UNITED KINGDOM

                                                                                  Cloud Bai-Yun

The Secretary of State for Education and Employment is responsible for all aspects and levels of education in England, and for university education in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  The Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for all non-university education in their countries, and are consulted about university matters there.

‘Higher education’ is defined as study above GCE Advanced level, that is, the GCE A level, the Scottish equivalent, or Advanced GNVQ/NVQ level 3.

In recent years, particularly The Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 made significant changes within the higher education sector in the UK.   Among the main effects of the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 were:

¨    The ending of the binary system of higher education by which the ‘traditional’ universities and the polytechnics were treated separately.

¨    The abolition of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), leaving the majority of institutions to award their own degrees.

¨    The creation of Higher Education Funding Councils for England (HEFCE), Scotland (SHEFC) and Wales (HEFCW).

1.        HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Higher education in the United Kingdom is now provided in two types of institutions: universities and colleges of higher education.  

1.1  Universities

In the United Kingdom, universities are independent, self-governing bodies, empowered by a Royal Charter or an Act of Parliament to develop their own courses and award their own degrees.  Any amendment of their charters or statutes is made by the Crown acting through the Privy Council on the application of the universities themselves.  The universities alone decide what degrees they award and the conditions on which they are awarded; they alone decide what students to admit and what staff to appoint. 

Their standards are maintained by their extensive use of external examiners (particularly in the case of older universities) and the activities of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) which reports on universities’ teaching and research quality in a rolling four-year programme. The QAA and the external examiner system work to ensure that standards of degrees and degree awards are of the same standard from one institution to another.

The majority of universities, especially the older ones, are active in both teaching and research, though it is possible that in future years some universities may be designated as exclusively research institutions.

The universities of the United Kingdom may be considered as falling into ten main types, as listed, and described, below:

 1     the universities of Oxford and Cambridge

 2     the four older Scottish universities

 3     the University of London

 4     the University of Wales

 5     the ‘modern’ or ‘civic’ universities (sometimes called ‘redbrick’ universities)

 6     the new universities

 7     the ten new technological universities

 8     the Open University

 9     the former polytechnics granted university status by the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992

10    the privately financed University of Buckingham

Oxford and Cambridge

The most distinctive feature of these universities is the college system.  The colleges are completely autonomous as regards their property, finances and internal affairs, but it is the university which awards degrees and determines the conditions on which they are awarded.  Students become members of the university by being admitted as members of their colleges; their studies are largely guided by the senior members of their colleges (generally called ‘fellows’).

Oxford

Colleges for men and women: Balliol College; Brasenose College; Christ Church; Corpus Christi College; Exeter College; Hertford College; Jesus College; Keble College; Lady Margaret Hall; Lincoln College; Magdalen College; Merton College; New College; Oriel College; Pembroke College; The Queen’s College; St Anne’s College; St Catherine’s College; St Edmund Hall; St Hugh’s College; St John’s College; St Peter’s College; Trinity College; University College; Wadham College; Worcester College.

Colleges for women: St Hilda’s College; Somerville College.

Postgraduate colleges and societies: All Souls College; Green College (a medical graduate college); Linacre College and St Cross College (established in 1962 and 1965 as societies for graduates reading for advanced degrees or diplomas of the University in all subjects); Nuffield College; St Anthony’s College; Wolfson College (established in 1966, with a special concern for studies in the natural sciences).

Permanent private halls:

Campion Hall: Men only. Established in 1896 for members of the Society of Jesus only, and granted present status in 1918.

Greyfriars: Men only. Established in 1910 and granted present status in 1957.  Receives undergraduates for tuition in any school (subject), giving priority for acceptance to student members of all branches of the Franciscan Order.

Mansfield College: Men and women.  Founded in 1886 to provide a ‘Free Church faculty in theology in Oxford’ and a college for the training of non-conformist ministers, mainly of the Congregational Church. Granted present status in 1955.  Receives undergraduates for tuition and graduates for tuition or research in any subject.

Regent’s Park College: Men and women.  Founded in 1810 as the ‘Baptist Academical Institute in Stepney’ and established in Oxford between 1927 and 1940.  Granted present status in 1957.  Admits theological students and others wishing to read for the BA degree or higher degrees.

St Benet’s Hall: Men only.  Established in 1897 for members of the English Benedictine Abbey of Ampleforth, Yorkshire, only. Granted present status in 1918.

