Universities
How higher education works across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland make up the United Kingdom. There was a time when the East India Company and the British monarchy ruled over half the known world. The British had set up trading outposts and colonies, eventually leaving an English imprint on places as far as Australia, India and the West Indies. Today, Great Britain has a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II, her royal majesty, on the throne.
It was during the 19th century when a major expansion in the higher education sector in the UK happened, with the awarding of the royal charters to some of the prominent UK institutions. Since then, many initiatives were launched to bestow the university status to some of the institutions, which went on to become the popular ones in the world.
Public universities dominate the higher education system in the UK, where each university is an autonomous body and has its own unique entry requirements for its students. The structure of each university is not ruled by any government but an independent entity from the university that looks after the financial and strategic health of the university.
The UK universities are categorised into colleges of different subjects, which means you need to be sure, beforehand, about which subject you want to study before applying to a UK college. Unlike in the US where you have an option to choose electives and switch over to some other subject at the end of first year, UK colleges, irrespective of being autonomous bodies, expect you to adhere to your choice of subject. Hence, you either apply at each college of the subject that you are interested in or you apply through a centralised (common) system that allows you to apply at various colleges at the same point in time.
In addition to universities and colleges, which are recognised institutional bodies conferring degrees in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to its students, there are some institutions that fall in the category of ‘listed bodies’.
Listed bodies do not have any authority to award degrees, but they do offer some vocational and pathways programmes that may lead to direct employment or transition to a degree programme.
