University: Is It a Good Deal?

It seems an opportune moment to ask what lies ahead for students in Britain's fast-changing universities: will the experiences, the quality of education and the job prospects of today's undergraduates be as good as those of their parent's generation?

Twenty years ago just one young person in eight entered higher education. Today more than one in three do so.

Over the same period the number of undergraduate degrees awarded in Britain has risen from just over 100,000 a year to over 260,000.

That does not mean that the quality of a degree is necessarily any the less but it does mean a university degree is no longer as distinctive a qualification as it once was.

But the economy has also moved on and the demand for graduates has grown at the same time as the supply has increased.

If the growth over the past 20 years has been rapid, the expansion since the first big explosion of university growth in the mid-1960s is even more dramatic. In 1965 just over 400,000 students studied at British universities. Today the figure is 1.8 million.

In the 1960s, undergraduates were predominantly white, male, under-21 year-olds who studied full-time. Today 55% of them are women. Indeed female undergraduates overtook men 5 years ago and have continued to pull ahead ever since.

Although the under-21 age group still provides the majority of first degree students, mature entrants are now a significant minority, totalling almost one in five of this year's' freshers. More than a quarter of all students now study part-time.

In short, we have seen a shift from a university system serving a small elite to one that is now closer to the mass university systems of the USA or many continental European countries.

At the same time, the university experience has gone from a five-star, luxury design to a mass-transit economy model.

Nothing reveals this more starkly than the amount of public money spent per student. This has fallen from over £7,500 just over a decade ago to around £4,800 today.

The result is that most of today's students receive no grants to cover living costs, about half must pay something towards their tuition costs, and all face more crowded lecture theatres and less individual time with staff.

But before despair engulfs anyone starting out on courses, let me give you some good news too. It may cost you more, and you will probably graduate with £10,000 or more of personal debt, but your degree should enhance your job prospects and your earning capacity.

The figures suggest that graduates aged between 30 and 44 earn 76% more than non-graduates in the UK.

And even those whose parental income is high enough to require them to pay fees are, in one sense, getting a good deal.

However, there is one important way in which universities have not changed as much as many expected: they remain largely the preserve of the sons and daughters of the middle-classes.

Over 70% of the children of professional classes now attend university compared to just 13% of children of unskilled workers.

University leaders blame the schools for this, arguing that they can only admit young people with suitable qualifications.

The other big change in universities today is the arrival of the new, two-year Foundation Degrees which are intended to deliver further expansion in higher education.

The model is based on the USA where many students take two-year degrees at community colleges. Many then go on to take the full four-year bachelor's degree.

Amid all this change the really pressing issue for students is whether some leading universities will get their way and be allowed to introduce "top-up fees" (or market-rate fees, as they prefer to call them) for more prestigious degree courses.

The top university leaders say the change is needed if they are to remain competitive with wealthier, especially American, universities.

These are bumpy, transitional years for higher education as the system attempts to adapt from serving 15% of young people to 50%.

Students will continue to wonder whether they are getting a good deal, but future employment patterns suggest they are almost certainly better off investing in a degree.

Moreover, by the time today's undergraduates are parents themselves they will probably look back nostalgically to the days when getting a university degree was cheap and graduating still helped you stand out from the crowd.

2.b Explain the following concepts from the text.

THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

The Open University (OU) is a unique innovation in higher education. It is a degree-granting institution that provides courses of study for adults through television, radio, and local study programs. Applicants must apply for a number of places limited at any time by the availability of teachers. Did you know that practically as many school-leavers go to Open University as the average conventional UK University? Interested? Read on...

You may be one of the millions who missed out on a university education. You may wish you could have a second chance, either for better career prospects or for the self-satisfaction of achievement.

Better qualified – better respected. In the sixteen years since we started, some 70,000 people have gained BA degrees from the Open University. More than half of them claim to have achieved a significant career benefit. Practically everyone agrees the OU experience to rewarding in terms of added confidence, self-discovery and intellectual stimulation.

What's The Deal?

