21. Britain is Defence.

The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force.

The Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces is the British monarch, HM Queen Elizabeth II, to whom members of the forces swear allegiance. Under British constitutional law, the armed forces are subordinate to the crown but can only be maintained in peace time by parliament's continuing consent. The armed forces are managed by the Defence Council of the Ministry of Defence. The Ministry of Defence is the Government department and highest level of military headquarters charged with formulating and executing defence policy for the Armed Forces.

The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting Britain's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts.

The British Armed Forces are a purely professional force and as of mid 2011 have a strength of 191,730 active duty personnel (full-time soldiers), 37,600 volunteer reserves (part-time soldiers) and 174,800 regular reserves (reserve soldiers). The British Armed Forces constitute the second largest military in the EU in terms of professional personnel.

Britain has the third largest declared defence budget in the world, after the US and China. It is one of only five recognised nuclear powers, with no more than 180 active Nuclear weapons and is deemed to have the second highest power projection capability in the world, behind the United States.

Responsibility for the management of the forces is delegated to a number of committees: the Defence Council, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Defence Management Board, and three single-service boards (Admiralty Board, Army Board, and Air Force Board) are chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence.

The Chief of the Defence Staff is the professional head of the Armed Forces and is an appointment that can be held by an Admiral, Air Chief Marshal, or General.

The British Army is made up of the Regular Army and the Territorial Army.

The core element of the Army is the 50 battalions (36 regular and 14 territorial) of regular and territorial infantry, organized into 17 regiments. There are four operational roles that infantry battalions can fulfill: air assault, armoured infantry, mechanised infantry, and light role infantry.

The British Armed Forces are supported by civilian agencies owned by the MoD. Although they are civilian, they play a vital role in supporting Armed Forces operations, and in certain circumstances are under military discipline.

The Armed Forces mainly recruits within the United Kingdom, and normally has an annual recruitment target of around 24,000. The minimum recruitment age is 16 years (although personnel may not serve on armed operations below 18 years); the maximum recruitment age is 32 years. The normal term of engagement is 22 years; however, the minimum service required before resignation is 4 years, plus, in the case of the Army, any service below the age of 18.

Specific initiatives to develop female and ethnic minority representation in the Armed Forces has yielded percentage increases of 3.4 and 4.5 since 1997.

Women have been fully integrated into the British Armed Forces since the early 1990s. Since 2000, sexual orientation has not been a factor considered in recruitment, and homosexuals can serve openly in the armed forces. All branches of the forces have actively recruited at Gay Pride events. The forces keep no formal figures concerning the number of gay and lesbian serving soldiers, saying that the sexual orientation of personnel is considered irrelevant and not monitored.

22. Higher Education in Britain Today. Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges,seminaries, and institutes of technology. Higher education also includes certain collegiate-level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools, and career colleges, that award academic degrees or professional certifications.

The right of access to higher education is enshrined in a number of international human rights instruments. The UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 declares, in Article 13, that "higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education". In Europe, Article 2 of theFirst Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1950, obligates all signatory parties to guarantee the right to education.

There are more than 60 universities in the U.K. The leading universities are Cambridge, Oxford and London. English universities differ from each other in traditions, general organization, internal goverment, etc. British universities are comparatively small, the approximate number is about 7-8 thousand students. Most universities have under 3000 students, some even less than 1500 ones. London and Oxford universities are international, because people from many parts of the world come to study at one of their colleges. A number of wellknown scientists and writers, among them Newton, Darvin, Byron were educated in Cambridge.

A university consists of a number of departments: art, law, music, economy, education, medicine, engineering, etc.

After three years of study a student may proceed to a Bachelor's degree, and later to the degrees of Master and Doctor. Besides universities there are at present in Britain 300 technical colleges, providing part-time and full-time education.

The organization system of Oxford and Cambridge differs from that of all other universities and colleges. The teachers are usually called Dons. Part of the teaching is by means of lectures organized by the university. Teaching is also carried out by tutorial system. This is the system of individual tuitio organized by the colleges. Each student goes to his tutor's room once a week to read and discuss an essay which the student has prepared.

Some students get scholarship but the number of these students is comparatively small. There are many sociaties and clubs at Cambridge and Oxford. The most celebrating at Cambridge is the Debating Sociaty at which students discuss political and other questions with famous politicians and writers. Sporting activities are also numerous.

The work and games, the traditions and customs, the jokes and debates - all are parts of students' life there.

It should be mentioned that not many children from the working-class families are able to receive the higher education as the fees are very high (more than L1000 a year). Besides that special fees are taken for books, for laboratory works, exams and so on.