British universities
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Most United Kingdom universities can be classified into 5 main categories,
- Ancient universities - universities founded before the 19th century
- Red Brick universities - universities founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- New Universities - two categories of institutions have been given this label:
- those created in the 1960s less often called Plate Glass Universities, which were known as "New Universities" when first created, but which are now more commonly considered a sub-section of the "Old Universities" which existed prior to the 1992 changes which allowed Polytechnics to become Universities, and
- those created in or after 1992 often called Post-1992 universities, from polytechnics and colleges of Higher Education, which are the Universities most commonly referred to as "New Universities" in the present day.
- The Open University, founded in 1968 is Britain's sole mainly distance-learning University.
The University of London and the University of Wales have since their inception been federal universities. That is, a governing body with over all responsibility for the maintenance of standards at the constituent colleges. Recently, however, there has been considerable pressure from the larger colleges to become completely autonomous institutions. An example of this would be the continued efforts of Imperial College London to gain autonomy from the federal University of London, or Cardiff University leaving the University of Wales.
The University of Buckingham is the sole private university of the UK.
Undergraduate applications to nearly all UK universities are managed by UCAS - the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
In the United Kingdom a new university is generally instituted by Act of Parliament or Royal Charter; in either case generally with the approval of Privy Council, and only such recognized bodies can award degrees of any kind. The London School of Economics (which is part of the University of London) was founded with Articles of Association as it is actually a company registered with Companies House and has no Royal Charter or founding Act of Parliament.
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[edit] Admission
There is a centralised admission system operated by UCAS. Applications, which may be made on-line, must be made by October 15th of the previous year for Oxford and Cambridge (and medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses) and by January of the same year for admissions to other UK universities.
Many universities now operate the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) and all universities in Scotland use the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) enabling easier transfer between courses and institutions.
[edit] Funding
The vast majority of British universities are state financed, with only one private university - the University of Buckingham - where students have to pay all their fees. None of the universities are actually state-owned, however.
English undergraduate students (and students from other EU countries) have to pay university fees up to a maximum of £3,000 capped (in 2004/5). A state-provided loan is available which may only be used for tuition fee costs. Welsh undergraduate students studying in a Welsh University have to pay a maximum university fee of £1,200, however, if they choose to study outside of Wales they are subject to the same fees as students from that country. i.e. if a Welsh student studies in England they pay £3000. Scottish and EU students studying in Scotland have their fees paid by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, however also have to pay a sum of around £2,000 when they graduate. Students are also entitled to apply for state-provided loans to pay for living costs, a portion of which is also means-tested. A new grant is also available, which is means-tested and offers up to £2700 a year. As part of the deal allowing universities to charge up to £3000 a year in tuition fees, all universities are required to offer burseries to those in receipt of the full government grant of at least £300. Different funding arrangements are in place for students on NHS funded degree and diploma courses, with students on nursing, midwifery, and operating department practice courses being eligible for a non-means tested bursary, while healthcare students on degree level courses are eligible for a means tested bursary, and are not eligible for the full student loan as a result of their bursary entitlement.
Students in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are also eligible for a means-tested grant, and many universities provide bursaries to poorer students. International students are not subsidised by the state and so have to pay much higher fees.
In principle, all postgraduate students are liable for fees, though a variety of scholarship and assistantship schemes exist which may provide support. The main sources of funding for postgraduate students are research councils such as the AHRC and ESRC. Postgraduate students from the UK or EU who spend less than 16 hours per week on course mandated lectures or seminars are also eligible to claim unemployment benefit and housing benefit, provided that they can prove they are available to work 40 hours per week. This is irrespective of if they are enrolled as studying full-time or part-time. However, typically this is not a common source of funding except for students in the 'writing up' stage of a phd, where they have completed their main period of registration as a phd student and are finishing off their thesis.
[edit] Funding history
In the years following the end of World War II local education authorities (LEAs) paid student fees and provided non-mature students assisted with a maintenance grant. Under the Education Act 1962 a national Mandatory Award of student maintenance grant was established, payable by the LEAs to students on most full-time courses.
As the university population rose during the 1980s the sums paid to universities became linked to their performance and efficiency, and by the mid 1990s funding per student had dropped by 40% since the mid 1970s, while numbers of full-time students had reached around 200,000 (around a third of the age group), up from around 130,000.
Following an investigation into the future of universities, the July 1997 report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education [1], chaired by the then Sir Ronald Dearing recommended the ending of universal free higher education, and that students should pay £1,000 towards the cost of their tuition fees, which would be recovered in the form of a graduate tax.