Cambridge

Colleges for men and women: Christ’s College; Churchill College; Clare College; Corpus Christi College; Downing College; Emmanuel College; Fitzwilliam College; Girton College; Gonville and Caius College; Homerton College; Jesus College; King’s College; Magdalene College; Pembroke College; Peterhouse; Queens’ College; Robinson College; St Catharine’s College; St John’s College; Selwyn College; Sidney Sussex College; Trinity College; Trinity Hall.

Colleges for women: Lucy Cavendish Collegiate Society (mature students only); New Hall; Newnham College.

Graduate institutions: Clare Hall; Darwin College; St Edmund’s House; Hughes Hall; Wolfson College.

The four older Scottish universities

St Andrews (founded 1411); Glasgow (1451); Aberdeen (1495); Edinburgh (1583).

The tradition of the Scottish universities does not reflect the residential character of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges.

The University of London 

The University of London was constituted by Royal Charter in 1836 as a body empowered to examine and confer degrees on students of approved institutions.  Until 1900 its work was restricted to these functions, but in administering them it influenced and co-ordinated the activities of the various other colleges of university rank founded from time to time in London (such as Bedford College for Women, 1849).

From 1858 London University degrees, other than in Medicine, were made available for students other than those in certain recognised institutions.  The external degrees of the University, which were then instituted, still provide  -  both in the UK and overseas  -  an academic award of high standing for part-time students and others who are not enrolled in a university.  London was the first university to admit women to its degrees (in 1878).

The University now not only is a teaching as well as a degree-awarding body but it has become a federation which incorporates medical schools associated with hospitals, non-medical colleges (called Schools of the University, e.g. University College and King’s College), together with a number of postgraduate and other institutions.  Some other higher education establishments in London are also affiliated to the University, and in others (‘institutions with recognised teachers’) certain members of staff are recognised as teachers of the University.

External degrees

University of London degrees and diplomas are available to external students who study privately in their own time.  There are undergraduate programmes in law, management and economics, arts, music and divinity; and postgraduate programmes in distance education, occupational psychology, environmental management, agricultural development, financial economics, financial management, law and geography.

The Universities of Wales

The University of Wales consists of constituent university colleges and a medical school: University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; University of Wales, Bangor; University of Wales College of Cardiff; University College of Swansea; St David’s University College, Lampeter; University of Wales College of Medicine.

The ‘modern’ (or ‘civic’) universities (with dates of foundation)

The civic universities mostly originated in the university colleges set up in large towns and cities in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth.  Until they became universities in their own right, the colleges offered courses leading to the external degrees of London University.  The University of Durham stands a little apart from the rest of this group by virtue of its earlier foundation and because it has a collegiate organisation (but teaching takes place in departments).

The ‘modern’ universities are The University of Durham (1832), The Queen’s University of Belfast,  The Victoria University of Manchester (1880); The University of Birmingham (1900); The University of Liverpool (1903); The University of Leeds (1904); The University of Sheffield (1905); The University of Bristol (1909); The University of Reading (1926); The University of Nottingham (1948); The University of Southampton (1952); The University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1951); The University of Hull (1954); The University of Exeter (1955); The University of Leicester (1957) and The University of Dundee (1967).

The ‘new’ universities (with dates of foundation)

The ‘new’ universities were established to meet the need for more university places.  Their most distinctive features are that they were empowered from the outset to award their own degrees and that they tried to design courses which break down the conventional departmental structure and enable undergraduates to study in a range of different subject areas with equal specialisation.

The ‘new’ universities are The University of Sussex (1961); The University of Essex (1961); The University of Keele (1962); The University of York (1963); The University of East Anglia (1964); The University of Kent at Canterbury (1964); The University of Lancaster (1964); The University of Warwick (1965); The University of Stirling (1967) and The University of Ulster (1984).

The technological universities 

The ten new technological universities received their status as a result of the Robbins Report on Higher Education (1963).  The University of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt University were formerly Scottish central Institutions; the others were Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs).

The technological universities are The University of Aston in Birmingham (now Aston University); Bath University of Technology; The University of Bradford; Brunel University (Uxbridge, Middlesex); City University (London); Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh); Loughborough University of Technology; The University of Salford; The University of Strathclyde (Glasgow); The University of Surrey (Guildford).

