Education in the UK
Content
UNIT 2: LECTURE 9
Education in the UK
THE RISE OF PRIMARY
& SECONDARY EDUCATION
EDUCATING THE ELITES
British public schools
Eton college
Rugby
Harrow school
Durham school
(/ˈdʌrəm/, locally /ˈdʊrəm/)
GLOSSARY: Learn also “boarding school” and “independent school”
Origins of the public school system
The British public school can be characterized by institutional independence,
an emphasis on the ideal of a "liberal" curriculum, and a fee-paying student
body that frequently boards at the school.
An elite group of institutions lie at the core of the system — the “Great Nine”:
Winchester,1382; Eton,1440; St. Paul's, 1509; Shrewsbury, 1552; Westminster,
1179, re-founded in 1560; Merchant Taylors' ,1561; Rugby,1567; Harrow, 1572;
and Charter-house, 1611.
The earliest of the public schools were originally intended to provide clerical
training for the poor, but soon the increasing demands for fees turned them
into the sole preserve of the wealthy.
The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw public schools accused of
brutality, inefficiency, and corruption, both financial and moral.
However, under the influence of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby from
1828 to 1842, the public schools were transformed and set out to improve the
“character” of their pupils through a cult of sports and qualities such as fair
play, unselfishness, and team spirit. esprit de corps as the basis for
“gentlemanly conduct.” In the classroom, study was similarly oriented toward
the cultivation of moral and behavioural attributes fitting for the social elite.
Arnold and his imitators gave the public schools their main common features:
pupil prefectures, the house system, organized games, the cult of the
amateur, and a renewed sense of importance vested in the study of the
classics.
Sports: from public schools to public culture
Winchester college
cricket
football
rowing
rugby
Glossary: learn “football” versus “soccer”
The school system disseminates with Empire
Upper Canada College
Pretoria Boys High School
(South Africa)
Melbourne High School
(Australia)
Kings College, Auckland
(New Zealand)
The archetypal public school in film
Watch the clip paying special attention to accent, clothing and architecture
These are some prominent public-school students:
What are they famous for?
The Duke of
Wellington
Henry Fielding
Sir Joseph Banks
Percy Shelly
George Orwell
John M. Keynes
Ian Fleming
Sir Francis Bacon
Boris Johnson
David Cameron
Hugh Laurie
EDUCATING THE LOWER CLASSES
APPRENTICESHIP
Apprentices’ schools were regulated by law in the 16th century.
Broadly they established that in order to practise a trade or craft
you had to serve for 7 years as an apprentice with a master.
This was often a source of exploitation of child labour, but the
system was exported to the American colonies.
In the 18th century restrictions were applied only to those trades
in existence in 1563, but not to the new jobs appearing with the
Industrial Revolution.
Parish apprenticeships later appeared to cater for the basic
education needs of the poor. These were created and financed
by parishes with the consent of two Justices of Peace, and
provided basic education for farm labourers, household servants
and other menial jobs such as bricklayers.
William Hogarth reflects the situation of apprentices in his
series Industry and Idleness (1745). In the 19th c. Charles
Dickens would do in his time with the remains of the system.
Thoroughly modified and improved the system has survived into
the 21st century and seems to be going through a revival, not
only in the UK but throughout Europe. For more information on
apprenticeships in England nowadays visit, for instance:
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/working-in-the-nhs/joining-thenhs/apprenticeships-in-england/
The Fellow Apprentices at
their Looms, from
Industry and Idleness, I.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
The world's first Sunday Schools were established in the 16th century,
although their proliferation dates back to the eve of the Industrial
Revolution.
In 1780 Robert Raikes, the owner of the Gloucester Journal, and a local
curate, Thomas Stock, decided to start a Sunday School at St. Mary le
Crypt Church in Gloucester. Every Sunday the two men gave lessons in
reading and writing. He called his school an experiment at “botanizing
in human nature” and claimed his vision was to “create a new race out
of what others called waste.”