At the time of the Dearing report, fees were still paid by the government, student grants of up to £1,755 (£2,160 in London) were linked to family income, and a subsidised student loan of £1,685 (£2,085 in London) was available. Instead of following Dearing's suggestions, the grant was replaced by the present loan scheme, introduced for students starting in 1998. There was a transition year when about half the previous means-tested grant was available, although the new £1000 tuition fee still had to be paid. From 1999, the grant was abolished altogether.
From the academic year 2006/7, a new system of fees will be introduced. These variable tuition fees of up to £3000 per year will have to paid up-front as at present, but new student loans will be available that may only be used to pay for tuition fees, and will have to be repaid upon graduation, in addition to the existing loan. In fact, there is very little variation in the fees announced by universities — nearly all will charge the full £3000 on all courses. Instead, the differences will appear in the nature and value of various 'access' bursaries that will be on offer.
[edit] Reputations
British universities tend to have a strong reputation internationally for two reasons: history and research output. Britain's imperial past, combined with the longevity of universities like Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrews, are the main reasons that these institutions are world renowned. The reputation of British institutions is maintained today by their continuous stream of world-class research output.
As a simplistic guide, Oxbridge colleges tend to be the most highly regarded, followed by the federal University of London, the Scottish Ancients and the Red Brick universities (formed in the 19th century). The Plate Glass Universities (formed after the second world war) come next in reputation, although the hierarchy is not completely clear, since some such as Sussex, Warwick and York are regarded as highly, if not more highly than some of the Red Brick universities. The Post-1992 universities – mostly ex-polytechnics set up in the reforms of 1992 – have a lower overall reputation, with many of the members regularly appearing in the bottom half of most league tables. Most of this newer group belong to the Coalition of Modern Universities. The Times University Rankings give more detailed information.
The perceived ranking of top British universities is also heavily influenced by the popularity in recent years of league tables which rank universities by teaching and research. In the most reputable of these tables, The Times University Rankings, Cambridge and Oxford are regularly first and second in a list of 100 UK universities. There is still a clear tier system in operation, with less well-considered universities often struggling to attract able students, staff and funding. Partially, but not entirely, by way of competing, many of the less highly regarded universities have taken the opportunity to expand into new areas (such as media studies and sports science).
However, if one thing is to be learnt from recent statistics it is that comparisons in a single subject (which is what students are generally interested in) often give quite different answers from overall comparisons. In the 2003 Times Good University Guide, 21 universities come top in at least one subject area, 41 are in the top three in at least one subject area, and 80 are in the top ten in at least one subject area. Part of this diversity stems from the fact that not all subjects are offered at all universities and they thus have no possibility of appearing anywhere near the top of the table,
The most famous example of subject-specific ranking being dramatically different from the overall ranking is probably in history, where Oxford Brookes, the former polytechnic, gained a higher research rating than the elite University of Oxford, or modern languages, where Middlesex University, another former polytechnic, gained a higher rating than Oxford or Cambridge in the Guardian 2004 university league tables. An oft-quoted example is that of the various engineerings, where Cambridge, Oxford and Durham are not present in any of the top-20s, despite their high overall rankings. This is misleading however, since these universities do not offer any of the specific engineering courses, instead providing a general engineering course (which allows specialization in later years), where they were ranked 1st, 2nd and 5th respectively in 2005. Southampton has a particularly strong showing in engineering where it is the only university in the country to hold the top (5*) RAE rating in all departments within its engineering faculty.
[edit] Peculiarities
In the United Kingdom the vast majority of university students attend universities situated a long distance from their family homes; this is not true for universities in most European countries, such as Italy or Spain. For this reason most universities in the United Kingdom will provide (or at least help organise) rented accommodation for many of their students, particularly freshers (new entrants). At some universities accommodation may be provided for the full duration of the course. For this reason the lifestyle of university students in the United Kingdom can be quite different from those of other universities around the world where the majority of students live at home with their parents.
[edit] Representation
UK universities have a statutory obligation to support their students in the establishment of some form of Students' Association (often referred to as a "Students' Union", and in the Scottish Ancients as a Students' Representative Council.) These associations are sometimes members of the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom and / or their local National Union of Students Areas.
[edit] Post-nominal abbreviations
It is common for graduates of universities worldwide to place the name of their university, or universities, after the abbreviation for their degree, or degrees. Although it is a practice that is in decline, even at the oldest institutions, several British universities still customarily use an abbreviation of their Latin name. Universities that share the name of an episcopal see often use the same abbreviation as the bishop uses for his signature. Examples include:
- Cantab (Cantabrigiensis) for Cambridge
- Dunelm (Dunelmensis) for Durham
- Ebor (Eboracensis) for York
- Edin (Edinburgensis) for Edinburgh
- Exon (Exoniensis) for Exeter
- Oxon (Oxoniensis) for Oxford