The post-1992 universities (or ‘second phase’ universities)

The Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 led to the dissolution of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) which validated the degree awards of the then polytechnics. The polytechnics were granted full university status, with the full range of degree-awarding powers. Many of the institutions changed their name to reflect their new status. The 39 institutions affected are listed below, with their former name given in brackets:

Anglia Polytechnic University (Anglia Polytechnic; has applied to be re-named The University of Eastern England);

Bournemouth University (Bournemouth Polytechnic);

University of Brighton (Brighton Polytechnic);

University of Central England in Birmingham (Birmingham Polytechnic);

University of Central Lancashire (Lancashire Polytechnic);

London Guildhall University (City of London Polytechnic);

Coventry University (Coventry Polytechnic);

De Montfort University, Leicester (Leicester Polytechnic);

University of East London (Polytechnic of East London);

University of Glamorgan (Polytechnic of Wales);

Glasgow Caledonian University (Glasgow Polytechnic/Queen’s College, Glasgow);

University of Greenwich (Thames Polytechnic);

University of Hertfordshire (Hatfield Polytechnic);

University of Huddersfield (Huddersfield Polytechnic);

University of Humberside (Humberside Polytechnic);

Kingston University (Kingston Polytechnic);

Leeds Metropolitan University (Leeds Polytechnic);

Liverpool John Moores University (Liverpool Polytechnic);

Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Polytechnic);

Middlesex University (Middlesex Polytechnic);

Napier University (Napier Polytechnic of Edinburgh);

University of North London (Polytechnic of North London);

University of Northumbria at Newcastle (Newcastle Polytechnic);

Nottingham Trent University (Nottingham Polytechnic);

Oxford Brookes University (Oxford Polytechnic);

University of Paisley (Paisley College of Technology);

University of Plymouth (Plymouth Polytechnic South West);

University of Portsmouth (Portsmouth Polytechnic);

The Robert Gordon University (Robert Gordon Institute of Technology);

Sheffield Hallam University (Sheffield City Polytechnic);

South Bank University (South Bank Polytechnic);

Staffordshire University (Staffordshire Polytechnic);

University of Sunderland (Sunderland Polytechnic);

University of Teesside (Teesside Polytechnic);

Thames Valley University (Polytechnic of West London);

University of the West of England at Bristol (Bristol Polytechnic);

University of Westminster (Polytechnic of Central London);

University of Wolverhampton (Wolverhampton Polytechnic);

The University of Derby (formerly Derbyshire College of Higher Education) and

The University of Luton (formerly Luton College of Higher Education)

The University of Derby and University of Luton are the two colleges of higher education to receive university status following the Further and Higher Education Act, though others are likely to seek it. The University of Abertay was formerly the Dundee Institute of Technology.

The Open University

The Open University is a non-residential distance teaching university. It received its Royal Charter in 1969.  There are no formal entry requirements for admission to undergraduate courses, which are based on a credit system and are designed for students ‘precluded from achieving their aims through an existing institution of higher education’.  Teaching is conducted by means of a combination of printed materials, face-to-face tuition, short residential schools, radio, television, audio and video tapes, computers and home experiment kits.  The University also offers continuing education courses including in-service training for teachers, updating courses for managers, scientists and technologists, and short courses of community education.

The University of Buckingham

The University was founded as the University College at Buckingham, a privately financed institution which admitted its first students in February 1976.  It received its Royal charter early in 1983, and was constituted by the name and style of ‘the University of Buckingham’.  The University continues to be privately financed and offers two-year courses, each year consisting of four terms of ten weeks, mainly in the fields of law, accountancy, sciences and economics, which now lead to the degree of Bachelor; it is also empowered to award higher degrees.

1.2  Colleges of higher education

Many colleges of higher education also award degrees through their affiliation with a university.  It is not possible to list here all the colleges offering courses of higher education.  The English colleges listed are confined to those in the Higher Education Funding Council for England sector.  The list of colleges in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland includes institutions providing at least one full-time course leading to a first degree granted by an accredited validating body.

2. QUALIFICATIONS

The awards made by higher education institutions may be listed as:

BTEC/SCOTVEC Higher National Certificate/Diploma (HNC/HND)

Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE)

First degree

Higher degrees (postgraduate degrees)

Honorary degrees

2.1  Higher National Certificate/Diploma (HNC/HND)

They are qualifications for higher-technician, managerial and supervisory levels.  HNCs and HNDs can be taken in many higher education institutions.  Courses take one to three years, depending on the level and mode of study.

