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| First Lady Michelle Obama attended two of America's finest schools - Princeton University and Harvard Law School. "More than anything else," she added, "meeting that 2020 goal is going to take young people like all of you across this country stepping up and taking control of your education." |
School and University
School
All schools have the job of teaching people the skills needed in everyday life.
A school of the air in Australia uses two-way radio to teach children who
live on farms and sheep stations far from any town. This boy is learning
elementary science by doing simple experiments in his home under the guidance
of a distant teacher.
An art classroom has special supplies
and equipment. It has a water
supply and sink, drawing boards; storage
for paints, paper, and brushes, examples of sculptures; press for
printmaking. Posters and samples of pupils' work decorate the walls.
In Brazil, children
attended school for free education between the ages of 7 and 14. This primary school is in a
settlement area in Rondonia, in the Amazon region.
In Zimbabwe, a
school uses a covered, open-air classroom to provide shade and shelter. Summer
in Zimbabwe's subtropical climate is hot and rainfall is heavy.
School employees may include specialist teachers, such as a musician who
trains the school orchestra, and caterers who provide midday meals.
A well-equipped school laboratory needs ample funds. This school in London receives a
government grant and additional, voluntary contributions.
School is an institution that provides education. Most schools could be
described as a building to which children and teenagers regularly go in order
to learn reading, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, and the like.
But some types of school are different from that basic description. For
instance, numbers of Australian children who live on sheep stations far from
any town are given daily instruction at home by means of radio or television.
Their teacher is in a distant broadcasting studio. The pupils converse with a
teacher by means of a talk-back radio system. This school
of the air is not a building to which students go to learn, but it is a
school. An infant school or nursery school has
young children as pupils who may not study such subjects as reading, writing,
and calculating. And what about a university in which adults enrol? Can that
properly be called a school?
Therefore,
to understand what school means to different
people, it is helpful to answer these six questions: What school levels usually
make up the schooling ladder? In
what different kinds of settings does schooling take place around the world?
What subjects are studied in schools? What sorts of supplies do different kinds
of schools use? What kinds of people work in schools? Who controls and pays for
schools?
The schooling ladder
The history of
how schools get started in a community is quite similar from one country to
another. The first school is usually intended for teaching beginning % reading,
writing, arithmetic, geography, history, and perhaps some religious
knowledge. This first school that children attend usually offers what is called
primary, elementary, or basic education. As pupils finish the six
or eight years of primary school, they generally S transfer to a secondary
school for teenagers. Secondary 3 education is often divided into two
levels called junior secondary and senior secondary.
Young people who
have finished secondary school at M around ages 17 to 19 and who wish to
pursue more advanced studies go to higher education institutions. At this tertiary
level of education, the institutions are usually called universities, colleges,
institutes, polytechnics, or academies. But some of them are called schools.
Many countries
have special schools for children who are handicapped by blindness, by
deafness, by a very low ability to learn, or by other special problems. Special
schools may also be established for students who have exceptional talent in
art, music, science, or drama. Many communities have infant schools, creches,
nursery schools, preschool centres, or kindergartens for children aged 2 to 6.
Many countries
throughout the world have introduced programmes under such mottoes as
"Life-long Learning' or "Life-Span Education." They provide
opportunities for adults to attend schools suited to their occupational needs
or leisure-time interests.
Countries differ
in the way they divide up the years between primary and secondary school. The
most common pattern in the United Kingdom is a two-tier system—primary school
for children aged 5 to 11 (in Scotland,
5 to 12) and secondary school
for those aged 11 to 16 or 18.
However, about 15 per cent of children in England attend a three-tier
system—first schools (ages 5 to 8 or 9), middle schools (ages 8 to 12 or 9 to
13), and upper schools (ages 12 or 13 to 16 or 18).
The Republic of
Ireland has an eight-grade national (primary) school followed by a
three-year junior- secondary and a two-year senior-secondary school. Primary
schooling in Australia covers either six or seven years, while secondary
education is divided into a junior (3 or 4 years) and senior (2 years)
sequence. New Zealand follows an eight-year primary and five-year secondary
plan.