In July 1784 John Wesley recorded in his journal that “Sabbath
schools” were "springing up everywhere". In 1785 a London ‘Society
for the Establishment and Support of Sunday Schools’ was established
by William Fox, a London draper in Cheapside and a member of the
Particular Baptist Church in Prescott Street providing for free education
for the poor. Fox encouraged every church to establish a Sunday School
that would provide free education for the poor. The text book was the
Bible.
In 1801 there were 2,290 Sunday schools and by 1851 this had
grown to 23,135. It was estimated that by the middle of the
19th century, around two-thirds of all working class children
aged between 5 and 15 were attending Sunday Schools.
Why Sundays?
Robert Raikes
RAGGED SCHOOLS: an experiment at social reform
According to Charles Dickens “ragged schools” were an effort "to
introduce among the most miserable and neglected outcasts in
London, some knowledge of the commonest principles of morality
and religion; to commence their recognition as immortal human
creatures, before the Gaol Chaplain becomes their only
schoolmaster; to suggest to Society that its duty to this wretched
throng, foredoomed to crime and punishment, rightfully begins at
some distance from the Police-office; and that the careless
maintenance from year to year, in this capital city of the world, of a
vast hopeless nursery of ignorance, misery and vice, a breeding
place for the hulks and gaols, is horrible to contemplate”.
"This attempt is being made in certain of the most obscure and
squalid parts of the Metropolis; where rooms are opened at night,
for the gratuitous instruction of all comers, children or adults,
under the title of “RAGGED SCHOOLS” The name implies the
purpose. They who are too ragged, wretched, filthy, and forlorn,
to enter any other place: who could gain admission into no
charity-school, and who would be driven from any church-door:
are invited to come in here, and find some people not depraved,
willing to teach them something, and show them some sympathy,
and stretch out a hand which is not the iron hand of the Law, for
their correction."
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION
The expansion of state education
VICTORIAN ENGLAND
legislation passed to enhance the primary education of
the working classes:
> Forster’s Elementary Education Act (1870): created local school boards
in England and Wales which built and financed elementary schools.
> Elementary Education (School Attendance) Acts
> Free Education Act (1891): introduced the first co-financed system (the
state paid 11 shillings per student between 5 and 10)
Balfour Act (1902): abolished school boards and created the Local Education
Authorities (LEAs) and allowed for all schools, including denominational
schools, to be funded through local taxation.
EARLY 20TH CENTURY expansion of state schooling reaches secondary
education:
> Education Act of 1918 (Fisher Act ): enforced compulsory education from
5-14 and included provisions for compulsory part time education for 14
to 18-year old.
> The 1944 Education Act (The Butler Act): reorganized state primary and
secondary schools in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland,
1947). State schooling became free and compulsory up to the age of 15 and
was divided into three stages (the Tripartite System): primary schools (5-11
years), secondary schools (11-15 years) and further post-school training. It also
divided elementary schools into county (non-denominational) and voluntary
(denominational schools , i.e. schools founded by religious and other groups).
These were now partially financed by LEAs (similar to Spanish “concertados”).
Grammar schools vs. comprehensives
Following the Butler Act, most state secondary schools in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland were divided into grammar schools, secondary
modern schools and technical schools.
Placement in these schools depended on the ELEVEN-PLUS EXAMINATION,
which consisted of intelligence tests which covered linguistic, mathematical
and general knowledge issues. The object was to differentiate between
academic and non-academic children. Those who passed the eleven-plus
went to grammar schools, whereas those who failed went to either the
secondary modern or to technical schools.
Although all schools were supposed to be equal in their educational aims,
the grammar schools were rightly thought to provide a better (more
academic) education and better qualify children for entry into higher
education and the professions. Secondary modern schools, on the
contrary, emphasized basic schooling and were not oriented to pass
national examinations.
In the 1950s Labour and other critics began to claim that the eleven-plus
examination was socially divisive and perpetuated the class system.
Accordingly, in 1964, the Labour government abolished secondary school
divisions and created “comprehensive schools”, to which children would be
automatically transferred after primary school and which admitted children
from all ability levels and social backgrounds in a local area.