2.2  Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE)

Higher education institutions may offer two-year courses leading to the DipHE. It is often possible to transfer on to an appropriate degree course on completion of a DipHE, although the qualification is valid in its own right.

2.3  First degrees

Names of first-degree awards

Various names are given to the first degrees awarded by British universities.  At most universities the first degree in Arts is the BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree and the first degree in Science is the BSc (Bachelor of Science) degree.  But at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and at several new universities, the BA is the first degree awarded to students in both Arts and Sciences; the BSc is unknown at Cambridge, but is a higher degree at Oxford.  In Scotland the first arts degree at three of the four old universities is the MA.  There are several variations on the Bachelor theme, e.g. BSc (Econ) (Bachelor of Science in Economics), BCom (Bachelor of Commerce), BSocSc (Bachelor of Social Sciences), BEng (Bachelor of Engineering), BTech (Bachelor of Technology), BEd (Bachelor of Education), LLB (Bachelor of Laws). The first award in Medicine is the joint degrees of MB, ChB (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery), the designatory letters of which vary from university to university.

Structure of degree courses

The academic year (30 weeks at most places, 24 at Oxford and Cambridge) is spread over three equal terms.  Increasingly, however, academic programmes are being organised into two or three semesters per year; this varies from university to university.

Course structures also vary considerably, not only between but also within universities. The commonest pattern for degree examinations is that they come in two sections: Part I, taken after the first or second year of the course, and Part II (‘Finals’) taken at the end of the course. In some Scottish universities (see below) the first-degree system differs considerably from that in England and Wales.

Types of degree

Each university decides the form and content of its own degree programmes and examinations.  These therefore vary from university to university, as do the names given to the different types of degree awarded.  For example, a ‘Special’ degree at many universities is a Special Honours qualification awarded on satisfactory completion of a Special honours course, involving specialised study in a single subject; at Cambridge, however, a ‘Special’ is an Ordinary degree, at a much lower level, for non-Honours candidates, taken in several subjects.

The first-degree structure in all British universities is based on the Honours degree.  Most graduates going on to higher study or employment in the professions, for example, would normally have a good class Honours degree.  Successful candidates in Honours degrees are placed in different classes: Class I (a ‘first’); Class II, Division 1 (an ’upper second’); Class II, Division 2 (a ‘lower second’); Class III (a ‘third’).

The main categories of Honours degrees are as follows:

Special Honours: one-subject courses (although relevant subsidiary subjects are often studied as well, at least in the first year or two)

Joint/Combined/Double Honours: two or more main subjects studied to the same level

General Honours: two or three main subjects studied, at a lower level of specialisation

At many universities a performance in an honours course that does not warrant the award of third-class honours will earn a Pass degree.  Apart from the honours course, there are courses that lead to Ordinary (sometimes called Pass or General) degrees, but these have virtually disappeared.

Aegrotat degrees

Candidates who have followed a degree course but have been prevented by illness from taking the examination may be awarded a degree certificate (without classification) indicating that they were likely to have obtained the degree had they taken the examinations.

Length of degree courses

At most universities, honours and pass courses in arts, social science, and pure and applied science last three or four years, but courses in architecture, dentistry and veterinary medicine usually last five years, and complete qualifying courses in medicine up to six years. Courses in fine arts and pharmacy may last four years.  Four-year courses exist mainly in double honours schools, especially when they involve foreign languages and a period of study abroad, and in the technological universities, where some courses include a period of integrated training (sandwich courses).

The Scottish first degree

The distinctive feature of first degrees at some Scottish universities is the Ordinary MA course, which has no counterpart in England and Wales, and the Ordinary BSc, which both last three years. The function of the Ordinary MA is to provide a broad, general education. Scottish undergraduates are required to show during their first two years of study, over a range of subjects, that they are fit to go on to an honours degree course, which takes four years to complete. The level of the Scottish four-year honours course reaches a standard about the same as that of three-year honours courses elsewhere in the UK.

                2.4  Higher degrees

These may be:

some bachelors’ degrees (BPhil, BLitt, etc)

masters’ degrees (MA, MEd, MSc, etc)

doctorate of philosophy (PhD or DPhil)

higher doctorates (DLitt, DSc, etc).

At Oxford and Cambridge the degree of MA is conferred on any BA of the University without any further course of study or examination, after a specified number of years and on payment of a fee.