In India, basic
education lasts eight years, with those eight years often divided into two
segments labelled primary (5 years) and middle (3 years). The
subsequent four years of India's secondary education comprise a two-year lower
level and a two-year upper level. Malaysia's system consists of primary (6
years), lower secondary (3 years), and upper secondary (2 years) schools, followed
by a two-year form-G level.
The United
States has a variety of ways of dividing up the 12 years of primary and
secondary schooling, but two patterns are particularly common. The most common
is an arrangement of elementary (6 years), junior- high (3 years), and
senior-high (3 years) schools introduced in the early 1900's. The other
arrangement is an elementary (8 years) and high-school (4 years) design carried
over from the 1800's.
School settings
The school
setting is the place in which lessons are taught. In all nations the most
frequent setting is a classroom with desks or tables for the students, a desk
for the teacher, and a blackboard at the front of the room. In large cities,
there are often dozens of classrooms in the same building. In small towns, the
typical primary school building may have only six or eight classrooms, one for
each standard or grade. In small villages in the mountains or jungles, there
may be only one or two classrooms in a school, with pupils of several different
ages studying together in the same room.
In
addition to these typical kinds of classrooms, schooling takes place in many
unusual settings. For example, in parts of Africa and Asia nomad families live
in tents so they can easily travel from one region to another during the year
to find grazing land for their cattle and sheep. Children from those families
often go to school in a tent, where they sit on the ground or on a carpet
rather than on chairs while they listen to the teacher and work on their
lessons. To educate gypsy children who travel about with their parents, some
countries provide mobile teachers who
drive from place to place in buses equipped as mobile
classrooms.
In
Arab nations of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in Pakistan,
Malaysia, and Indonesia, most people are Muslims, belonging to the religion of
Islam. There are also many Muslims in India. For centuries, Islamic religious
teachers have operated schools in which young people study the Islamic holy book,
the Quran, and other religious teachings. Quran schools are often in a rural
area rather than in a large city. Frequently students live at the school in
small dormitory rooms where they study and sleep. They may pay for their
education by working in the fields that surround the school or by providing
some other kind of labour for their teacher.
To
receive instruction, they may meet in their teacher's house or in a mosque (an
Islamic place of worship). During class periods they usually sit cross-legged
on mats.
In regions
of Africa, Asia, and South America where no school building is yet available, a
teacher may give lessons in an open field, with the pupils sitting on the
ground in front of a portable blackboard. In remote mountain areas of China, a
large cave has sometimes served as a school.
Typical subjects taught
In all
countries the basic topics that most pupils study are very much the same. The
subjects taught in nearly every primary school include reading and writing the
local language, arithmetic, social studies (which are often history and
geography), natural science, health education, music, art, and physical
activities. In many countries an hour or two each week is also used for
religious or moral education. The courses offered by a school are called its curriculum. Sometimes these subjects are all listed in the schools'
curriculum guidebook, but not all of them are taught in every classroom. When
teachers feel they are not trained well enough to give instruction in science,
art, or music, they may leave those subjects out of their daily lessons. Or a
teacher may spend so much time giving instruction in reading, writing, and
arithmetic that there is no time for other subjects.
From time to
time the people in charge of the schools will change the emphasis placed on certain
subjects. For example, in 1990, the Malaysian government passed a law requiring
every student to enrol in religious education class, thus making religious
studies compulsory rather than optional as they had been since the 1960's. In
contrast, legislation in Spain made religious education voluntary. At the same
time, authorities in Sri Lanka required that prayers be said during the
morning and at the end of the school day.
The
curriculum in junior-secondary schools usually includes the same subjects as
those in primary schools, but with the subjects taught at a more advanced
level. The study of a foreign language and some introductory vocational education (subjects providing skills needed for a career, such as
industrial arts, home economics) are often added at the
junior-secondary level. In secondary schools, the curriculum typically becomes
more differentiated, so that some students concentrate on science courses while
others specialize in literature and languages, general
university-preparatory topics, business practices, industrial arts, and the
like.
In much of the
world, the central government decides which subjects will be taught in all
schools. This is the case in Finland, France, Greece, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore,
Taiwan, Western Samoa, and many more countries. In other nations, however, the
decision about students' list of studies is left up to individual states or
provinces or to the headmasters and teachers of local schools. This is the
practice in Australia, Canada, India, and the United States. In still other
countries, part of the curriculum is determined in the nation's capital city
and part in the local schools. In 1988, the UK government, for example,
departed from its long tradition of allowing local schools to decide on the
curriculum and established a list of subjects to be taught in all schools. The
national curriculum comprises three core subjects (English, mathematics,
science) and seven "foundation" sub- ! jects. To equip
students with modern technical skills, the UK national curriculum includes
computer education as a required topic.
