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British higher education has had a long history. The world famous universities, Oxford and Cambridge, are the oldest ones dating from 1167 and l284. There are over forty universities in Britain. They can be divided into five types: old universities, the four Scottish universities, the middle-aged universities, the new universities, and the Open University and the one independent university. Apart from the universities, there are polytechnics and colleges of higher education for those who fail to get to university or who choose more practical courses.

The term old universities refers to Oxford and Cambridge, which were the only two universities in England until the nineteenth century. Oxford got started in the twelfth century. It has twenty-three ordinary colleges for men, five for women, with about 12 000 students in all. All these colleges are parallel and equal institutions and none of them is connected with any particular field of study or with any particular stage in a student’s career. The university isgoverned by a governing council, while each college is governed by its Fellows （the members of the governing body） who are responsible for teaching their own students through a tutorial system and who elect the head of the college. The university is a sort of Federation of colleges. There is no single building which can be called “the University” and no definite area which could be called a “campus” because the colleges and university buildings are scattered about the town. The university prescribes syllabus, arranges examinations and awards degrees. Part of the teaching is by means of lectures organized by the university, any student may attend any university lecture. The average don （teacher in the university） gives one or two lectures a week on a subject which is his special field of interest.

At the beginning of each term a list is published showing all the lectures being given during the term. Every student can choose the lectures he likes. Attendance at university lectures is not compulsory and no records of attendance are kept. Apart from lectures teaching is by means of the “tutorial system”, which is a system of individual tuition organized by the colleges and has been, in modem times, one of the chief foundations of the greatness of Oxford and Cambridge among universities. Each college is largely independent and the university’s administration is run by a governing council called the Senate. Cambridge is more developed than Oxford in scientific studies and will perhaps appear the more beautiful, for the best part of Cambridge, with a row of colleges side by side along the banks of the River Cam, is more concentrated and easily accessible. Other aspects are similar to those in Oxford University.

Admission to these two universities is mainly by academic merit, but nearly half of the places are won by the pupils of “public schools”. A few colleges tend to be rather keen to admit a few men who are very good at football or some other sport, or sons of former students or of lords or eminent citizens or of millionaires. The extent of these non-academic considerations cannot easily be measured. The number of students whose parents are wealthy is still much larger at Oxford and Cambridge than that in the other universities. Two features of Oxford and Cambridge are widely admired and are being gradually extended to other universities.

One is the college system, whereby all students live in college during at least part of their course. The value of this lies in fostering a community spirit in which a useful mingling of intelligence can take place. Each student can probably know all the students in the other years, too. A very happy and easy relationship is established and every student feels very conscious of belonging to a college. The other is the tutorial system, whereby each student gets personaltuition once a week in his or her tutor’s own room, sitting in an armchair and reading out an essay which he or she and the tutor then discuss. This, with a weekly program of private study, is considered so important at Oxford and Cambridge that students are not even compelled to attend general lectures, which must therefore be of high quality if they are to attract a large student audience.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, four Scottish universities came into existence. They were the Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. St. Andrews University has always had some features in common with Oxford University and Cambridge University, while the Universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh are in the chief cities of Scotland and their students have generally lived at or found their own lodgings. England, at this period, had no other universities besides Oxford and Cambridge until the nineteenth century.

The middle-aged universities include the universities founded from 1830 to 1930. Durham University came into being in 1832, the oldest university in this group and the first English university after Oxford and Cambridge. The University of London, consisting at first of two colleges, was given a charter in 1836; later many colleges were added and there are now about twenty colleges and schools of the university, apart from its medical schools and other professional schools, with, at present, over 40 000 students and in addition a further 30 000 external students who study outside the colleges. The constitution of the university is very complex and it conducts examinations and grants degrees for the students in the various colleges and for the external students in Britain and all over the world. It is the leading university of this group, in which there is also the University of Wales, a federation of seven colleges. A large group of nineteenth and twentieth-century universities were founded in most of the biggest industrial towns and in a few other centers. They started as “university colleges”. All the middle-aged universities were founded, and at first developed, with money provided by private donors, many of whom were local industrialists. They have received most of their financial needs from the state in recent years; however, their original constitution and organization have not been changed.

A group of universities or university colleges sprang up after the Second World War in the not-too-large, but not-too-small industrial town.

In the middle of the 1960s there was a new development. By 1967 ten universities of technology had been given charters among the five hundred local technical colleges maintained by local authorities. Though these universities still concentrate mostly on science and technology, they have languages and social sciences on a small scale. Many students are now choosing the new universities founded since World War Two because of their “modern”approach. All the students have to pay fees and living costs, but every student, apart from the very rich, receives a personal grant from the local authority of the place where he lives. The grant is enough to pay his full costs, including lodging and food. Actually many students take jobs in the summer for about six weeks, but unlike American students, they almost never do outside work during the academic session.

There are three academic degrees in Britain: the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctor’s degrees. The Bachelor’s degree is, in general, given to the students who pass examinations at the end of three or four years of study. The Master’s degree is conferred on the postgraduates who present a thesis based on at least one year’s full time work. The doctor’s degree is awarded to a man or woman who does exhaustive research and presents a thesis which is an original contribution to knowledge.

The Open University, which was founded in 1969, is a most interesting innovation of higher education. As the name suggests, this is open to everybody, and does not demand the same formal qualifications as the other universities, though preparatory work may be required. The university offers courses through one of the B.B.C.’s television channels and by radio, and has tutors and counselors all over Britain, who read papers written by students and discuss them at meetings or by correspondence. There are also some classes in the evenings and residential courses for two or three weeks in the summer. It has to limit the number of new entrants because of its facilities. At the end of the courses, successful students are awarded a university degree. The Open University is perhaps the cheapest and most far-reaching method yet found of spreading higher education.

Buckingham University is an independent university which was established in 1973 andis run by a number of academic and vocational figures, and businessmen. The Department of Education and Science also gives grants to it. In 1976 the first students who were enrolled, studied law, economics and politics. The courses lasted two years.

Most of those who fail to gain entry to a university go on to some other form of higher education. There are about 700 colleges providing mainly technical and commercial courses. They were established in the early 1970’s and maintained by local education authorities.