Education in England

 

While in England I got to visit some of their most well known universities including Cambridge University and Oxford University.  I found their set up of their college education system very unique. While I attend the University of Idaho, where I get to live on one large campus and attend classes within multiple colleges; in England you attend a specific college under a university name. This means that students end up in one of the colleges that offer their major, and they live and take classes within that college building. This intrigued me as I personally love attending a university where I get a large amount of opportunities by being involved in both the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, and the College of Business. I felt as though I would not enjoy the English university design because while all the colleges occupy a fairly small area together, I tend to think I could get less opportunities than with American-style universities.

This, of course, is not the only difference in English education. According to Bright World Guardianships the standard education is split into two parts known as primary school (Ages 5-11) and secondary school (Ages 11-16). After age 16, students preparing for higher education will likely take up “sixth form” which is the standard route to university, taking two years and covering three or four different subjects. They can also complete a “further education college” helpful for those who wish to be more career focused, or even an apprenticeship. It is imperative that students planning to attend university follow one of these paths before starting college at the age of 18. 

According to the UK Parliament House of Commons Library, about 36.4% of students pursued higher education in 2024.  I found this to be an interesting statistic compared to the United States National Center for Education Statistics, which states in 2022, 62% of high school graduates enrolled in college. I believe there are many reasons for this. Firstly, in the United Kingdom, since students graduate at age 16, there is a gap of time that students in the United States do not have. This means more American high school graduates are likely to enroll in University as they just completed schooling a few months prior. 

Another possibility for lack of enrollment is the types of majors available at English universities. According to the University of Cambridge, their colleges offer a total of 30 undergraduate majors. This is a dramatic difference between University of Idaho’s over 200 options. From studying their list I have determined they do not appear to offer business majors, other than economics, like in the United States. They also do not have a wide variety of medical majors. Instead, the University of Cambridge has its largest variety in culture, language, and history majors. What can be determined from this is they likely have less students enrolled in secondary education because education on topics such as business or medical studies are learned elsewhere. With these subjects being two major colleges within most American universities, it is no wonder there is lower enrollment if those paths are not offered through the standard university path.

I also found it interesting that by looking through the University of Cambridge’s site, their admission requirements vary based on major, instead of the standard GPA, SAT scores, and personal essays we submit to colleges in the United States. It is fascinating that students somewhat need to figure out what they want to do by a much younger age. By the time they graduate at 16 they need to have an idea of what preparation to do before attending a university, and they should have an idea of what major they wish to do so they can check off the admission requirements needed for that exact major. It is fascinating looking into this culture’s education system, and wondering how different your own life would be just by experiencing the English education system.