Supplies and equipment
The most
familiar supplies in schools around the world are desks, a large blackboard,
textbooks, and a few maps and wall charts. Secondary schools and universities
usually also provide special equipment for classes in science (microscopes,
chemistry glassware, biology exhibits), in music (band and orchestra instruments),
in art (clay, paints, weaving looms), in physical education (balls, playing
fields, swimming pools), and in vocational studies (typewriters, sewing
machines, electric saws, electric drills, construction tools).
Communities that
are able to spend more money on supplies will increase the number of books in
school libraries, will buy radio and television sets for classrooms, and will
provide projectors for showing films, charts, and photographic slides.
Throughout the world, computers are rapidly being added as classroom equipment.
Regions with sufficient money often furnish several computers for every classroom.
In some secondary schools, every student has a computer to use.
The quantity of
classroom supplies differs greatly from one country to another, and even from
one school to another. Richer schools provide students with large numbers of
books as well as a wide variety of maps, videocassettes for television
receivers, science equipment, computers, musical recordings, art supplies,
business machines, and vocational-education equipment for teaching carpentry,
electronics, car repair, machine- shop work, home economics, and the like. In
contrast, students in communities that have little money for schools often lack
even one textbook. Pupils may have no pencils or paper. It is obvious that
students in schools that offer a wide range of books and equipment have a
better chance to learn efficiently than do students in schools that are unable
to provide even enough basic textbooks for the learners.
The profitable
use of supplies in a classroom depends not only on the amount of money a
school spends on equipment but also on the ingenuity of teachers in creating
and using instructional materials. The following description of two classrooms
for 14-year-old pupils illustrates how greatly teaching facilities may differ
from one sort of school to another.
An ultramodern classroom. This classroom is in a very modern
city school that has ample funds for purchasing the most advanced technical
equipment. At each student's desk is a small microcomputer with a keyboard for
typing information and a screen on which to view what has been typed. Students
write their lessons on the microcomputer. In addition to the keyboard, a small
microphone attached to the computer allows the student to enter information
into the computer by talking.What the student says into the microphone
appears immediately in printed form on the screen. A printer at the edge of the
desk enables the student to print a paper copy of any information stored in the
computer, such as an essay or story the student has composed or the student's
answers to test questions. A set of earphones attached to the computer allows
the student to hear music or speech stored in the computer.
At
the front of this ultramodern classroom, the teacher has a larger
computer—called a computer console— that
is connected to all of the students' units. The teacher can transmit
information to the students' computer screens, such as reading material, still
pictures or moving pictures, descriptions of science experiments, or test
questions. This same information can be sent to all of the students at the same
time, or else the teacher can send special information to only one or two
students. Therefore, the teacher is able to give particular instruction to
individual learners who need special help. The students' task of writing
assignments on their computers is simplified by their having an automatic
spelling-corrector available in each computer.
Instead
of a blackboard at the front of a classroom, there is a large television screen
connected to a laserdisc player. The player is a machine into which metal
discs—like large gramophone records—are inserted. Each disc contains 85,000
pictures, graphs, or charts that give items of information about thousands of
topics studied in school. Any of these items can be shown on the television
screen at the touch of a button. The teacher and students can select a series
of items that will form a special lesson about science, history, geography,
music, sports, the arts, or many other topics. The lesson can then be shown on
the screen in full colour, with high-quality pictures and sound.
In
addition to the laser discs, an instrument called a modem is
connected to the classroom telephone, enabling the class to receive television
programmes or
to
display information from distant libraries on the students' computers or on
the large television screen. Pupils can compose their own specially designed
workbooks or textbooks by selecting segments of information from the distant
library sources and printing the information on the classroom's computers.
With
such facilities available, the teacher can bring much of the world into the
classroom through the great wealth of pictures and charts available. Students
can constantly improve their thinking and writing skills by completing frequent
assignments on their classroom computers.
