HIGHER EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN. Higher education in Britain has a long and distinctive history

Higher education in Britain has a long and distinctive history. The system of higher education in Britain includes universities, colleges of higher education and advanced courses in the further education. The British educational system on the higher level is still more selective and class-divided than secondary education, particularly so far as the oldest universities are concerned.

There are 91 universities and 47 colleges of higher education today.

The two oldest universities in England are Oxford and Cambridge. These date from the Middle Ages. Oxford is the oldest of these two universities, it is more philosophical, classical, theological. The history of Oxford began in 1168 that of Cambridge – in 1209 Among the English universities Oxford and Cambridge have a special eminence, and they are different from the others.

England had no other universities, apart from Oxford and Cambridge, until the nineteenth century. The universities which were founded between 1850 and 1930, including London University, are known as redbrick universities (they were called so because that was the favorable building material of the time). They are in London, Durham, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Nottingham, etc. The University of London is the largest of them. The division between Oxford and Redbrick is sharp. The division is essentially class one. Redbrick universities were built to provide a liberal education for the poorer boys and to give technological training. Oxford and Cambridge graduates scorned them.

The universities which were founded after the Second World War are called the new universities. They are in Staffordshire, Kent, Essex, Lancaster, Sussex, York. Some of them quickly became popular because of their modern approach to university courses.

To provide economy with highly-trained and vocationally oriented young people, national institutions known as “polytechnics” were established. During the early 1973 many old technical colleges became polytechnics. They offer a range of higher education courses both in the Arts and the Sciences up to doctoral studies.

All British Universities are private institutions. Every university is independent, autonomous and responsible only to its own governing council. Although they all receive financial support from the state, the Department of Education and Science has no control over their regulations, curriculum, examinations, appointment of staff, or the way they spend money. The number and type of faculties differ from university to university. Each university decides each year how many students it supposes to admit. The admission to universities is by examination or selection (interviews). The general pattern of teaching is similar throughout Britain-a combination of lectures, small group seminars or tutorials with practical classes where necessary. The students receive grants. They have to pay fees and living costs but every student may receive from the local authority of the place where he lives a personal grant which is enough to pay lodging and food – unless his parents are rich. Most students take jobs in the summer for about six weeks, but they do not normally do outside work during the academic session.

Students who pass examinations at the end of three or four years of study get Bachelor’s degree. The first postgraduate degree is normally that of Master conferred for a thesis based on at least one year’s fulltime work. Universities are centers of research and many postgraduates are engaged in research for higher degree, usually Doctorates.

The British government does not think to build more new universities. There is a tendency to expand the older ones. The basic purpose of the higher education is to give a first-class education and to enable their students to reach a high standard of creativeness, criticism and flexibility. They teach how to increase and employ knowledge.