Candidates for a Master’s degree at other universities (and, at some, for the degrees of BPhil, BLitt and BD, which are of equivalent standing) are normally expected to have a first degree, although it need not have been obtained at the same university.  Masters’ degrees are usually taken after one year (if taught) or after two (if mainly research-based); degrees can be achieved via the equivalent period of part-time study.  The PhD normally requires a minimum of three years’ original research.

In some universities and faculties students may be allowed to proceed to a PhD course after an initial year of study and/or research common to both a PhD and a Master’s degree.  Candidates for a Master’s degree are required either to prepare a thesis for presentation to examiners, who may afterwards examine them on it orally, or to take written examinations;  they may be required to do both.

All PhD students present a thesis; some may be required to take an examination paper as well as being examined orally on their thesis.

Higher doctorates are designated on a faculty basis, e.g. DD (Doctor of Divinity), DLitt (Doctor of Letters), and DSc (Doctor of Science); candidates are usually required to have at least a Master’s degree from the awarding university.

Senior doctorates are conferred on more mature and established workers, usually in recognition of distinguished published contributions to their field.

2.5  Honorary degrees

Most universities confer honorary degrees on persons of distinction in academic and public life, and on others who have rendered service to the university or to the local community.  Normally the degree so awarded is not less than a Master’s degree.

3. PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

3.1  Professional associations

Professional associations vary greatly in size and function.  Many qualify people by examination as practitioners in a particular field.  Other associations do not conduct examinations for membership but accept the evidence provided by degrees, diplomas or the qualifications of other bodies.  Some, which may be called study associations or learned societies, open their membership to amateurs as well as specialists.  

For this purpose, a ‘profession’ is that kind of occupation in a special area of activity, and offering a distinctive service, which is followed by persons who have undertaken advanced education and training.  People who wish to become members of professional associations must undertake progressive stages of instruction and practical experience before being examined for membership; in qualifying associations there is more than the simple membership structure often found in non-qualifying associations.  Admission to ‘corporate’ membership, that is, to the complete rights and privileges of membership, marks the fact that the candidate has reached, by examination, the degree of competence required of practitioners.  Once a member of a professional association, the candidate accepts certain responsibilities to clients, colleagues and the general public.  The use of designatory letters after a member’s name is usually allowed.

3.2.  Qualification

Some associations qualify individuals to act in a certain professional capacity.  They also try to safeguard high standards of professional conduct. Few associations have complete control over the profession with which they are concerned. Some professions are regulated by law, and their associations act as the central registration authority.  Entry to others is directly controlled by associations which alone award the requisite qualifications (e.g. the Pharmaceutical Society).  If a profession is required to be registered by law and is controlled by the representative Council, a practitioner the Council finds guilty of misconduct may be suspended from practice or completely debarred by the removal of his or her name from the register of qualified practitioners.  In other professions the consequences of misdemeanour may not be so serious because the profession does not exercise the degree of control.  The professions registered by Statute, and therefore subject to restrictions on entry and loss of either privileges or the right to practise on erasure, are:

                Certain other professions are closed.  Admission to the Bar (barristers) is controlled by the Inns of Court, although their powers have never been confirmed by Statute.  Merchant Navy Officers and Mine Managers are certificated by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Health and Safety Executive respectively.  No teacher may take up a permanent post in a maintained school in England or Wales unless his or her qualifications have been accepted by the Department for Education and Employment; misconducting teachers are reprimanded, restricted or debarred by the Department, not by the teaching profession.  By contrast, there has been some movement towards self-government in the teaching profession in Scotland.  Although some types of professional occupation are not controlled by statute, employment in them may nevertheless be fairly strictly controlled by convention.  If a particular association is well enough confirmed and if its examinations are respected, employers may require applicants for appointment to certain posts either to have or to take its qualifications.

Study

Some associations give their members an opportunity to keep abreast of a particular discipline or to undertake further study in it.  Such associations are especially numerous in medicine, science and applied science.  Many qualifying associations also provide an information and study service for their members.  Some of the more famous learned societies confer added status upon distinguished practitioners by electing them to membership or honorary membership.

Protection of members’ interests

Some associations exist mainly to look after the interests of the individual practitioner and the group.  A small number are directly concerned with negotiations over salary and working conditions.