The “comprehensive /selection” debate was fierce throughout the sixties
and seventies. English secondary schools are nowadays mostly
comprehensive, but some 164 grammar schools remain.
British education into the 21st century
The debate over education has continued into the 21st century with
different ‒if not always distinct ‒ government approaches:
> Conservative [Margaret Thatcher and John Major]: Marketization
Their policies curtailed the control of the LEAs and reinforced the
control of the central government. They introduced the National
Curriculum and a system of “Key Stages” with educational
objectives to be achieved in each of those. They also incorporated
parental school choice (providing public money for children to go to
private schools) and performance league tables. They reorganised the
inspection system which came to be known as Ofsted.
> New Labour [Tony Blair]: Farewell to the comprehensive ideal
They turned away from traditional Labour non-selective policies and
opted for a policy of “selection by specialisation”, which allowed
schools to select a small proportion of their students on the basis of
“perceived attitudes”. They set up a scheme to improve literacy and
numeracy standards and LEAs were given more funds so that class sizes
could be reduced. Achievements of ethnic minority students were
targeted from improvement and there were also new teacher- training
schemes. Education Action Zones (EAZs) were set up to provide
support in deprived areas, which combined public and private
investments, and some LEAs were privatised. A network of cityacademies: public/private partnerships built and managed by business,
churches and voluntary groups. They promoted the expansion of faith
schools.
HIGHER/TERTIARY EDUCATION
The British model of higher education
Higher education includes both the teaching and the research activities
of universities, and consists both of an undergraduate level and a
graduate (or postgraduate ) level.
There is a three-level hierarchy of degrees (Bachelor, Master, Doctor)
currently used in the United Kingdom:
• An undergraduate student is an individual who is enrolled in a
bachelor’s degree.
• A graduate student is an individual who has completed a bachelor's
degree (B.A. or B.S./B.Sc.) and is pursuing further higher education,
in order to achieve a master's degree (M.A., M.S./M.Sc., M.Ed., etc.)
or doctorate (Ph.D., Ed.D., D.Sc., etc.)
OXBRIDGE
Oxbridge is a portmanteau
word formed from Oxford and
Cambridge and first used by
William Thackeray in Pendennis
(1849). It is now currently used
by specialised and general
publications alike. It is often
used with implications of social
status.
Oxford
ORIGINS:
• It is the oldest university in the English-speaking
world. There is no clear date of foundation, but
teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and
developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned
English students from attending the University of
Paris.
• In the 13th century, rioting between town and gown
(townspeople and students) hastened the
establishment of primitive halls of residence. These
were succeeded by the first of Oxford's colleges:
University, Balliol and Merton.
• In 1355, Edward III paid tribute to the University for
its invaluable contribution to learning; he also
commented on the services rendered to the state by
distinguished Oxford graduates.
• From its early days, Oxford was a centre for lively
controversy, with scholars involved in religious and
political disputes.
• From 1878, academic halls were established for
women and they were admitted to full membership
of the University in 1920.
Cambridge
ORIGINS:
•
1209: scholars taking refuge from hostile
townsmen in Oxford migrated to Cambridge and
settled there.
•
1231: King Henry III took the scholars under his
protection and ensured them a monopoly of
teaching.
•
Students studied first a “foundation course” in
arts - grammar, logic and rhetoric - followed later
by arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy,
leading to the degrees of bachelor and master.
•
Most of the scholars of the University were at
first clerks or clergymen, expecting careers in the
Church or in the Civil Service.
•
In its earliest days, the University had no
premises of its own. The earliest College was St
Peter's or Peterhouse, founded in 1284 by Hugh
Balsham, Bishop of Ely. King's Hall was founded
by King Edward II in 1317.
Other “ancient universities”
The term “ancient universities” is used to refer to medieval and renaissance
universities that still exist today. Most of them are located in Scotland.
