Universities in the united ksngdom

Universities in the United Kingdom have generally been instituted by Royal Charter, Papal Bull, Act of Parliament or an instrument of government under the Education Reform Act 1988; in any case generally with the approval of the Privy Council, and only such recognised bodies can award degrees of any kind. Undergraduate applications to almost all UK universities are managed by UCAS – the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

Most universities in the country may be classified into 6 main categories:

Ancient universities – the seven universities founded between the 12th and 16th centuries.

The University of London, The University of Wales and Durham University – which were chartered in the 19th century.

Red Brick universities – the six large civic universities chartered at the turn of the 20th century before World War I.

Plate Glass universities – the universities chartered in the 1960s (formerly described as the “new universities”').

The Open University – Britain's 'open to all' distance learning University (est. 1968).

New Universities – the Post-1992 universities formed from polytechnics or colleges of Higher Education.

The universities share an undergraduate admission system which is operated by UCAS. Applications, which may be made on-line, must be made by 15 October of the previous year for Oxford and Cambridge (and medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses) and by 31 January of the same year for admissions to other UK universities.

Many universities now operate the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) and all universities in Scotland use the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) enabling easier transfer between courses and institutions.

The vast majority of British universities are state financed, with only one private university (the University of Buckingham) where the government does not subsidise the tuition fees. As universities in the UK are generally public institutions, there is less of a corporate influence, with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge receiving much smaller endowments than many of the larger universities in the United States.

English undergraduate students (and students from other EU countries) have to pay university fees up to a maximum of £3,225 capped (for 2009/10). A state-provided loan is available which may only be used for tuition fee costs.

In principle, all postgraduate students are liable for fees, though a variety of scholarship and assistantship schemes exist which may provide support. The main sources of funding for postgraduate students are research councils such as the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) and ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). Postgraduate students from the UK or EU who spend less than 16 hours per week on course mandated lectures or seminars are also eligible to claim unemployment benefit and housing benefit, provided that they can prove they are available to work 40 hours per week. This is irrespective of whether they are enrolled as studying full-time or part-time. However, typically this is not a common source of funding except for students in the “writing up” stage of a PhD, where they have completed their main period of registration and are finishing off their thesis.

British universities tend to have a strong reputation internationally for two reasons: history and research output. Britain's role in the industrial and scientific revolutions, combined with its imperial history and the sheer longevity of its Ancient Universities, are significant factors as to why these institutions are world renowned. The University of Cambridge, for example, has produced 83 Nobel Laureates to date – more than any other university in the world. The reputation of British institutions is maintained today by their continuous stream of world-class research output. The larger research-intensive civic universities are members of the Russell Group, which receives two-thirds of all research funding in the UK.

In England and Wales the vast majority of university students attend universities situated a long distance from their family homes; this is not true for universities in most European countries, such as Italy or Spain. For this reason most universities in the United Kingdom will provide (or at least help organise) rented accommodation for many of their students, particularly freshers (new entrants). At some universities accommodation may be provided for the full duration of the course. For this reason the lifestyle of university students in the United Kingdom can be quite different from those of other universities around the world where the majority of students live at home with their parents. The introduction of university fees paid by students from 2006 onwards has led many English and Welsh students to apply to institutions closer to their family's homes to reduce the additional costs of moving and living farther away.

The University of London and the University of Wales have since their inception been federal universities; they have a governing body with overall responsibility for the maintenance of standards at the constituent colleges. Recently, however, there has been considerable pressure from the larger colleges to become completely autonomous institutions.

UK universities have a statutory obligation to support their students in the establishment of some form of students' union (sometimes also called a “students' association” or “guild of students”, and, in the Scottish Ancients, a Students' Representative Council.) These associations are sometimes members of the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom and / or their local National Union of Students Areas.

In common with practice worldwide, graduates of universities in the United Kingdom often place not only their academic qualifications but also the names of the universities that awarded them after their name, the university typically being placed in parentheses, thus: John Smith, BSc (Sheffield). Degrees are generally listed in ascending order of seniority followed by diplomas. An exception may be made when a degree of a different university falls between two degrees of the same university: John Smith; BSc PhD (London), MA (York).

The oldest British universities are typically denoted by an abbreviation of their Latin name. On 30 March 2007 the University of Oxford issued a document entitled “Oxford University Calendar: Notes on Style”, which promulgated a new system of abbreviations for use in University publications. The general rule is to use the first syllable and the first letter of the second syllable. Thus Oxford and Cambridge became “Oxf” and “Camb”.

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