EDUCATION

Universities in the UK Should Not Be Free



Universities in the UK Should Not Be Free

Introduction

Almost all universities in England are completely independent of the state, both financially and in terms of their academic programs. Higher education in UK needs to be certainly paid as the government can't fund such huge amounts for maintain education level at such high levels. Education in England is obtained by students paid on different scales, depending on whether the students are from the United Kingdom, European Union citizens or nationals of the other country, the latter shall pay to study abroad at higher prices (Taylor, 2001).

Higher education in Britain is different from education in other countries. One of the main features is the fact that the English universities focus more on independent, creative work of the students, the ability to pick their own materials on the subject and analyze them, which means they focus on self-learning. A student's performance is evaluated on the results of written tests and examinations. Frequency of examinations, the number of written work and performance of the system can somehow be different from a University in England to the other. Most universities in the UK for higher education are for 3-4 years and all of the estimates for the examination, scientific and other creative works are marked on a 100 point scale (Presser

& Trigwell, 1999).

Discussion

The UK universities are autonomous, independent, not belonging to the State, although revenue depends to a greater or lesser degree on tax collection. The state decides the ratio of taxes to be assigned to the higher education and certain policy goals to be defined at a high level. Beyond that, their role is very limited. The law prohibits intervention in those decisions, which are reserved for Advice from Higher Education Funding operating in England, Scotland and Wales. The Board of Education Funding English High (CFESI) is a statutory body,

Whose primary function is to distribute the funds approximately 5000 million pounds which the government allocates annually to higher education. But in reality, the government budget is not enough for higher education hence, the student fees which is paid and not free is what helps the universities in collecting great amounts of funds (Probert, 2005).

In academics, universities define their own curriculum, their own standards, grant their own degrees and decide autonomously which programs offer. If a university wishes close the physics department, as they have done some short time in England, and replace it with one of psychology, it is entirely free to do so, without consulting any other body.

Most of the universities in UK consist of several academic buildings, libraries, several cafes, coffee houses like Starbucks, a bar with pool table, and even a night club. Maintaining such faculties asks for a huge amount of funds hence, the fees would be higher as well. Maintaining the classrooms, giving salaries to the staff all demands for bigger funds hence higher education in UK is not free (Duderstadt, ...