St. Andrews
Glasgow
Aberdeen
Durham
Edinburgh
Red brick universities
•
This term is used to refer to a group of universities founded
in the major industrial cities of England at the beginning of
the 20th century. They developed out of various 19th c.
research and education institutions. The University of
Birmingham, for instance, has its origins in the Birmingham
Medical School, dating back to 1825.
•
Unlike Oxford and Cambridge they are non-collegiate
universities, following the model of the Humboldt University
in Berlin.
•
They emphasized practical knowledge often linked to
engineering and admitted men without regarding their
religion or social background.
•
The six “civic universities” originally called red bricks are: U.
of Birmingham, U. of Bristol, U. of Leeds, U. of Liverpool, U.
of Manchester, and the U. of Sheffield
•
The term is often extended to include other universities
granted a charter between the turn of the century and 1963.
These include, for example, the universities of Cardiff, Wales
(Bangor), Southampton, Hull, Swansea, etc.
Plate-glass universities
In 1963, a report of the Committee on Higher
Education, called the Robbins report, triggered off a
massive expansion of higher education in the UK.
According to the Robbins principle “universities should
be available to all who were qualified for them by
ability and attainment”.
As a result, new universities were chartered and
Colleges of Advanced Technology were given university
status. Consequently, the number of full-time university
students rose from 197,000 in the 1967-68 academic
year to 217,000 in 1973-74 with "further big
expansion" thereafter.
Due to their modern architecture and the predominant
use of large stretches of plate glass in steel or concrete
frames, the institutions founded in the 1960s are often
called "Plate Glass Universities".
Some plate-glass universities such as York and Warwick
have by now out-performed some red- brick ones,
especially on the field of research.
The Open University (OU)
The expansion of higher education in the UK was
enhanced even further in 1969, under Labour PM Harold
Wilson, with the foundation of The Open University,
the country’s single distance-learning institution.
Unlike other universities, the OU does not take into
account student’s previous academic achievements for
entry to most undergraduate courses.
With more than 250,000 students enrolled, it is the
largest academic institution in the United Kingdom and
qualifies as one of the world's largest universities.
The OU Business School is the largest provider of MBAs
in the UK, producing more graduates than all the rest of
the business schools in the UK put together.
Inspired by institutions in the USSR and US, The Open
University quickly became a world leader in distance
education and has always has an international outlook.
Meanwhile, the regional and national centres have been
crucial to the student experience, and the University has
embraced new technology to expand its reach.
HIGHER EDUCATION: New times, old struggle
Education in British culture: two icons
Education and rebellion
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teachers! leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teachers! leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
"wrong, do it again!"
"if you don't eat ever meat, you can't have any pudding, how can you
Have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"you! yes, you behind the bike sheds, stand still laddy!"
In 1979 Pink Floyd published their famous album The Wall, the single song titled “Another Brick
on the Wall” made a harsh critique of the traditional school system. Watch the clip and reflect on
the meaning of the song: Any comment on the grammar of the lyrics?
Educating a lower-class woman
This comedy, by Liverpool playwright Willy Russell was first performed by
the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980 and released as a film in 1983.
It revolves around the personal and pedagogical relationship between
Rita, a twenty-six years old hairdresser from Liverpool, and her main
tutor, Dr. Frank Bryant, who teaches comparative literature at the
university and has lost all enthusiasm for his academic field and loathes
most of his regular students and teaching duties.
The play offers a very interesting insight into major issues concerning
education then and now, mainly about the importance of opening
university education to society at large.
Rita wants to be a different person, and live an altogether different sort
of life than she has been living so far, so she enrolls in the Open
University. "Educating Rita" describes the trials and transformations that
the young hairdresser has to go through to develop from a person with
hardly any formal schooling at all into a student who passes her
university exams with ease and distinction. In the course of telling this
story, the film also suggests what the ultimate purpose of a liberal
education may be. Furthermore Rita’s case helps revive the interest of
her burnt-out tutor, a metaphor intended to suggest the possibilities of
renewal that the new students and study methods of the open
University could bring into the old university system.
The play is now used as a set book for the literature paper in the GCSE
(General Certificate of Secondary Education). There are also several
study guides available in the Internet.
