Evgenia Evseeva. Report on Student Reading Activities  

The bar chart gives comparison on students’ reading activities during 5 years of study. The horizontal axis illustrates the prevalence of type of reading, which occupied most of the time during the study at the university presented in percentage to total amount of reading. The vertical axis shows the annual data during 5 - year study-period.

During the whole study period, we see the fluctuation in the number of time that student spend on the studying of his major. During the first year, students preferred to read academic literature other than their major subject. However, the extent of academic literature reading is 4 times bigger than one for pleasure. This can be explained in the following way. Students at the 1st study year has just entered university and are motivated to study a lot, because of the unpreparedness to the academic curriculum and working load; they also try to prevent the expel from the university. The fact that they are interested less on their major subject than on other course can be understood if we assume that 1st year bachelor student is not already rooted in his specialty. In the second stud year the student begin to read news (which occupies the most of free time in 10 of the students) apart from other literature. The reason that this piece of reading was absent during the 1st year, and gradually begin to increase, except from the 4th year (when the majority of the students are concentrated on their diploma) lies in the fact that students being adults with forming personality start being really aware of the world around them( national and global affairs). What is interesting is that the number of literature other than academic reduces by half in 4th year comparing to the third year of study. This also occurs due to the motivation to write dissertation at the decent level or the possible work engagement in the specialty field. 

Maria Domashchenko. Data description

   This chart illustrates the types of reading which occupy most social students’ time during their studying. Y axis shows the number of students, who chose a particular type of reading. Meanwhile, X axis displays the studying year. All in all 4 types of reading were examined: (1) literature in major subjects, (2) literature in subjects other that major, (3) reading for pleasure, and (4) news.

   As it can be seen from the chart, the most time consuming reading remains reading for major subjects. Although the number of people who chose it fluctuated from one year to another, the minimum does not fall less than 6 people. It proves that social science students try to correspond to high standards of university education, dedicating most of their time to reading profession-oriented literature.

   The chart also shows that on the first year of studying students pay equal attention both to their major subject, and to other subjects. In the course of time, students pay less attention to other subjects. It can be explained by peculiarities of university syllabus. Staring from general subjects, students gradually concentrate on the main disciplines.

   As for reading for pleasure, the chart illustrates that it remains almost stable with a slight decrease on the second year. Whereas number of students who prefer reading news increases, with its maximum on the fifth year.

Olena Bychkovska

A-C-R Essay

The World Should Help Africa to Combat HIV/AIDS

The world’s community should help Africa to combat HIV/AIDS in spite of all the obstacles. AIDS is a dangerous syndrome and it is characterized by a decrease in the number of helper T cells, which causes a severe immunodeficiency and leaves the body susceptible to a variety of potentially fatal infections. Moreover, still there is no cure or vaccine against it. The consequences of HIV/AIDS spreading in Africa are fatal and such epidemic is a thread for the health and welfare of the whole world.

  HIV/AIDS prevalence in Africa is the highest in the world, which exposes this continent to a number of significant risks. Although about 14.5% of the world's population lives in Africa, it is estimated to be home to 69% of all people living with HIV and 72% of all AIDS deaths occurred in that region. With approximately 22.9 million people infected, Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst affected region of Africa, as well as in the world. Moreover, the epidemic reaches very high levels in such countries as Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia. Yet, the impact of the syndrome is not only measured by the number of deaths. In Africa HIV/AIDS has a significant negative impact on various sides of the peoples’ life such as life expectancy and productivity, households’ prosperity; evolvement of healthcare, education and economy [1]. Furthermore, the population growth in Africa has stopped and prenatal mortality grew dramatically. The life expectancy has fallen to 49 years in South Africa, whereas it is 78 years in Europe and North America.  It was reported that the annual costs associated with sickness and reduced productivity as a result of HIV/AIDS ranged from $17 per employee in a Kenyan car manufacturing firm to $300 in the Ugandan Railway Corporation. These costs reduce competitiveness and profits [2]. What is more, there is a possibility of extinction of the whole country caused by HIV/AIDS. The infection rate in Swaziland is unprecedented and the highest in the world at 26.1% of all adults and HIV/AIDS currently causes 61% of all deaths in the country; thus United Nations Development Program has states that if the expansion continues unabated, the existence of this country will be questioned [3].

On the other hand, a popular viewpoint is that Africa cannot be provided with help. Some scientist state that there is too little recourses available in order to provide treatment for such a large number of people in Africa. In 2003 only 50 000 out of 4 million people, who needed antiretroviral agents, were able to receive it.  Moreover, other countries have limited resources and own problems to solve; therefore, it might seem that those countries do not have well-grounded reasons to spend their resources on solving Africa’s problems. For example, there is no adequate water supply and proper sanitation in India, overpopulation is spreading in China and default may take place in the European Union.