A school in a poor rural region. The
second example is typical of classrooms found in many parts of the world,
particularly in economically poor, rural areas of Africa, Asia, and South
America. The facilities are very meagre. The classroom has woven bamboo walls.
A few openings cut in the walls let in light. There are wooden benches and tables for the
students, and a small blackboard hangs at the front of the room. In this
school, the teacher and students are unusually resourceful in creating
instructional materials that improve their learning opportunities.
The teacher has
only one textbook for teaching reading, one for mathematics, one for history,
and one for science. No pupil has his or her own textbook. The students create
additional texts by copying the original four books by hand as a homework
assignment. They have obtained the paper for that project by writing letters to
a large oil company in the country's capital city, pointing out the school's
lack of textbooks. They asked for writing paper, crayons, and discarded roll-up
window blinds on which they can draw maps of their village, their country, and
the world. The maps can then be displayed on the classroom walls. Because paper
is so scarce, pupils write their daily lessons with chalk on dark wooden
planks. They make their own chalk sticks out of material from a nearby
limestone quarry.
Since the school
cannot afford library books, the students have been creating their own
booklets as part of their history and literature projects. One history assignment
requires students to interview elderly people in the village to learn what life
was like in their community in the past. After pupils write descriptions of
their interviews, their compositions are bound together to form a library
booklet called "Our Village History." By this same means, handwritten
library resources have been created on other occasions by pupils conducting
interviews about "Jobs in Our Community," "Legends and Folk
Tales," "Water Supplies," "Our Religion,"
"Preparing Foods," "Caring for Animals," and more. The
students have borrowed some books as sources of information for writing
compositions that could become part of library booklets on such topics as
first aid, simple science experiments, and famous heroes.
For their study
of science, the students have collected and classified objects from the
surrounding area, then displayed their collections as classroom exhibits. The objects
include rocks, plants, insects, types of wood, glassware, fabrics, leather
goods, and tools. Guided by a government booklet entitled Howto Conduct Simple
Science Experiments, class members have gathered items from around the
village to carry out research on such topics as plant growth, weights and
measures, chemical changes, and the strength of materials.
This example
indicates that even in poor regions teachers and students can improve learning
opportunities by creating their own instructional materials.
The people who work in schools
Not only may
communities differ in the kinds of classroom supplies they provide, but they
also may differ in the kinds of people who staff their schools. The one type of
person found in all schools throughout the world is the teacher. The next most
common is the headmaster or headmistress (sometimes called the principal)
who is responsible for scheduling classes, ordering supplies, hiring new
teachers, talking with parents, and perhaps carrying out disciplinary actions
against pupils who fail to obey school rules. In smaller schools, one of the
teachers—often known as the head teacher— may serve as the principal.
In larger
schools that have sufficient funds, additional employees may include special
teachers to aid pupils who suffer handicaps, such as children who have difficulty
learning to read, are hard of hearing, or are blind. Many schools also provide
counsellors who offer students advice about their future educational
programmes and about how to plan for an occupation in the future.
A type of
employee that has become increasingly popular in a wide range of countries is
the teachers side. An aide is a person who works under the supervision
of a classroom teacher to help individual pupils and to assist with such tasks
as correcting tests and preparing learning materials. Aides are often older
students or parents who may have no special training in teaching and who learn
their job under the direction of the teacher in whose classroom they serve.
In addition to
teachers, schools may employ a variety of staff members—clerks, secretaries,
building caretakers, and specialists in the use of such electronic equipment
as computers and videotape recorders.
Nearly every
nation issues regulations about what kind of educational preparation a teacher
should have in order to be placed in charge of a classroom of pupils. The
length of training required for entering a teaching career varies from one
country to another. In developing nations that are short of funds, the length
of teachers' preparation may be as brief as one year at the secondary-school
level. In economically advanced nations, training can be as long as four or
five years of study in a university. Less training is usually required for
nursery-school and kindergarten teachers than for those who will work in the
elementary grades. Secondary- school instructors are typically expected to have
more training than primary-school teachers, and university instructors require
the most preparation of all.
The control and funding of schools
Schools can be
controlled and financed either by a government or by a private group of
citizens. Throughout most of the world, the term state or public
identifies schools that are organized, controlled, and funded by a government.
