Part 1
Higher Education to Support a Knowledge-Based Society Full of Creative Vitality - New Developments in Higher Education Reform
Chapter 4
Higher Education Reform in Other Countries
Section 3
United Kingdom
In the UK, students continue on to higher education after a 13-year primary and secondary education that begins at age five. Institutions of higher education are comprised of universities and non-university institutions. Non-university institutions include colleges of higher education, which provide mostly courses from the associate level to the bachelor stage, and continuing education colleges, which have associate level higher education courses.
In the UK, from the late 1980s, higher education achieved an unprecedented rapid numerical expansion. University evaluation and other competitive elements have been introduced, and policies aimed at improving the quality of education and research have been adopted. In 1997, a National Committee of Inquiry report indicating a vision for the future of higher education (the so-called "Dearing Report"), which stated that the UK's international competitiveness and national prosperity will depend on the creation of a "learning society" in which people can continue to learn throughout life. The Report thus proposed reforms that require a further expansion and improvement of quality in higher education, which is the field that bears this responsibility. Currently, higher education policies in the UK are being advanced based on the Dearing Report.