Membership

Qualifying associations have different categories of membership, as listed below:

Corporate Members: these are the fully qualified, constituent members of incorporated associations.  They are accorded full rights and privileges and may vote at meetings of the corporate body.  Corporate membership is often divided into two grades, a senior grade of ‘Members’ or ‘Fellows’ and a general grade of ‘Associate Members’ or ‘Associates’.

Non-corporate Members: these are members who are as yet unqualified or only partly qualified.  They are accorded limited rights and privileges but may not vote at meetings of the corporate body.  Most associations have a ‘Student’ membership grade.  Students are those who are preparing for the examinations which qualify them for admission to corporate membership.  Some associations have ‘Licentiate’ and ‘Graduate’ membership grades, which are senior to the ‘Student’ grade.  Graduates are those who have passed the qualifying examinations but lack other requirements, such as age or experience, for admission to corporate membership.

Honorary Members: some associations have a special class of Honorary Members or Fellows for distinguished members or outsiders.

Examinations and requirements

Non-corporate members normally become corporate members by examination or exemption, with or without additional requirements.  The level of many final professional examinations is of degree standard.  The transition from the general grade of membership to the senior is fairly automatic in some associations (e.g. on reaching a prescribed age), but in others the higher grade is reached only after the submission of evidence of research or progress in the profession.  Qualifying examinations are usually conducted in two or more stages.  The first stage leads to an Intermediate or Part I qualification, which is at about the standard of GCE A level (or equivalent); the second stage leads to a Final or Part II or Part III qualification, which is at the standard of a degree.

Instruction

Students may obtain instruction by any of the following means:

correspondence courses personal and postal instruction combined with a period of direct pupillage (as, for example, the examinations conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Institute of Chartered Accountants)

some associations maintain their own schools (e.g. the Architectural Association School and the Law Society’s School of Law) courses of direct preparation in universities or colleges of further education.

4. ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

The term ‘adult education’ covers a broad spectrum of educational activities ranging from non-vocational courses of general interest, through the acquisition of special skills required in industry or commerce, to degree study with the Open University.

The responsibility for securing adult and continuing education in England and Wales is statutory and shared between The Further Education Funding Councils, which are responsible for and fund those courses which take place in their sector and lead to academic and vocational qualifications; and Higher Education Funding Councils, which fund advanced courses of continuing education, and LEAs, which are responsible for those courses which do not fall within the remit of the funding councils.

Funding in Northern Ireland is through the education and library boards, and in Scotland through the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department.

Providers

Courses specifically for adults are provided by many bodies.  They include, in the statutory sector:

¨    LEAs in England and Wales

¨    the regional and islands EAs in Scotland and the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department

¨    education and library boards in Northern Ireland

¨    further education colleges

¨    HEIs, especially the Open University and Birkbeck College (University of London)

¨    residential colleges such as Ruskin College (University of Oxford)

¨    the BBC, independent television and local radio stations.

The Forum for the Advancement of Continuing Education (FACE) promotes collaboration between HEIs active in this area.  The OU, in partnership with the BBC, provides distance teaching which leads to first degrees; it also offers post-experience and higher degree courses.  Birkbeck College in the University of London caters exclusively for part-time students.  Those HEIs which were formerly polytechnics, by virtue of their range of courses and flexible patterns of student attendance, provide opportunities in the field of adult and continuing education.  Many of the redbrick universities also have a long tradition of providing courses for people in their community.

There are also a number of voluntary bodies, of which the largest is the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), operating throughout the UK and reaching about 180,000 adults students annually.

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) provides information and advice to institutions in England and Wales on all aspects of adult continuing education.  NIACE conducts research, project and development work, and is funded by the DfEE, the LEAs and other funding bodies.  The Welsh committee, NIACE Cymru, receives support from the Welsh Office, support in kind from WJEC, and advises government, voluntary bodies and education providers on matters relating to adult continuing education. In Scotland such advice is supplied by the Scottish Community Education Council. The Northern Ireland Council for Adult Education has an advisory role.

Membership of the Universities Association for Continuing Education (UACE) is open to any university or university college in the UK. It promotes university continuing education, facilitates the exchange of information, and supports research and development work in continuing education.

Courses

Although lengths vary, most courses are part-time. Long-term residential colleges in England and Wales are grant-aided by FEFC and FEFCW, and provide full-time courses lasting one or two years. Some colleges and centres offer short-term residential courses lasting from a few days to a few weeks in a wide range of subjects.  LEAs directly sponsor many of the colleges, while others are sponsored by universities or voluntary organisations.

