Some aspects of British University Life

There are more than forty six universities in Great Britain. The biggest University all of all modern English universities is London University. The oldest English universities are Oxford and Cambridge.

Oxford was founded in the 12^th century as aristocratic University and it remains aristocratic to the present day. The cost of studies is very high. Students have to pay for everything for using books, libraries, laboratories, for taking examinations, etc.

Oxford’s organization is very complicated. In fact the University is a collection of Colleges. There are 32 colleges in Oxford: 27 colleges for men and 5 colleges for women. Each college is a world of its own which gives its students a specialized training in arts, law, medicine, science, etc.

The largest college has500 students, the smallest college 100 students.

The university is an administrative center which arranges lectures for all students of the colleges, holds examinations and gives degrees.

Of the full-time students now attending English Universities their quarters are men, and one quarter women. Nearly half of them are engaged in the study of arts subjects such as history, languages, economics or law, the others are studying pure or applied sciences such as medicine, dentistry, technology, or agriculture. Oxford and Cambridge have a tutorial system of education and this is one of the ways in which Oxford and Cambridge differ from other English Universities. Every student has a tutor who plans his work and discusses it with the student after he has done it. Every student must see his tutor. They discuss student’s work, papers, which every student has to write and to submit to his tutor.

The university of London, for instance, includes internal and external students, the latter coming to London only to sit for their examinations. Actually most external students at London University are living in London. The colleges in the university of London are essentially teaching institutions, providing instruction chiefly by means of lectures, which are attended mainly by day students. The colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, however, are essentially residential institutions and they mainly use a tutorial method which brings the tutor into close and personal contact with the student. Their colleges, being residential, are necessarily far smaller than most of the colleges of the University of London.

Education of University standard is also given in other institutions such as colleges of technology and agricultural colleges, which prepare their student for degrees or diplomas in their own fields.

The academic year in England has three terms; each term lasts from eight to ten weeks. Terminal exams take place at the end of autumn, spring, summer terms. Final exams take place at the end of the course of studies. If a student fails ax examination, he may be allowed to take the exam again. A person studying for a degree at a British University is called a graduate.

B. A. or B.Sc. stands for Bachelor of Arts, or of Science,the first degree. M A. or M. Sc. denotes Master of Arts, or of Science. One can become B. A. after three years of hard study,and an M. A. at the end of five years.

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