Greetings to you, reading these lines! If you are already here, then perhaps you want to learn more about studying in the UK. Attention: You need to spend a lot of time looking for the seeds of truth on the Internet in order to get a lot of information about the education system. Or you can entrust yourself to a good old Wiki, having read too many letters, but having received a little at long last. We want to share with you the peculiarities of British education and instill in you the belief that the devil is not so black as he is painted.
Important Nuances
- A British citizen? At the age of 5 to 16 years? Be so kind and get a compulsory education! At this age, the only option is to learn. But there is the right to choose a school: a free public or a paid private.
- In the United Kingdom, there are two systems that badly get along together: the United Kingdom, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it slightly differs in Scotland.
- The foreign certificate of full secondary education and a similar British GSCE are very similar. Alas, the fact is that neither one nor the other does not give the right to an admission to the universities in the UK.
- But you can have such a right under the condition of good marks after the end of A-levels or Foundation programs. We will tell you about them further.
Compulsory education consists of primary and secondary one and takes 11 years of life: from 5 to 16 years. At the end of a school, a school leaver gets a General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) which is not qualified as adequate for a future admission. But, at the same time, the laws of the country do not prohibit to work. You can also go to a professional college or continue to pound the books. The last can give the greenlight to admission to a coveted college.
The graduation ceremony has been celebrated, the GSCE certificate is in your pocket or hung behind the glass in a frame on the wall. But do your ambitions require more? Then, there are several options.
- 1. A-levels – a two-year program for future admission. Foreigners often begin their journey to the goal in the form of an English diploma, namely the A-levels, allowing a student to independently choose subjects to learn. Several exams at the end of A-levels are simultaneously preliminary to the desired study destination.
- 2. Foundation – a program or a specific preparatory course. Unlike the A-levels, this program lasts a year and is indispensable for most foreign students who need to enhance their knowledge after graduation. There is also a kind of Foundation that allows you to combine study with work. Such programs are a result of the cooperation of British universities with employers, which will for sure receive specialists for themselves after graduation.
- 3. You are not obliged to exclusively enter into the universities of Britain. You can get a professional qualification that will provide a stable salary and life opportunities. An undoubted advantage in the process of obtaining professional qualifications is the opportunity to work. The most popular specialties in such institutions are business, IT programming, social work, engineering, art and design, and hairdressing. Another plus of this study is that you can further try to enter a British university by certain moment after you are ready and have enough knowledge.
Finally, meet a cherished and coveted its Royal Majesty Higher Education!
Bachelor or Undergraduate
The degree of a bachelor exists in Britain for several centuries. The duration of training for a bachelor in most cases is 3 years.
Master or Postgraduate
This stage has its specific features: it is not the part of the permanent learning process; many students are satisfied with the bachelor's degree and find for themselves no sense in obtaining a master's degree. It is also a common practice to receive a bachelor's degree, then work for several years, and only after that apply for a master’s program if it is necessary. The duration of study is one year, the study itself is intensive and demanding. A pleasant news is that for those with the diploma of a bachelor received in another country, it is possible to apply to British master's programs.
Ph.D. or Postgraduate
A postgraduate study, as well as a master's degree, can also be called "Research programs" or "Ph.D. programs". Ph.D. is the research projects where lectures and training seminars exist only at the beginning of the program. Usually, until the completion of the research program, it takes 3-4 years. The culmination of the work is the publication of the results obtained and the writing of the dissertation on published materials.
For an admission to the Ph.D. program, you must have a master's degree obtained in Britain or at least in another country. A pleasant news: over the years, the requirements become lighter. No matter how paradoxical it may sound, but it is much more difficult to enroll in a school in England than to a doctoral program.
Instead of a conclusion. As it turned out, there are enough of the options for admission to the coveted universities in the UK. There are at least five of them. If you have a dream, then go to it; if you cannot go, then lie down and lie in its direction. Only with an English book, please. Due to the importance of English knowledge for the admission, it is beyond question at all; we did not say it just because it is so obvious. Perhaps, your presence here, on this webpage, is already the first step to obtaining a foreign diploma.