Thinking About Studying at a British University?

 

Macalester students who study in Britain (except at Oxford and Cambridge, which they always love) are often put off by some features of the UK university system. They find the professors distant, classroom discussion sparse, British students unengaged, grading criteria vague, and academic standards disappointing. What’s going on?

Here are some things you need to know:

• The system is VERY different from what you’re used to at Macalester, where there is so much emphasis on close interaction between professors and students. This is not the British tradition.
• British professors, as a rule, do not feel accountable for (or even interested in) your learning – that is up to you.
• The classroom part of the course is not the most important part; it may not be very important at all.
• The most important part is what you do on your own, with little or no guidance or feedback from the professor. It’s up to you to explore the subject area as broadly and deeply as you can. You get out of it what you put into it.
• Don’t expect the British students to be actively engaged during class time. They, after all, have grown up in the system.
• For the most part, you are going to have lectures and an exam. The lectures may not be much related to the exam. There will be lots of ambiguity about how to study for the final.
• Visa information: The best policy for study in the UK is -- DO get a visa (entry clearance.) It will give you more flexibiity for travel, internships, extending your stay, and even work.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this system.

Disadvantages:

• You aren’t used to it and it will take time to adjust.
• You don’t get regular feedback.
• You may not be buoyed by your peer group.
• You won’t know exactly how to go about getting a good grade.

Advantages:

• You run your own show, on your own schedule.
• You don’t necessarily need to go to class all the time.

Advice:

• Register, if possible, for upper-level (300) courses, especially in the area of your major. These will be more challenging.
• For social life, look for a club to join. It will be easier to join clubs if you study in the fall semester.
• Read what previous Macalester students have written about their experiences in the UK.
• Recognize the differences between the two university systems as a cultural difference that you must adapt to. The Mac students who have done the best are those who have embraced independence, let go of worries about grades, and set about just learning as much as they could.

Here is a short recommended reading from Arcadia University’s guide to studying at UK universities:

Probably the key difference between higher education in the United Kingdom and that with which you are familiar in the United States comes in the approach which the host institution will have to you as a student. They will assume that you are a serious learner. You should understand from the outset that nobody at the host institution feels an obligation to teach you. You should expect to find instructors who are glad to lecture, happy to discuss, pleased to read and to criticize what you have written and who are interested in responding to what you have to say. You will find those same instructors equally willing to leave you alone, to let you attend or not, to permit you to choose to turn in assignments or not, to allow you to set your own pace.

It would be highly unusual for British instructors to go out of their way to ensure that you are doing your work. Chances are that you will not be closely monitored, you will not have your hand held, you will not be told (without asking) how or when to do all the work that you should be doing.

There are, however, expectations. You will be expected to turn in assigned papers and to perform successfully on examinations. In order to do these things, you will need to have done, on your own, a fair amount of reading on, thinking about and perhaps even discussing of the topics covered in the course. You will find academic subjects presented in a variety of ways: large lectures (you are probably familiar with these in the United States), smaller classes (these are usually conducted by the lecturer or by an assistant to the lecturer and frequently focus on topics that are dealt with in the lectures), and seminars (here an instructor and up to twenty students gather to discuss readings that might have been done or papers which might have been written by members of the seminar group).

Most courses rely heavily on your doing a good deal of reading during your non-scheduled time. The list of readings which is distributed by the instructor on (or near) the first day of class can be quite intimidating. As many as 50 or more books and articles can appear on the reading list. The instructor responsible for the course will expect you to "look into" several of these works. He or she may not want to tell you which ones. As an intelligent student who is responsible for his/her own intellectual development, you will be expected to decide which materials to read. You will be encouraged to find themes among them that are of interest to you and then to do further reading on those themes. You may then be asked to write a paper setting forth your analysis of one or more of these themes. When this happens, be sure to find out what's meant by the term "paper" and, if you can, ascertain the instructor's expectations concerning form, length, citation of sources, etc.

Almost invariably you will be expected to "sit" an examination at the end of each of your courses. In some courses, this final examination may be the only evaluation of your work. It is thus possible, in a full-year course, to come to a three-hour time slot at the end of the year during which you must demonstrate, by answering a few questions, that you have read widely, thought deeply and learned something of significance during the preceding nine months. Generally there will be fewer assessed papers and tests in British classes than you are used to.

The emphasis in the UK is on producing comprehensive work that shows both the breadth of your reading and the originality of your approach to a subject. American students find it particularly challenging to be expected to summarize the work of an entire semester or year in one or two papers and/or a single three-hour examination period. Nearly every university provides special tutorial sessions on paper-writing and/or exam-taking for their own students, which you should plan to attend if you are not certain about these expectations.

Clearly, your academic life will be different overseas. You wouldn't want it to be exactly like home, would you? It's a challenge. It can even be fun. It's an opportunity to show what you can do pretty much on your own. You have already demonstrated an ability to handle the academic work - if you couldn't, you wouldn't have been accepted. Now what you will need to discover is how to continue being a successful student in quite different surroundings.  As a general rule, you will be expected to take charge of your education in Britain. You must be certain you know how you are being assessed in each of your classes, since the patterns vary quite widely, even within the same university. You will be required to take any examination and/or special assessment for which you qualify during the period you are in attendance at the university.