Guest Lecture: British Higher Education

Our lecture on Tuesday from Dr. Taylor provided our group with an understanding of the historical and current system of higher education in Britain. There were some similarities to America’s colleges, but the differences were more significant. The principal contrast is the smaller tuition fees for English students. Up until 1998 higher education was free to students (and not to taxpayers), but lack of funds caused the yearly price of all universities to be set at £3000. This was shocking to us because we pay around $7,000 a year for tuition only at Western Kentucky University. It seems that in America universities are concerned with 1) Monetary gain, whether it is through student fees or alumni donations, 2) Prestige/Academic achievements 3) Sports teams. In Britain, they seem more focused on education or trade, depending on the school. Obviously though they value ranking and reputation as well—Oxbridge being the prime examples.
British universities, though this is a generalization, do not seem to be as concerned with enrollment numbers as American universities. This is probably because of the higher standards of admission at many schools and an already set number of spots. It was interesting to hear about how the grammar schools affected student’s ability to attend university or not. We see a prime example of lower standards but a focus on numbers at WKU: the extremely low admission requirements are a 2.0 grade point average or a 16 on the ACT. Aside from this making us one of the largest universities in the state, I feel that it lowers the value of the undergraduate degree. Another contrasting note was that British students are encouraged to attend university away from their hometown to experience another part of the country, whereas the individual American states, Kentucky in particular, want to retain as much of their educated population as possible. Other than these main differences, higher education in Britain and the States seems pretty similar.