The British Higher Education

There are over a million students in the British higher education. The Government aims to have widened access to the point where 1 in 3 young people goes into higher education. All Britain’s universities enjoy complete academic freedom. They appoint their own staff and decide what and how to teach.

The tradition of excellence dates back to the Middle Ages when Oxford and Cambridge Universities were founded. The rest of Britain’s 47 universities were set up in the last 200 years. First degree courses usually last 3 or 4 years. The Open University is a little different, because it relies on distance-learning.

England and Wales’s 34 polytechnics tend to be more vocationally-oriented than universities. Many polytechnics have close links with business.

At university or polytechnic people study for a degree. In general, the first degree is awarded after 3-4 year study and success in examination. It is Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts (B.Sc. or B.A. in short). If the graduate is awarded Honours it means his or her degree is of a higher standard than ordinary pass. After another year or two of study and second degree, an M.A. (Master of Arts) or M.Sc. ( Master of Sciences) is obtained.

Finally, if they undertake research work and produce a thesis, after another few years, they can receive the third, highest level degree, the Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy).

Americans and Higher Education

Americans have shown a great concern for education since colonial times. Among the first settlers there was an unusual high proportion of educated men. Some of these men, graduates of Cambridge, founded Harvard College in 1636.

Today about 60% of all schools graduates enter about 3600 colleges and universities of the USA.

The United States does not have a national system of education. The result of this is a big variety in higher education.

Local high schools will offer courses which they feel best reflect their students’ needs. Students at the same school will be taking courses in different areas.

Education in America has also traditionally served the goal of bringing people together, that is, of “Americanization”. There are bilingual and bicultural education programs. 80 languages are being used for instruction in American high schools.

There are two tests for high school students who wish to attend a college or university. The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) attempts to measure aptitudes in verbal and mathematic fields. The ACT (American College Testing) – in English, mathematics, social and natural sciences. Each year more than 3 million school students take the Tests. They are used by universities as standards for comparison, but are not official.

Unit 2 Later Lingua Franca

German, or a form of it, was the lingua franca of the Holy Roman Empire, from the time of Charlemagne to the 16th century. After that, it was still considered the language of science well into the beginning of the 20th century, along with some remnants of Latin nomenclature. Some scientific literature is still published simultaneously in English and German. After WWII, German became less politically correct, and more and more work which would have been published only in German was published jointly in German and English, or only in English.

French was the preeminent language of diplomacy from the 17th century until the Treaty of Versailles, in the 20th century, when the Treaty was written both in English and French. It was used internationally for so many purposes that it is still of great importance in international organizations, and of the six languages that are the official languages of the United Nations, it is French and English in which most international documents are written. French was also the language of literature and letters as Latin grew less used.

Spanish grew in importance in the period of world colonization, and still is a lingua franca throughout most of Central and South America, as well as some of the other former Spanish colonies in Africa and some of Asia. As well, it continues to become of greater importance in the United States, as a growing percentage of the American population speaks Spanish as a native tongue.

Russian was the lingua franca of the USSR, of the Soviet Union - used throughout all the different countries in the USSR. Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the number of official speakers has dropped drastically, although that may also be a political decision. It is no longer accepted as the sole lingua franca of the former Soviet Union, and many countries have resorted to English rather than use Russian to communicate between different nations. Some scientific material is also published simultaneously in both Russian and English, and Russian continues to be a presence on the Internet.

Chinese, or its various dialects, was the lingua franca of Asia, and again is as important as it was in the time of the Mandarin Empire. It also is spoken natively by more people than any other language. Through the sheer numbers of people speaking Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, it is growing in significance as a language on the Internet.

Hebrew, which is not a language spoken by a huge portion of the world's inhabitants, remains a lingua franca, as it has since the time of the Romans, and the diaspora of the Jews. It spread throughout Europe and the Middle East as a way for Jews in different countries to communicate with one another despite the languages of the many countries where they were born. It has also stayed important in its role as a lingua franca because of its religious significance.