And the United States of America

There are a lot of higher schools all over the world. As for the USA there is no national system of higher education here. Higher education is given in colleges and universities. There are over 2100 various higher educational institutions, including colleges, technological institutes and universities. The average college course of study is 4 years. The academic year is usually 9 months or 2 terms (semesters) of four and a half months each. Classes usually begin in September and end in June. The first-year students are called freshmen.

Students choose a major subject and take many courses in this subject. After four years, they get a traditional Bachelor’s degree. Then the students may go on to graduate school and with a year or two of further study get a masters degree. After another year or two of study and research, they may get a still higher degree as Doctor of Philosophy.

Most American colleges and universities charge for tuition. The methods of instruction in the universities are lectures, discussions, laboratory and course works or seminars.

Most cities have colleges or universities that hold classes at night as well as daytime. In this way people may work for a degree or just take a course in the subject that interests them.

In the UK universities are self-governing institutions, academically independent of the Department of Education and Science. The English universities are divided into three groups:

Oxford and Cambridge (or «Oxbridge»);

Provincial (or Civic) Universities (or «Redbrick»): Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, London, Sheffield and others;

The new universities which were opened after 1960: Sussex (at Brighton), York, East Anglia (at Norwich), Lancaster (at Coventry) and some others.

The universities of Oxford (founded in the 12^th century) and Cambridge (founded in the 13^th century) have dominated English education for some seven hundred years. Being the country’s oldest seats of learning, they are also its most respected. They also happen to be its wealthiest and most beautiful and thus they tend to attract its ablest students and teachers, but the academic standards at these two are generally higher than they are elsewhere.

A university consists of a number of faculties usually called departments: divinity, medicine, arts, law, music, natural sciences, economics, engineering, commerce, agriculture and others. Students listen to lectures given by professors, readers and lecturers; their studies are sometimes supervised by tutors. Advanced students work together with the teaching staff, and are engaged in research.

University degree courses usually last over three or four years, though in medicine five or six years are required. Then a student may proceed to a Bachelor’s degree; than later to the degree of master and Doctor.

Speaking about higher education in different countries we must say that there are enough differences between Russian and foreign education. Comparing attitudes to education we can notice that Russian students are not so motivated as English or American students. As a rule their results at school are not taken into account when they enter the University. In England those who finish school send their resume and their results to the university and anxiously wait for the answer. They don’t pass the entrance exams and therefore don’t have to attend any preparatory courses during the school year. So English students do their best to show good results at school and get as many A-levels as possible. Redbrick universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge demand A-levels in the subjects that the applicant will study. It is relevant to mention that the graduate from a celebrated university automatically gets a higher salary and better prospects than the graduate from the less prestigious university. That partially explains the fact why students abroad are highly motivated to excel at school.

Secondly, the grading students’ level of knowledge in the system of foreign education is based on National tests. The teachers conduct these tests and government assessors check that making is fair.

The third thing we’d like to mention is that in most of American and English higher schools books are provided free. Libraries are computerized and possess thousands of books. More than that in the US and the UK software is widely used by the teachers for the management of education right in the auditoriums. Teachers use PC to prepare classes, distribute homework assignment, confer with other faculty members and even track an individual student’s progress. It certainly brings exciting new learning opportunities to the classroom.

It is necessary to note that the main aim of English and American education nowadays is not to cram the person’s brain with useful information, but to teach him high order skills through making decisions and choices. The teachers of universities try to do their best to stir the curiosity and creativity of every student. Besides students are not only introduced to science, statistics, engineering and computers but taught that communicating what they know and using it practically, are as important as knowledge itself.