Education in the UK
THE RISE OF PRIMARY
& SECONDARY EDUCATION
EDUCATING THE ELITES
British public schools
Eton college
Rugby
Harrow school
Durham school
(/ˈdʌrəm/, locally /ˈdʊrəm/)
GLOSSARY: Learn also “boarding school” and “independent school”
Origins of the public school system
The British public school can be characterized by institutional independence,
an emphasis on the ideal of a "liberal" curriculum, and a fee-paying student
body that frequently boards at the school.
An elite group of institutions lie at the core of the system — the “Great Nine”:
Winchester,1382; Eton,1440; St. Paul's, 1509; Shrewsbury, 1552; Westminster,
1179, re-founded in 1560; Merchant Taylors' ,1561; Rugby,1567; Harrow, 1572;
and Charter-house, 1611.
The earliest of the public schools were originally intended to provide clerical
training for the poor, but soon the increasing demands for fees turned them
into the sole preserve of the wealthy.
The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw public schools accused of
brutality, inefficiency, and corruption, both financial and moral.
However, under the influence of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby from
1828 to 1842, the public schools were transformed and set out to improve the
“character” of their pupils through a cult of sports and qualities such as fair
play, unselfishness, and team spirit. esprit de corps as the basis for
“gentlemanly conduct.” In the classroom, study was similarly oriented toward
the cultivation of moral and behavioural attributes fitting for the social elite.
Arnold and his imitators gave the public schools their main common features:
pupil prefectures, the house system, organized games, the cult of the
amateur, and a renewed sense of importance vested in the study of the
classics.
Sports: from public schools to public culture
Winchester college
cricket
football
rowing
rugby
Glossary: learn “football” versus “soccer”
The school system disseminates with Empire
Upper Canada College
Pretoria Boys High School
(South Africa)
Melbourne High School
(Australia)
Kings College, Auckland
(New Zealand)
The archetypal public school in film
Watch the clip paying special attention to accent, clothing and architecture
These are some prominent public-school students:
What are they famous for?
The Duke of
Wellington
Henry Fielding
Sir Joseph Banks
Percy Shelly
George Orwell
John M. Keynes
Ian Fleming
Sir Francis Bacon
Boris Johnson
David Cameron
Hugh Laurie
EDUCATING THE LOWER CLASSES
APPRENTICESHIP
Apprentices’ schools were regulated by law in the 16th century.
Broadly they established that in order to practise a trade or craft
you had to serve for 7 years as an apprentice with a master.
This was often a source of exploitation of child labour, but the
system was exported to the American colonies.
In the 18th century restrictions were applied only to those trades
in existence in 1563, but not to the new jobs appearing with the
Industrial Revolution.
Parish apprenticeships later appeared to cater for the basic
education needs of the poor. These were created and financed
by parishes with the consent of two Justices of Peace, and
provided basic education for farm labourers, household servants
and other menial jobs such as bricklayers.
William Hogarth reflects the situation of apprentices in his
series Industry and Idleness (1745). In the 19th c. Charles
Dickens would do in his time with the remains of the system.
Thoroughly modified and improved the system has survived into
the 21st century and seems to be going through a revival, not
only in the UK but throughout Europe. For more information on
apprenticeships in England nowadays visit, for instance:
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/working-in-the-nhs/joining-thenhs/apprenticeships-in-england/
The Fellow Apprentices at
their Looms, from
Industry and Idleness, I.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
The world's first Sunday Schools were established in the 16th century,
although their proliferation dates back to the eve of the Industrial
Revolution.
In 1780 Robert Raikes, the owner of the Gloucester Journal, and a local
curate, Thomas Stock, decided to start a Sunday School at St. Mary le
Crypt Church in Gloucester. Every Sunday the two men gave lessons in
reading and writing. He called his school an experiment at “botanizing
in human nature” and claimed his vision was to “create a new race out
of what others called waste.”