If you're over 18 and you want to do a degree, but want the flexibility of studying full-time or part-time or you don't want to move away, Open University could be just the thing for you. It is an appropriately named institution. It's open to everyone and you don't even need O or A levels. Nor does it make a difference what you do. Housewives, bank managers, bus driven, pensioners, nurses or shop workers. All are welcome at the OU. The only qualifications needed are that you are 18 or over, live in the UK, have a determination to succeed and an appetite for hard work.

The OU runs about 200 distance-learning degree courses, as well as many postgraduate degree courses. So you can study in your own time and in your own home. OU courses are modular so you can combine them to meet your individual needs and gain qualifications from certificates or diplomas to degrees.

Undergraduate courses cost between £200-£650 which usually includes all books and course materials.

The best bit is that the OU has an open access policy - you don't need any qualifications to do their undergraduate courses, although it is recommended that students without the equivalent of A Levels begin with Level 1 courses.

Openings Programme

These are open to everyone in the UK and can give you a taste of further education and full-on OU degree courses to help you decide if you want to take on a bigger commitment to an OU course. It’s possible to take your degree in three years, but most people choose to spread their studies over five or six years.

The choice of courses is over 125 subjects, from science and technology to the arts; each lasts from February until November and you commit yourself for only a year at a time. In order to obtain your degree you must obtain six passes or 'full credits', as we call them, in your chosen subject. The course normally takes 14 weeks, costs £50 and all you need is a phone so your tutor can call you) and 6-8 hours a week to study.

There are no face-to-face tutorials so you can work around your life.

The course will help you build your confidence and develop your study skills as well as helping you decide what subject you're interested in pursuing.

You can start any time of year. If you're over 21, and don't have A Levels or their equivalent, you could try an Access Course to get into university. Find out more about Access Courses in 21+.

The majority of your course will come through the post - specially written, high quality teaching material to help you study at home. Radio and television are also extensively used and you will have personal contact with one or more of 5,000 part-time tutors at local study centres. Some courses even have one-week residential summer schools.

At the OU we've gained a worldwide reputation for our advanced distance teaching methods. It’s experience that we know will be of great value to you.

Admissions are based on a first come, first served principle so the sooner you send your coupon, the more sure you can be of your place. Return the reply-paid coupon and we will send you our FREE Code for Applicants. It contains all you need to know about choosing your course, including information on fees. Easy payment methods are available to help with the fees and if you are unemployed or on a low income, grants may be available.

3.b Choose the best variant (a-d) to complete sentences 1–5 below.

WHAT IS A COLLEGE?

Some universities consist of a number of colleges. This is only one of the meanings of college. More often a college is not part of a university, but a separate institution. Whereas a university aims at giving an academic education, and is mainly non-vocational, a college education is in most cases less academic, more practical, and usually vocational. Most colleges are state colleges, built and maintained by the local education authorities, but there are also private colleges.

1. Further Education College (College of Technology, Technical College).

The system has strong ties with commerce and industry, and co-operation with business is encouraged by the Government and its agencies. Employers are normally involved in designing courses.

Courses are run by some 550 institutions of further education, about 60% of Them classified as large (over 1000 full-time-equivalent students), many of which also offer higher education courses. state colleges, built and maintained by the local education authorities, but there are also private colleges. They go by a variety of titles, technical colleges, colleges of agriculture, colleges of art and colleges of commerce. They offer full-and part-time courses in subjects such as art and architecture, drama, languages, and English for foreign students.

Tutorial colleges, sometimes known as “crammers”, are privately run establishments offering intensive courses to prepare students for particular examinations, usually O or A levels.

2. College as Part of a University.

The university is a federation of colleges. The university arranges the courses, the lectures, and the examinations, and awards the degrees.

The college system at Oxford and Cambridge is unlike that of any other university, whether in Britain or America. In order to enter the university, a student must first apply to a college and become a member of the university through the college. The colleges are not connected with any particular study and are governed by twenty to thirty "Fellows". Fellows of a college are "tutors" (teachers, often called dons). They teach their own subject to those students in the college who are studying it, and they are responsible for their progress. Most dons give one or two lectures a week which students from any college may attend. No lectures are compulsory and tutors usually advise their students which lectures they should go to.

Each college has its own completely separate living quarters, its own dining hall and its own chapel. Cambridge and Oxford both have two women's colleges. Today most of the colleges are co-educational.

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