Answer these questions.

1) What are the three types of universities in Great Britain?

2) What is necessary to go on to higher education?

3) What grants do students receive?

4) Differentiate between the first, the second and the highest degrees given after the graduation from a university. What is necessary for getting these degrees?

5) What other institutions of higher education are there in Great Britain?

Read the text and try to understand all the details.

Differences in the organization of education in Britain and America lead to different terms. One crucial word, school, is used in overlapping but different ways. A place of education for young children is a school in both varieties. But the word school in B.E. is never used to refer to a university or other college of higher education.

A student graduates from an American high school; a pupil (never student) leaves a British secondary school. To graduate is possible only from a university or college in British usage; graduating entails taking a degree.

British universities have 3 terms; American universities have 2 semesters (or 4 quarters). Usually a British university student takes 3 years to get his degree; these are known as the first, second and final years. An American university student typically takes 3 or 4 years, known as a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. While he is studying, the American majors in a particular subjects, but also takes electives. The British student usually takes a main and subsidiary subjects. The British term honours degree signifies that the student specializes in one main subject, perhaps with one subsidiary. The American student earns credits for successfully completing a number of self-contained courses of study, the credits eventually reaching the total needed to receive a degree.

The British student who has already taken the first degree (usually a B.A. or B.Sc. except in Scottish universities) is a post-graduate. The American equivalent is a graduate. In American universities those who teach are known as the faculty. In Britain they are the staff (academic staff).

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