In July 1784 John Wesley recorded in his journal that “Sabbath
schools” were "springing up everywhere". In 1785 a London ‘Society
for the Establishment and Support of Sunday Schools’ was established
by William Fox, a London draper in Cheapside and a member of the
Particular Baptist Church in Prescott Street providing for free education
for the poor. Fox encouraged every church to establish a Sunday School
that would provide free education for the poor. The text book was the
Bible.
In 1801 there were 2,290 Sunday schools and by 1851 this had
grown to 23,135. It was estimated that by the middle of the
19th century, around two-thirds of all working class children
aged between 5 and 15 were attending Sunday Schools.
Why Sundays?
Robert Raikes
RAGGED SCHOOLS: an experiment at social reform
According to Charles Dickens “ragged schools” were an effort "to
introduce among the most miserable and neglected outcasts in
London, some knowledge of the commonest principles of morality
and religion; to commence their recognition as immortal human
creatures, before the Gaol Chaplain becomes their only
schoolmaster; to suggest to Society that its duty to this wretched
throng, foredoomed to crime and punishment, rightfully begins at
some distance from the Police-office; and that the careless
maintenance from year to year, in this capital city of the world, of a
vast hopeless nursery of ignorance, misery and vice, a breeding
place for the hulks and gaols, is horrible to contemplate”.
"This attempt is being made in certain of the most obscure and
squalid parts of the Metropolis; where rooms are opened at night,
for the gratuitous instruction of all comers, children or adults,
under the title of “RAGGED SCHOOLS” The name implies the
purpose. They who are too ragged, wretched, filthy, and forlorn,
to enter any other place: who could gain admission into no
charity-school, and who would be driven from any church-door:
are invited to come in here, and find some people not depraved,
willing to teach them something, and show them some sympathy,
and stretch out a hand which is not the iron hand of the Law, for
their correction."
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION
The expansion of state education
VICTORIAN ENGLAND
legislation passed to enhance the primary education of
the working classes:
> Forster’s Elementary Education Act (1870): created local school boards
in England and Wales which built and financed elementary schools.
> Elementary Education (School Attendance) Acts
> Free Education Act (1891): introduced the first co-financed system (the
state paid 11 shillings per student between 5 and 10)
Balfour Act (1902): abolished school boards and created the Local Education
Authorities (LEAs) and allowed for all schools, including denominational
schools, to be funded through local taxation.
EARLY 20TH CENTURY expansion of state schooling reaches secondary
education:
> Education Act of 1918 (Fisher Act ): enforced compulsory education from
5-14 and included provisions for compulsory part time education for 14
to 18-year old.
> The 1944 Education Act (The Butler Act): reorganized state primary and
secondary schools in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland,
1947). State schooling became free and compulsory up to the age of 15 and
was divided into three stages (the Tripartite System): primary schools (5-11
years), secondary schools (11-15 years) and further post-school training. It also
divided elementary schools into county (non-denominational) and voluntary
(denominational schools , i.e. schools founded by religious and other groups).
These were now partially financed by LEAs (similar to Spanish “concertados”).
Grammar schools vs. comprehensives
Following the Butler Act, most state secondary schools in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland were divided into grammar schools, secondary
modern schools and technical schools.
Placement in these schools depended on the ELEVEN-PLUS EXAMINATION,
which consisted of intelligence tests which covered linguistic, mathematical
and general knowledge issues. The object was to differentiate between
academic and non-academic children. Those who passed the eleven-plus
went to grammar schools, whereas those who failed went to either the
secondary modern or to technical schools.
Although all schools were supposed to be equal in their educational aims,
the grammar schools were rightly thought to provide a better (more
academic) education and better qualify children for entry into higher
education and the professions. Secondary modern schools, on the
contrary, emphasized basic schooling and were not oriented to pass
national examinations.
In the 1950s Labour and other critics began to claim that the eleven-plus
examination was socially divisive and perpetuated the class system.
Accordingly, in 1964, the Labour government abolished secondary school
divisions and created “comprehensive schools”, to which children would be
automatically transferred after primary school and which admitted children
from all ability levels and social backgrounds in a local area.
