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3.1.3 Higher education

Around 1.8 million students who have successfully completed an A-Level

are currently studying in the higher education system of the UK and approximately
a third of young people go on at the age of 18 to higher education, being almost
50% Scottish students. Undergraduate degrees take four years course to complete
in Scotland, while in the rest of the states take only three leading to a first degree
such as Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc). Some degrees such as
medicine, dentistry, veterinary science take up to six years. When graduate level is
reached, it only takes a year to have a master's degree, two for a research
master's degree and three for a doctoral degree.
Higher education is not free. Students have to pay a contribution to the cost of
teaching (tuition less) and also have to pay their living costs (maintenance). The
government provides loans to help them pay for university education which have to
be paid back from earnings once their income reaches a certain level. In recent
years government policy has tried to increase the percentage of 18 year old that go
to university, which is now a 40% double the 1990 figure, but this grown has been
at the expense of the amount of financial support given to individual students.
Universities receive money from the state for each student and they are
responsible for employing staff and deciding which course to offer. The head of a
university, who is responsible for its management, is called a Vice-chancellor.
Since 1992 the government began to eliminate distinctions between universities
and other education centers for higher education. All universities in The United
Kingdom are autonomous and each one decides diplomas and certificates granted,
it also decides the conditions for obtaining them, most include research and
courses at pre- and post-graduate.

Education in the UK is provided in the following institutions:

• Universities

There about 50 universities in the United Kingdom, eight of them are in

Scotland, two are in Northern Ireland, there is one in Wales and the rest are in
England. These institutions have great autonomy in spite of which they are public
funded, supported by the University Grants Committee.

CULTURA INGLESA FIME UANL