乐播传媒

This description, which is intended only as a general overview and an introduction to the terms you may encounter when investigating British education, applies to universities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Scottish universities and most of those in the Irish Republic are closer to the American pattern, with a more broadly based undergraduate course.

Ask faculty members for advice on what are good universities/graduate programs in your particular area, and check the websites of the universities you are considering.

The English educational system is unlike the American one in several respects:

• High school students take a set of national exams in a wide range of subject areas when they are 16 years old.聽 By that point they are roughly at the level of a graduating senior from high school in the U.S.
• 乐播传媒 who plan to continue to college (which they call 鈥漸niversity鈥�) decide at that point what subject they will study.
• They then take two more years of advanced high school work in just three subjects.
• University-bound students take another set of national聽exams聽in their 3 subjects, that expect a level of proficiency comparable to a year or two of college work in this country.
• 乐播传媒鈥� scores or their A-level exams determine how good a university they are accepted into.
• At university, students work only in their own major field for the undergraduate degree, which is usually a聽3-year course聽(4 years in some of the sciences.)
• A philosophy student, for example, takes no classes except in that subject, while a biologist might have some further math and chemistry but would concentrate on biology.
• By the time students receive their undergraduate degree, they have reached a level roughly equivalent to an M.A.聽 in this country.
• Some of the newer universities in England, like those in Scotland and many in Ireland, are less specialized; their undergraduate training is closer to what a student would receive in this country.

The older British universities (Oxford, Cambridge, London) and many of the newer ones do not have exams and grades at the end of each semester.

• Instead, there is a fairly general exam at the end of the first year and then a series of聽specialized exams聽at the end of the third year.
• When the course catalogue from an English university (often called a 鈥減rospectus鈥�) talks about doing a 鈥減aper鈥� in a given subject, it means preparing for and taking a big exam.
• If, for example, a given department requires papers in 4 out of 6 designated fields, a student can choose which of those subjects he/she will read about and be examined in at the end of the undergraduate course.

At most universities, the academic year is divided into three 鈥�terms鈥� (like our semesters).

• The first term, usually called Michaelmas or autumn term, starts at the end of September and runs into early to mid-December.
• The winter term, also about 10 weeks, goes from mid-January until early April.
• The third term is shorter, commonly covering May and June.

English universities rely much less heavily on lecture courses than do their U.S. counterparts.聽 While there will be a series of lectures given each term on a variety of topics, these are optional for undergraduates.

• Instead, most of the instruction is done through 鈥�tutorial鈥� sessions, which consist of 1-5 students meeting once each week with a faculty member.
• At the older universities and in the non-sciences, students may have only a single tutorial course each term.
• The topic of that term鈥檚 work is quite specific.聽 If, for example, the student is reading history, a tutorial group might focus on the Crusades.
• Each week, the student meets with the faculty member, either individually or in small groups.
• At that time they discuss the previous week鈥檚 reading and submit their papers.
• The instructor then gives out a long reading list, which the students are expected to cover by the following week, often accompanied by writing a paper on that particular sub-topic.
• This system provides a great deal of individual attention and excellent practice in presenting information and ideas both orally and in writing.
• Science courses normally contain more organized lectures and lab instruction, with some tutorial work for advanced students.

British universities, especially the older ones, consist of a collection of what were originally separate聽colleges.

As undergraduates, students鈥� lives are concentrated within their colleges.

They live and eat there, and most of their teaching (apart from science courses with labs) is done by faculty members who are part of that college.

In London, the colleges are spread out over a large geographical area, while in most settings they are clustered within a common university area.

The central focus of undergraduate education is your college, with the university acting mainly as a sort of umbrella organization.

History

• Until the 1980鈥檚, graduate training (called 鈥減ostgraduate education鈥�) was available only the the Ph.D. (or D.Phil) level and was a purely research-based degree.
• 乐播传媒 who wanted to start work on a doctorate already had a sufficient base of general and specific knowledge within their particular field to be ready to start independent research.
• Then as now, a student was expected to have a Ph.D. thesis topic in mind when entering the program and would meet no more than once per month with his/her advisor.
• The Ph.D. was (and still is) commonly completed in 3 years of full-time research and writing.
• For students in the humanities and social sciences, this can be a fairly lonely and isolating experience unless the person knows exactly what he/she wants to do and is comfortable with independent work.
• Natural science students enjoy a more sociable existence, since they are working in labs.
• Doing a聽Ph.D.聽remains an option for American students going to England now, but it is probably not the best choice unless they have unusually advanced undergraduate training in their subject area and are ready to start immediately on their thesis research.

During the 1980鈥檚, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher realized that foreign students were a good potential source of income for English universities.聽 She therefore insisted that all of the universities set up new Master鈥檚 degree programs, ones aimed both at international students and at British students whose undergraduate work had been less focused than at the older universities.

• Because the term M.A. was already in use, the new programs are commonly called M.Phil.鈥檚, M.Sci.鈥檚, or M.Lit.鈥檚.
• Some of them offer a combination of lecture courses/tutorials (which they refer to as the 鈥�taught鈥� component of the course) and a big research project, the equivalent of an M.A. thesis in this country (called the 鈥�research鈥� component.)
• Other Master鈥檚 programs are taught or research but not both.聽 They all last 1 or 2 years.

These new Master鈥檚 programs are often an excellent choice for American students going to England directly after graduating.

• They assume a high level of preparation that matches well with a good undergraduate degree from this country, and they take students forward to about the level of a U.S. M.A.
• Many of them are聽interdisciplinary, helping students to integrate material and approaches from a variety of fields.
• The faculty who teach in them are generally excellent.
• Further, the other students in the course are normally a fascinating mixture of extremely talented聽foreign students, and English students who did not attend one of the older universities or who want training in a field other than their undergraduate major.
• If a student does well in the Master鈥檚 program and decides to stay on for a Ph.D., it is generally possible to transfer from one to the other; work done at the Master鈥檚 level counts toward the Ph.D., so one needs only to write a much more substantial research study for the latter degree.

At the post-graduate level, the university itself plays a greater role than was true for undergraduate education.

• Both the new Master鈥檚 courses and the Ph.D. are run by faculty members in that field from all the colleges.
• The primary application for graduate study is therefore made to the聽department(which they call the 鈥淔aculty鈥� or 鈥淏oard of Graduate Studies鈥�) in a given discipline (e.g., Anthropology, Mathematics, Religion).
• That department decides which students to accept for its graduate courses.

But post-graduate students must also apply to and be accepted by a聽college.

• At some universities you submit both applications at once (to the graduate program and to a college), while at others you must first be accepted by a graduate program and then apply to a college.
• Most colleges offer housing for their postgraduates, which sometimes includes apartments off-campus, food if they choose to live right in the college, and some kind of social center.
• The colleges may also have scholarships (which they call 鈥渟tipends鈥�) for postgraduates, though normally these are not open to first-year students.
• The wealthier colleges at the older universities have a good deal of postgraduate money, so it is worth checking to see what is available.

*With thanks to Professor Marjorie McIntosh, 2001