The “comprehensive /selection” debate was fierce throughout the sixties
and seventies. English secondary schools are nowadays mostly
comprehensive, but some 164 grammar schools remain.
British education into the 21st century
The debate over education has continued into the 21st century with
different ‒if not always distinct ‒ government approaches:
> Conservative [Margaret Thatcher and John Major]: Marketization
Their policies curtailed the control of the LEAs and reinforced the
control of the central government. They introduced the National
Curriculum and a system of “Key Stages” with educational
objectives to be achieved in each of those. They also incorporated
parental school choice (providing public money for children to go to
private schools) and performance league tables. They reorganised the
inspection system which came to be known as Ofsted.
> New Labour [Tony Blair]: Farewell to the comprehensive ideal
They turned away from traditional Labour non-selective policies and
opted for a policy of “selection by specialisation”, which allowed
schools to select a small proportion of their students on the basis of
“perceived attitudes”. They set up a scheme to improve literacy and
numeracy standards and LEAs were given more funds so that class sizes
could be reduced. Achievements of ethnic minority students were
targeted from improvement and there were also new teacher- training
schemes. Education Action Zones (EAZs) were set up to provide
support in deprived areas, which combined public and private
investments, and some LEAs were privatised. A network of cityacademies: public/private partnerships built and managed by business,
churches and voluntary groups. They promoted the expansion of faith
schools.
HIGHER/TERTIARY EDUCATION
The British model of higher education
Higher education includes both the teaching and the research activities
of universities, and consists both of an undergraduate level and a
graduate (or postgraduate ) level.
There is a three-level hierarchy of degrees (Bachelor, Master, Doctor)
currently used in the United Kingdom:
• An undergraduate student is an individual who is enrolled in a
bachelor’s degree.
• A graduate student is an individual who has completed a bachelor's
degree (B.A. or B.S./B.Sc.) and is pursuing further higher education,
in order to achieve a master's degree (M.A., M.S./M.Sc., M.Ed., etc.)
or doctorate (Ph.D., Ed.D., D.Sc., etc.)
OXBRIDGE
Oxbridge is a portmanteau
word formed from Oxford and
Cambridge and first used by
William Thackeray in Pendennis
(1849). It is now currently used
by specialised and general
publications alike. It is often
used with implications of social
status.
Oxford
ORIGINS:
• It is the oldest university in the English-speaking
world. There is no clear date of foundation, but
teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and
developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned
English students from attending the University of
Paris.
• In the 13th century, rioting between town and gown
(townspeople and students) hastened the
establishment of primitive halls of residence. These
were succeeded by the first of Oxford's colleges:
University, Balliol and Merton.
• In 1355, Edward III paid tribute to the University for
its invaluable contribution to learning; he also
commented on the services rendered to the state by
distinguished Oxford graduates.
• From its early days, Oxford was a centre for lively
controversy, with scholars involved in religious and
political disputes.
• From 1878, academic halls were established for
women and they were admitted to full membership
of the University in 1920.
Cambridge
ORIGINS:
•
1209: scholars taking refuge from hostile
townsmen in Oxford migrated to Cambridge and
settled there.
•
1231: King Henry III took the scholars under his
protection and ensured them a monopoly of
teaching.
•
Students studied first a “foundation course” in
arts - grammar, logic and rhetoric - followed later
by arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy,
leading to the degrees of bachelor and master.
•
Most of the scholars of the University were at
first clerks or clergymen, expecting careers in the
Church or in the Civil Service.
•
In its earliest days, the University had no
premises of its own. The earliest College was St
Peter's or Peterhouse, founded in 1284 by Hugh
Balsham, Bishop of Ely. King's Hall was founded
by King Edward II in 1317.
Other “ancient universities”
The term “ancient universities” is used to refer to medieval and renaissance
universities that still exist today. Most of them are located in Scotland.
