The principal post-school institutions of higher education are the 47 universities (including the Open University), of which 36 are in England, 8 in Scotland, 2 in Northern Ireland and 1 in Wales.
Apart from the universities there are the 30 polytechnics in England and Wales, the 14 Scottish central institutions which provide similar studies and the Ulster Polytechnic in Northern Ireland.
British universities are independent, autonomous, self-governing institutions. Although they all receive financial support from the state (about 79 per cent of their incomes is now provided by government grants), the Department of Education and Science has no control over their regulations, curriculum, examinations, appointment of staff, or the way in which money is spent.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the most usual titles for the first degree are Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BSc) and for the second degree Master of Arts (MA), Master of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD or DPhil); in Scotland Master is sometimes used for a first degree. Uniformity of standards is promoted by the practice of employing external examiners for final university examinations.
Universities are centers of research as well as teaching and many postgraduate are engaged in research for higher degrees, usually Doctorates.
Admission to universities is by examination or selection (interviews). Applications for places from prospective undergraduate candidates for admission to nearly all the universities (except for the Open University) are submitted initially to the Universities Central Council on Admissions (UCCA). In the application a candidate can list up to five universities or colleges in order of preference. Applications must be sent to the UCCA in the autumn term of the academic year preceding that in which the candidate hopes to be admitted. The UCCA sends a copy to each of the universities or colleges named. Each university selects its own students.
British universities can be roughly divided into three groups: I) Oxford and Cambridge and the older Scottish universities, 2) the redbrick universities, and 3) the new universities.
The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the older Scottish Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the others were founded in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries.
Oxford and Cambridge have dominated British education for seven hundred years. In the second half of the twentieth century they have preserved an antique way of life.
Oxford and Cambridge each consist of a number of residential colleges founded at different times, most of them for men, but a few (of later foundation) for women. Oxford has five women's colleges, Cambridge three. Each college has its own building, its own internal organization, its own staff and students. In order to enter the university, one must first apply to a college and become a member of the university through the college.
The university is like a federation of colleges. It arranges the courses, the lectures and the examinations, and awards the degrees. Today some of the men's colleges are co-educational. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge each have over 10,000 full-time students. Oxford is older than Cambridge, more philosophical, classical and theological. Cambridge, on the other hand, is more scientifically biased. But in many respects (especially their prestige and wealth) they look very alike; therefore they are often referred to collectively for convenience as Oxbridge. Admission to the universities is based on the old tribal patterns which guide boys from traditional schools to traditional universities. Candidates to Oxford and Cambridge are largely self-selected, much influenced by parents, schoolfriends and family backgrounds.
The older Scottish universities were founded before Scotland was joined to England, and to a great measure they take their traditions from the continental universities.
The universities, which were founded between 1850 and 1930, including London University, are known as redbrick universities. They were called so because that was the favorable building material of the time, though they are rarely referred to as 'redbrick' today.
The University of London is by far the largest conventional university, with about 39,000 full-time students. It was established by the union of two colleges: University College (1827) and King's College (1831). Later many other colleges, schools and institutes were added, and it also could be called a kind of federation of colleges, but the system is entirely different. The largest of the London colleges are like universities in themselves, having many different faculties and departments. Others specialize in certain subjects, like the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Imperial College of Science and Technology, the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the School of Architecture.
There are also institutes attached to London University as well as to other universities. Whereas colleges within a university teach all subjects, and schools a group of subjects, these institutes specialize more narrowly, and are often more occupied with research than with teaching undergraduates. In London University, for example, there are the Institute of Archeology, the Courtauld Institute (specializing in the history of art) and some others.
Most of the redbrick universities founded in the nineteenth century are scattered throughout the country and are to be found in Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Southampton and some other cities.
The redbrick universities organize their academic work in a variety of ways. Subjects are taught in individual departments which are in turn grouped into faculties covering the main subject grouping, like arts, science, engineering, social science. For example, these are the faculties at Manchester: Arts, Science, Technology, Medicine, Law, Economic and Social Studies, Business Administration, Theology, Music, Education.
3. The new universities were all founded after the Second World War. Some of them quickly became popular because of their modern approach to university courses. The traditional faculty structure in these universities has been avoided in an attempt to prevent overspecialization. One form of organization (at Sussex) is school, which embraces a range of related subjects. Some of the technological universities have boards of studies. York and Warwick have structures which are closer to the older universities.
Polytechnic. They are products of modern times and somehow stand apart from traditional universities. The first 'polytechnic' was set up in 1838 in Regent Street, London, and was revived and enlarged in 1881. But the term now usually refers to those, the plans for which were announced by the Labor Government in 1966. These plans were to turn sixty colleges of technology, commerce and art into thirty new polytechnics; which have become centers for advanced courses in a wide range of subjects. Many of the thirty polytechnics today take part-time students and serve as comprehensives of further education. But some of them take full-time students; their work is of university level and thus is officially described as the higher education sector within further education, where students are able to take on a full-time degree course.
The Open University. The Open University was founded in 1969 by the Labor Government to cater for those people who, for some reason, had not had a chance to enter any of the other universities, especially those above normal student age. It takes both men and women at the age of 21 and over. The University provides part-time degree and other courses. No formal academic qualifications are required for entry to these courses, but the standards of its degrees are the same as those of other universities.