University life

Universities in Britain differ from those in many countries. Until the nineteenth century, England had only two universities - Oxford and Cambridge. Both Universities are residential: students must belong to one of the colleges. The colleges at Oxford and Cambridge have no division by subjects; students of a wide variety of subjects belong to and live some of the time in one college, going out from these to different faculties or laboratories for their academic work. In addition, each student goes weekly to a tutor to show and discuss definite work.

The modem Universities such as the Universities of London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, etc. are not residential. The colleges of the University of London, for instance, are teaching institutions, providing instruction chiefly by means of lectures, attended mainly by day students. Other institutions such as colleges of technology and agricultural ones provide education of University standard, too.

Some students can study art subjects such as history, languages, economics or law; the others can study pure or applied sciences such as medicine, dentistry, technology or agriculture.

This is how a student spends his day. His working hours are from 9 to i. At 9 o'clock he will see the tutor or go to the library, or to the lecture. From 2 to 5 he is engaged in sports and all kinds of exercises. From 5 to 7 he usually zither works in the library or in the laboratory. At 7 o'clock the undergraduates and tutors gather in the hall and have dinner. After dinner the students have club activities, debating societies etc. By 10 o'clock the student must be in the college, as most of the students live in the colleges. At about 10 o'clock the student sits down to work again and works about 2 hours. At 12 o'clock p.m. he goes to bed.

A person studying for a degree at a British University is called undergraduate: one who has taken a degree is called a graduate. B.A. or B.Sc. stands for Bachelor of Arts, or of Science, the first degree. M.A. or M.Sc. - denotes Master of Arts or of Science. One can become a B.A. after three years of hard study, and M.A. at the end of five years. D.P. stands for Doctor of Philosophy, the highest degree. The abbreviations of English degree must be written after the family name, e.g. Henry Sweet, B.A.

Tuition costs a lot of money. The students have to play for taking examinations, for attending lectures, for borrowing books from the library, for hostel accommodation, etc.

There are three terms from eight to ten weeks in the British University year.