Britpick: University education

Okay, since I'm not actually getting anything useful done for myself today, I figured I should try to do something useful for other people.

As with my last Britpick post, I need to start with a few disclaimers:
- My educational experience was from 1999-2003. Stuff changes, although as I still work for the university, I'm pretty sure students don't.
- My experience is entirely Oxford, which is a huge bias, although I've done my best to be general.
- This is just about first degrees. If I start on Masters and Doctorates, I could write as much again, which I'm happy to do if it's wanted.
- I'm talking very specifically about what happens in England and Wales, sometimes just England. Scottish education is quite different, and I'm not qualified to talk about it, so I don't! As far as I'm aware, Wales broadly has the same system as England, but I'll take corrections, obviously!
- I cannot cover everything. Even slightly. Please ask or point out if I've missed something obvious!

This got rather long, but it covers:

~ Terminology
~ Getting in
~ What you study
~ What you pay
~ University life
~ Oxbridge, Red Bricks and the Russell Group

( Let's start at the very beginning )

As you can tell, this took quite a bit of putting together, and even then, it's not comprehensive. Hopefully the useful links below will get you started on your research, and if in doubt, please just ask either me here or over on paperpushers.

I think we'll go back to some slang for the next essay, as hopefully I can get that done in fewer words! And I'm still taking requests if there's anything people want to read.


Useful links:

Department of education
UCAS
Student Loan Company
University rankings table
Ofqal oversee all qualifications in England
The Russell Group
NUS (national union of students)
The Open University