Higher Education in Great Britain
Nowadays higher education in Great Britain is provided by universities, colleges of education, colleges of arts and colleges of further education.
There are 97 universities in Britain, including the Open University. The oldest and best-known universities are located in Oxford, Cambridge, London, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Bristol, and Birmingham. Students are carefully selected. The General Certificate of Secondary Education(GCEA) and good A-level results in at least two subjects are necessary to get a place at a university. However, good certificate and exam scores are not enough. Universities choose their students after interviews.
English universities greatly differ from each other. They differ in date of foundation, size, history, tradition, general organization, methods of instruction, and way of student life.
The universities can be roughly divided into threegroups:
· the oldest universities (Oxford and Cambridge);
· the redbrick universities(founded between 1850 and 1930, including London University);
· the new universities (founded after World War II).
Oxford(12th century) and Cambridge (13th century) are the oldest and most prestigious Universities in Great Britain. They are often called collectively Oxbridge. Both universities are independent. The basis of teaching there is by weeklytutorials. Each student has a tutor who controls and guides his training. Normally a student writes an essay which his tutor criticizes both in writing and in person with the student. Oxford and Cambridge cling to their traditions such as the use of Latin at degree ceremonies. Full academic dress is worn at examinations.
Many great men studied at Cambridge, among them Desiderius Erasmus, the great Dutch scholar,Roger Bacon, the philosopher, Milton, the poet,Oliver Cromwell, the soldier, Newton, the scientist, and Kapitza, the famous Russian physicist.
The general pattern of teaching at other universities remains a mixture of lectures, seminars and tutorials. Each university and department has its own method of assessment, but, in general, progress is measured through a combination of coursework, dissertation and finals (end-of-course examinations).
Other colleges for further education include polytechnics(all have the status of universities), colleges of education,specialist colleges (Agricultural colleges, colleges of Art and Music, etc.), further education colleges.
There is an interesting form of studies which is called the Open University. It is intended for people who study in their own free time and who “attend” lectures by watching television (the BBC) and listening to the radio. They keep in touch by phone and letter with their tutors and attend summer schools. More than 6,000 students, of all ages, get degrees this way every year.
Degree titles vary according to the practice of each university; the most common titles for a first degree areBachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS). Usually they are awarded after four years of study. The second degree titles areMaster of Arts (MA) and Master of Science (MS), the highest degree in most fields is the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
For all Degrees, Higher National Diploma and Higher National Certificate courses as well as for some Postgraduate Diplomas, student allowances are available from Local Educational Authorities in England and Wales and from the Scottish Office Education Department. The grant can be topped up by a loan from the Student Loan Company.
Tuition fees are high. Especially for overseas students, and they are increased each year in line with inflation.
University life is considered “an experience”; the exams are competitive but the social life and living away from home are also important.
PART II
THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY
The Faculty of Philosophy is composed of nine departments:
· Department of Dialectics and Methodology;
· Department of the History of Philosophy;
· Department of the Philosophy of Religion;
· Department of the Theory of Culture, Ethics and Aesthetics.
· Department of Theory of Sociology;
· Department of Applied Sociology;
· Department of Political Sociology;
· Department of Political Science
· Department of Social Work.
Philosophy
The subject of philosophy has changed through thousands of years in close connection with the development of all aspects of spiritual life in society along with the development of science and philosophical thought. The term “philosophy” is derived from the two Greek words: phile - loving and sophia - wisdom.Thus,philosophy is love of wisdom.
Philosophy arose at the dawn of civilization in ancient India, China and Egypt, but it first achieved classical form in ancient Greece.
The most ancient form of world outlook which preceded philosophy in history was religion.
The emergence of philosophy coincides with the beginnings of scientific knowledge, with the need for theoretical inquiry. Philosophy was the first historical form of theoretical knowledge. It was based on a theoretical analysis that was in accord with logic and practical experience.
The early Greek thinkers were mainly interested in understanding the origin of the diverse phenomena of nature. Natural philosophy was the first historical thought.
As specialized scientific knowledge was accumulated and thinkers began to develop specific methods of inquiry, a process of differentiation of theoretical and applied knowledge occured, and mathematics, medicine, astronomy and other disciplines broke away and formed separate branches of knowledge. Greeks were the first to point the way. Among them werePythagoras, who was the first to use the term of Philosophy, Thales, Zenon, Diogenes, Aristotles, Plato and others.
Philosophy has studied the laws of cognition and, primarily, its highest form - science. According to Plato, knowledge only becomes science when it contains a complete survey of all possible objects within a particular domain and reveals the essential systematic connections between them.
For Aristotle knowledge has an unquestioned Supremacy.
The age of the Renaissanceand particularly the 17th and 18th centuries accelerated the process of differentiation of scientific knowledge. This progressive division brought about a qualitative change in the role and place of philosophy in the system of knowledge and its relationship to the specialized sciences.
The interrelationships between philosophy and specialized sciences have been extremely complex and contradictory.
The success of the specialized sciences, particularly mathematics and mechanics prompted philosophers to study their methods, so that they could find out whether these methods could be used in philosophy.
The differentiation and specialization of science has demonstrated that there are problems that cannot be solved within the frame of specialized knowledge, that some problems have to be dealt with by philosophy as well as by the sciences. In fact, such problems can be solved only by their joint efforts. There are also some specific philosophical problems that philosophy alone can solve, but even here a solution can be obtained only if philosophy relies on scientific data and advanced social practice.
In conclusion, it should be noted that philosophy is not only a science about the general laws of the development of nature, society and consciousness; it is a way of looking at the world and a dialectical method. Thus, philosophy is a very broad science, and knowledge of philosophy helps one to better understand the world, its laws and ones’ interpersonal relations. Moreover it helps one to penetrate the depths of the human mind.
Culturology