Education in the UK

All children and young people between the ages of 4 or 5 and 16 must receive full-time education. About 93 percent receive free education from public funds, the rest attend private fee-paying schools. The average pupil-teacher ratio for all schools is about 47 to 1.

The principal examination, at about the age of 16, is the General Certificate of Secondary Education. A mixture of the advanced level of the General Certificate of Education and advanced supplimentary level (giving opportunities for study in a wider range of subjects) may be taken at 18. It is the standard for entrance to higher education courses as well as many forms of professional training. About 2/5 of all young people get some form of post-school education. About 1/6 enter full-time higher education courses at the 47 universities, 31 polytechnics, 15 Scottish central institutions and other publicly funded colleges. Over 90 percent of students on full-time higher-education courses receive tuition and maintenance grants from public funds.

The public exams taken by British schoolchildren are GCSEs (the General Certificate of Secondary Education). They take them at 16. Some children take 3 or 4, others take as many as 10 or 11. Those who have passed GCSEs may remain at school for another 2 years and take their “A” (advanced) level exams. Any student who wants to go to university needs to pass at least 2 or 3 “A” levels.

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There are different kinds of educational institutions in Great Britain: universities, colleges (residential and non-residential), university extra-mural departments, and evening departments at colleges.

If you want to go to university, you usually apply during your last year at school, when you are 17-18. You can apply to study at any university in Britain and most people choose a university that is not in their own town. So, university students usually live away from home. Students get a grant or a loan from the government to study. At the beginning of your last year at school you receive an application form. On this form you choose up to five universities that you would like to go to. The form is sent to those universities with information from your school about you and your academic record. If the universities are interested in your application, they will ask you to attend an interview. If they are still interested after the interview, they will offer you a place.

Any offer, however, is only conditional at this stage. Applications and interviews take place several months before students do their A-level examinations. These are the exams that you do at the end of your time at school. So, when a university makes an offer, it will tell you the minimum grades that you will have to get when you do your A-level exams. If you don’t get those grades, then you will not be able to accept the place. It will be offered to someone else and you must apply again to another university.

You don’t have to accept your place immediately. Some students don’t want to go straight from school to university, so after they have taken their A-levels, they take a year out to work or travel.

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