Nevertheless, as the evidence shows, Africa is making a progress in combating HIV/AIDS and it has to be helped. HIV/AIDS can be effectively treated and prevented not only in other regions of the world, but in Africa as well, even though it is one of the economically poorest regions Actually, as an example may serve the ‘Africa Dream Project’, which is being implemented in few African countries and provides treatment to numerous HIV-positive Africans [4]. In addition, nowadays the globalization is taking place; consequently, the problems become more and more globalized as well. It has been widely recognized by the leading scientists that the changes in one region greatly contribute to the changes in other regions; hence, African HIV/AIDS epidemics is not only an African concern, but should be addressed by world in general.

On the basis of considerations provided, the refusal to assist Africa on combating HIV/AIDS epidemic appears to be illogical, because it is being caused by and has consequences for the whole world; thus, not taking action now might result in a more serious widespread pandemic in the future. In order to prevent in and save the health of its populations, the world’s community should provide various types of aid to Africa more consistently in order to help it to combat HIV/AIDS.

Argument	Counterargument	Rebuttal
A large number of people are infected in Africa	Too little recourses to help	World’s most effective program is in Africa
HIV/AIDS has a significant negative impact	Other own problems to solve	Is a world problem + globalization

 List of References:

1. HIV and AIDS in Africa - Official web-site of AVERT. - Available from: <http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-africa.htm> - Title from the screen.   

2.      Simon Dixon   The impact of HIV and AIDS on Africa's economic development BMJ. - 2002, January.  - Available from: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122139/>

3.     The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in South Africa. -      October, 2008. - Available from:

<http://www.kff.org/hivaids/upload/7365-065.pdf> - Title from the screen.

4. Official web-site of Africa Dream Project - Available from: <http://www.africadreamproject.org/> - Title from the screen.

ACR Essay. Degtyar Valentyn

The Worthy Civic Activism

Argument	Counterargument	Rebuttal
Citizens should engage into protest activities	It is dangerous	Mass actions are designed secure for majority of participants and are mostly peaceful
Mobilizations do good for the population	Protests are neglected by authorities	Community and labor protests bring direct result, wider mobilizations promote democracy and civic liberties
Personal gain from protest activism is worthy especially for youth	For youth protest is nothing but fun, young people should better work or promote themselves to be successful in their lives	Activist youth develop dense personal networks, they are active-minded, they tend to be very successful

Citizens should be active and engage into protest activities. This is safe, effective and overall worthy of efforts. This is particularly actual for youth.

Firstly, going out into the street with a march or a picket in Ukraine is rather safe. However, there may be widely spread worries that this is dangerous, because there may be fights between opposite groups of activists or police may otherwise repress protesters. Of course, this is possible, so activism involves certain risk, but it is in Ukraine rather mild comparing to other countries. Moreover, mass actions are by most designed to be secure for their participants. Radical actions are usually performed by small groups where individuals know what they are doing. In contrast, mass actions are secured by police and it is the event organizers who carry responsibility for everything, so average citizens are free of any charges if they do not obviously engage in any direct violence. Majority of protest mobilizations in Ukraine are peaceful.

Secondly, civic mobilizations do empower people and often bring direct positive result. Many people doubt that social protests are effective. Partly, they have the point. Research by CDS sociological group indicates that in 2012 only 5 out of each hundred of protest actions in Ukraine resulted in positive response by the authorities [1]. This figure, though, is small, because general political rallies are taken into account. At the same time, the same research shows that more than half of local community protests, such as actions against construction in the neighborhood or public utilities problems, are successful resulting in satisfaction of protesters demands or solving of the problem [1]. The same is actual for mobilizations of labor unions or workers initiative groups caused by unpaid wages or cuts. This points to the usefulness of social protests for the wellbeing of society and using them for solving definite local problems and labor relations.

Thirldy, protest activism is not only good for collectives, but for individuals as well. It is useful for youth. Some people can object that for youth protest is nothing but fun, young people should better work or promote themselves to be successful in their lives. Responding to this claim I should note that it is controversial, so it can be countered by some general assumptions and knowledge. For activist youth it is possible to develop dense personal networks, that they later benefit from. As these people are active-minded they mostly sustain enough wellbeing to be happy and get what they want from life. For example, time revealed that many of the late 60-ies student protest participants were very successful as they took over key positions in Western societies.

Therefore, as indicated by comparative observations and national research participation in civic activism and protest mobilizations in Ukraine is a worthy activity to do. Besides, this is something to be proud to tell the children about.

List of References:

 1. Centre for Society Research - http://cedos.org.ua/protestmonitor/digest/peremogy2012