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PART Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education

British universities provide practically no general education. They offer specialized education only, most first-degree courses last three years, while some courses requiring practical work last more than that.

There are very few faculties and departments, which have adopted a credit system. In general, students are promoted to the following year in accordance with the results of the examination given at the end of an academic year. At the end of the final year, a final examination is conducted, and students can earn a first degree, which is classified into several classes according to the students' academic performance, such as "the first class degree" and "the upper second class degree." In selecting new employees and postgraduate students, high regard is paid to which class of degree each applicant holds, rather than to which university he or she has graduated from. For this reason, students commit themselves to their study very earnestly to obtain a high-class first degree.

Behind this emphasis on the academic performance of individual students rather than on the name of their university, there is a distinctive mechanism for maintaining educational standards in British universities. It is called a system of "external examiners." under which teaching staff at other universities participates in a board of examiners to examine the relevancy of test questions and the validity of assessment. Through this mechanism, universities have been striving to secure a fair evaluation of student performance, as well as an optimum standard of the content of educational programs.

With regard to the quantitative aspects of university education, the average number of full-time students per full-time teacher is less than seven. The number of all students, including part-time ones, per teacher is less than eight. It can be stated that the staffing condition is rather favorable for British universities.

The length of postgraduate courses varies among different faculties and departments. In general, it is one to two years for a master's degree course and two to four years for a doctoral course. The relative weight of postgraduate courses in the whole university courses is very large: the total number of postgraduate students accounts for one-third of all undergraduate students.

The total number of students enrolled in postgraduate courses in universities and other institutions of higher education is more than 70,000, Of this total, 21% are enrolled in courses related to law and economics, 21% in science courses, 19% in teacher training, 14% in technology, 11% in humanities and fine arts, and 6% in medicine and dentistry. Compared with Japanese universities, this percentage distribution is characterized by a higher proportion of students in law, economics and science courses and a much lower proportion of students in technology courses. And the percentage of teacher training students is relatively high, because part of the teacher training in the United Kingdom is provided in one-year postgraduate professional courses.

University teachers are employed on contract with the governing body of each university. There are several ranks of teaching staff: professors, readers, senior lecturers, lecturers, etc. Professors, readers and senior lecturers generally hold tenure, while in many universities teachers of the rank of lecturer or below are employed with a two- to four-year term of office. However, with a view to ensuring such a flexible university structure as may cope with the rapid progress of science and technology and the diverse needs of industry and commerce, it was laid down in the Education Reform Act of 1988 that for university teachers appointed on or after 20 November 1987, tenure may be limited by enabling universities to dismiss any of these teachers for financial reasons.