St. Andrews
Glasgow
Aberdeen
Durham
Edinburgh
Red brick universities
•
This term is used to refer to a group of universities founded
in the major industrial cities of England at the beginning of
the 20th century. They developed out of various 19th c.
research and education institutions. The University of
Birmingham, for instance, has its origins in the Birmingham
Medical School, dating back to 1825.
•
Unlike Oxford and Cambridge they are non-collegiate
universities, following the model of the Humboldt University
in Berlin.
•
They emphasized practical knowledge often linked to
engineering and admitted men without regarding their
religion or social background.
•
The six “civic universities” originally called red bricks are: U.
of Birmingham, U. of Bristol, U. of Leeds, U. of Liverpool, U.
of Manchester, and the U. of Sheffield
•
The term is often extended to include other universities
granted a charter between the turn of the century and 1963.
These include, for example, the universities of Cardiff, Wales
(Bangor), Southampton, Hull, Swansea, etc.
Plate-glass universities
In 1963, a report of the Committee on Higher
Education, called the Robbins report, triggered off a
massive expansion of higher education in the UK.
According to the Robbins principle “universities should
be available to all who were qualified for them by
ability and attainment”.
As a result, new universities were chartered and
Colleges of Advanced Technology were given university
status. Consequently, the number of full-time university
students rose from 197,000 in the 1967-68 academic
year to 217,000 in 1973-74 with "further big
expansion" thereafter.
Due to their modern architecture and the predominant
use of large stretches of plate glass in steel or concrete
frames, the institutions founded in the 1960s are often
called "Plate Glass Universities".
Some plate-glass universities such as York and Warwick
have by now out-performed some red- brick ones,
especially on the field of research.
The Open University (OU)
The expansion of higher education in the UK was
enhanced even further in 1969, under Labour PM Harold
Wilson, with the foundation of The Open University,
the country’s single distance-learning institution.
Unlike other universities, the OU does not take into
account student’s previous academic achievements for
entry to most undergraduate courses.
With more than 250,000 students enrolled, it is the
largest academic institution in the United Kingdom and
qualifies as one of the world's largest universities.
The OU Business School is the largest provider of MBAs
in the UK, producing more graduates than all the rest of
the business schools in the UK put together.
Inspired by institutions in the USSR and US, The Open
University quickly became a world leader in distance
education and has always has an international outlook.
Meanwhile, the regional and national centres have been
crucial to the student experience, and the University has
embraced new technology to expand its reach.
HIGHER EDUCATION: New times, old struggle
Education in British culture: two icons
Education and rebellion
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teachers! leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teachers! leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
"wrong, do it again!"
"if you don't eat ever meat, you can't have any pudding, how can you
Have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"you! yes, you behind the bike sheds, stand still laddy!"
In 1979 Pink Floyd published their famous album The Wall, the single song titled “Another Brick
on the Wall” made a harsh critique of the traditional school system. Watch the clip and reflect on
the meaning of the song: Any comment on the grammar of the lyrics?
Educating a lower-class woman
This comedy, by Liverpool playwright Willy Russell was first performed by
the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980 and released as a film in 1983.
It revolves around the personal and pedagogical relationship between
Rita, a twenty-six years old hairdresser from Liverpool, and her main
tutor, Dr. Frank Bryant, who teaches comparative literature at the
university and has lost all enthusiasm for his academic field and loathes
most of his regular students and teaching duties.
The play offers a very interesting insight into major issues concerning
education then and now, mainly about the importance of opening
university education to society at large.
Rita wants to be a different person, and live an altogether different sort
of life than she has been living so far, so she enrolls in the Open
University. "Educating Rita" describes the trials and transformations that
the young hairdresser has to go through to develop from a person with
hardly any formal schooling at all into a student who passes her
university exams with ease and distinction. In the course of telling this
story, the film also suggests what the ultimate purpose of a liberal
education may be. Furthermore Rita’s case helps revive the interest of
her burnt-out tutor, a metaphor intended to suggest the possibilities of
renewal that the new students and study methods of the open
University could bring into the old university system.
The play is now used as a set book for the literature paper in the GCSE
(General Certificate of Secondary Education). There are also several
study guides available in the Internet.