5.  ADMISSION

Universities usually have a general minimum requirement for admission to a degree course (matriculation), and special, higher requirements may be in force for particular courses.  (These requirements are sometimes waived for people with non-standard educational backgrounds, such as adult returners and those who have followed access courses.)  The requirements are often expressed in terms of subjects passed at A level (or its equivalent), in terms either of grades (e.g. BBC) or of points (where an A level grade A is worth 10 points, grade B eight points, grade C six points, and so on).

                Applications to first-degree courses are handled through a central clearing house, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS - see Useful Addresses).

The Open University

No formal educational qualifications are necessary for admission to first-degree courses.  However, students who have successfully completed one or more years of full-time study at the higher level (or its equivalent in part-time study) may be eligible for exemption from some credit requirements of the BA degree.

Business schools 

The degrees awarded by the various University Business Schools are postgraduate and therefore normally require an honours degree as part of their criteria for admission.

6. ENGLISH LANGUAGE

6.1  English language examinations

Courses leading to examinations and qualifications in English for speakers of other languages are offered in both public and private sector institutions.

The accreditation of schools and the validation of their English language programmes is undertaken by the Accreditation Unit of the British Council.  There are separate schemes for the public and private sectors: the English Language Schools Recognition Scheme for the private sector, and the Courses Validation Scheme for the public sector.

There are also two professional bodies in this area: ARELS (the Association of Recognized English Language Schools) for the private sector, and BASCELT (the British Association of State Colleges in English Language Teaching) for the public sector.  Both organisations issue an annual brochure that gives details of member institutions and the courses available.

The British Council, jointly with UCLES and the IDP Education Australia, manages a test of academic English called the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).  This has superseded ELTS (the English Language Testing Service). The test is a systematic assessment of the English-language performance of non-native speakers who wish to study or train in the medium of English.  It is offered once a month normally, but more frequently at peak times of demand.  There are test centres in around 100 countries (details available from the local British Council office), including 22 centres in the UK.  A booklet containing sample materials, with an accompanying cassette, gives detailed information on the format of the test, its content and operation; it is available for a small charge from local test centres and from the Publications Department of UCLES.

6.2  Entrance requirements for higher education

Universities often require evidence of English-language proficiency from overseas students who wish to study in the UK, particularly if the medium of instruction in their previous education has not been English.  The most recent published information setting out these requirements is in two British Council books: 1996-98 Access to UK higher education: A guide for international students and English Language Entrance Requirements in British Higher Education (1994). Students from overseas who intend to study in the UK should make direct contact with the university or department they wish to apply to.

7.  QUALITY ASSURANCE

The term ‘quality assurance’ refers to the totality of systems, resources and information devoted to maintaining and improving the quality and standards of teaching, scholarship and research, and of students’ learning experience.

British universities and colleges take quality and standards very seriously.  British higher education has quality assurance arrangements of unrivalled coverage, sophistication and rigour.  This is not a reflection of worries about quality and standards but an indication of the importance which British institutions, and those who fund and supervise them, attach to protecting quality and standards, and of being seen to do so.  It is also part of a national drive to secure educational standards at all levels.

In the United Kingdom institutions seeking permission to award degrees are required to demonstrate that they have a commitment to quality assurance and adequate systems for safeguarding academic standards.  Institutions wishing to use the title University, must be authorised to award both taught and research degrees. The Government is advised on these matters by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). Higher education in the UK is subject to five main forms of quality assurance:

¨    institutions’ own internal quality assurance processes

¨    academic quality audit (hitherto undertaken by the Higher Education Quality Council: the new Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education took over this function from 1 August 1997)

¨    quality assessment (hitherto undertaken separately by the three higher education funding councils for England, Scotland and Wales: the QAA has taken over the delivery of the assessment  process from 1 October 1997, except in Scotland (but the funding councils retain the legal responsibility for ensuring that quality is assessed.)

¨    professional accreditation of vocational and professional subjects (undertaken by a range of professional and statutory bodies)

¨    the research assessment exercise (undertaken jointly by the three higher education funding councils)

All UK universities and colleges have been audited since 1991 and a fresh round of such audits has now begun. This new round, of audit has changed its focus and is now looking both at the more general question of how individual institutions discharge their obligations, responsibilities for the academic standards and quality of their programmes and awards, and at the evidence they themselves are relying on for this purpose.