state to carry out research. The funds, in turn, contribute to upgrading and maintaining facilities. Furthermore, students inspired by famous professors are more likely to maintain a close network of alumni, another important fund source such prestigious universities as Harvard or Caltech depend on. Things would turn out differently, nonetheless, if a university spends its limited budget on facilities that are just part of expenditure, not investment.

I am not saying that universities should never care to ask about the conditions of a library until raindrops leak through the roof to the bookshelves, however. No. The problem lies in the extent to which a university allocates its budget to improving facilities. A wide range of books and up-to-date Internet access in the library are essentials for students’ studies and research. Also, students and faculty members wouldn’t live better off without regular workout in a fully equipped gymnasium. I do, however, have to make my point clear that unless a university is generously sponsored by exceedingly wealthy alumni, it ought not to count chiefly on facilities to serve many of its educational purposes.

In sum, famous professors are academic practitioners who can not only bring students further up the ladder of academic success but also benefit the university economically by either raising funds for research or helping establish a strong alumni network. Either way, they, as the intellectual core of a university, doubtlessly reap more benefits than do tangible facilities.

Word Count: 455

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