The Older Civic ('Redbrick') Universities

During the nineteenth century various institutes of higher education, usu-ally with a technical bias, sprang up in the new industrial towns and cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Their buildings were of local material, often brick, in contrast to the stone of older universities (hence the name 'red-

brick'). They catered only for local people. At first, they prepared students for London University degrees, but later they were given the right to award their own degrees, and so became universities themselves. In the mid twentieth cen-tury they started to accept students from all over the country.

The Campus Universities

These are purpose-built institutions located in the countryside but close to towns. Examples are East Anglia, Lancaster, Sussex and Warwick. They have accommodation for most of their students on site and from their beginning, mostly in the early 1960s, attracted students from all over the country. (Many were known as centres of students protest in the late 1960 and early 1970s.) They tend to emphasise relatively 'new' academic disciplines such as social sciences and to make greater use than other universities of teaching in small groups, often known as 'seminars'.

The Newer Civic Universities

These were originally technical colleges set up by local authorities in the first sixty years of this century. Their upgrading to university status took place in two waves. The first wave occurred in the mid 1960s, when ten of them (e.g. Aston in Birmingham, Salford near Manchester and Strachclyde in Glas-gow ) were promoted in this way. Then, in the early 1970s, another thirty be-came 'polytechnics', which meant that as well as continuing with their formers courses, they were allowed to teach degree courses (the degrees being awarded by a national body). In the early 1990s most of these (and also some other colleges) became universities. Their most notable feature is flexibility with regard to studying arrangements, including 'sandwich' courses (i.e. stud-ies interrupted by periods of time outside education). They are now all fi-nanced by central government.

The Open University

This is one development in education in which Britain can claim to have\ led the world. It was started in 1969. It allows people who do not have the op-portunity to be ordinary 'students' to study for a degree. Its courses are taught through television, radio and specially written course-books. Its students work with tutors, to whom they send their written work and with whom they then discuss it, either at meetings or through correspondence. In the summer, they have to attend short residential courses of about a week.

In the text below an international student shares his experience of studying in Britain. He finds the students’ life at the Univer-sity quite relaxing and enjoyable but the requirements seem to be rather demanding. What’s your idea of studying at the uni-versity abroad?