The word government here can mean a local village, a city, a province,
or an entire nation. In contrast, private means a school operated by a
group of people who wish to keep the control of schooling in their own hands.
The group may be a large religious body, such as the Roman Catholic church,
which sponsors thousands of schools, or it may simply be a collection of
parents who wish to provide a local school. Usage differs in the United
Kingdom. There, a public school traditionally refers to some
independent, or private, schools. However, this usage is gradually dying out.
The ratio of
state to private schools can differ greatly from one country to another. For
example, around 75 per cent of students in Australia attend state institutions
and 25 per cent of students attend private schools, nearly all of which are
under church sponsorship. In the Republic of Ireland, each primary school is
managed by a local board made up of parents, teachers, and representatives of
a church; most of these schools' funds are provided by the government Ireland's
secondary schools are mainly private, most of them owned and managed by
religious groups. About two-thirds of Singapore's schools are operated and
financed by the government, while the remainder are private institutions that
receive government funds to pay salaries and development costs.
For many years,
schools in nations under Communist governments were entirely state-run. With
the changes that took place in Eastern Europe's Communist governments at the
beginning of the 1990's, however, permission was being granted by many
governments to open private schools.
Schooling
throughout the world has long been a cooperative effort between governments
and private groups. This pattern of government and private cooperation is
likely to continue in the future. Related articles. See the Education and People
sections of various country articles. See also the following articles: Degree,
University and college; Kindergarten; Special education; Nursery school;
University; Education
Outline
The schooling ladder
School settings
Typical subjects taught
Supplies and equipment
An ultramodern
classroom
A school in a
poor rural region
The people who work in schools
The control and funding of schools
Questions
What subjects
may special schools concentrate on?
About how long
does schooling last in primary school?
What other
school settings are there other than classrooms? What is meant by a curriculum?
Who decides the
subjects that are taught in schools?
What is vocational
education?
What sort of
equipment may be found in an ultramodern classroom?
What sort of equipment
may be found in a poor, rural school? What is a teacher's aide?
Which teachers
need the longest training time?
Trlnlty College, University of Dublin, is the oldest university in Ireland. It was founded in 1592.
King Saud University, in Riyadh, was one of
Saudi Arabia's first institutions of higher learning. Founded in 1957 as
Riyadh University, it was renamed in 1982. Today, King Saud University has
more than 30,000 undergraduate students.
Private study is an important part of most university courses. Many
students do their private study in a university library.
Seminars are discussions between a group of students and a tutor
(teacher). They help learning and understanding.
Graduation is a dignified and colourful ceremony at the end of
undergraduate study. The chancellor (university head) or vice chancellor admits each
student to his or her degree.
Harvard University, founded in 1636, is the oldest university in the United
States. This engraving dates from the 1770s. It shows Harvard College Yard, the
centre of the original.
University. The
term higher education refers to learning
institutions that students can attend after they have finished secondary
school. The university is the best- known kind of higher education institution.
Other kinds bear such titles as college, institute, academy, polytechnic, or
higher school. However, these other titles can be confusing, since they have
other meanings in some countries. For example, in most countries the word college
means a higher learning institution, while in nations with a British or
Spanish tradition, college icolegio in Spanish) may also
mean a private secondary school. Similarly, academy may
also refer to a higher education institution or to a secondary school.
Universities and other education institutions
This
article discusses higher education at universities. It explains how
universities are different from some other institutions of higher education. It
then covers universities' role and organization, how students are selected
and taught, and how they can gain qualifications called degrees.
The
usual way universities differ from other kinds of higher education institutions is in the wider
range of subject matter universities offer. A typical university pro- vides
opportunities for students to specialize in fields of science (physics,
chemistry, geology, biology, astronomy), social science (anthropology,
psychology, sociology, economics), the humanities (history, philosophy, literature,
languages), the creative arts (painting, music, dance, drama), and more. In
addition, universities prepare students to enter particular occupations—to become
architects, engineers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, agricultural experts,
accountants, business administrators, and the like.
In
contrast to universities, the other popular kinds of higher learning organizations
(institutes, colleges, academies) usually focus on one or two special fields
of learning. Thus an institute of technology specializes in science and
engineering, and a college of agriculture teaches scientific methods of
farming, fishing, and animal care. A teachers' college prepares classroom instructors,
school administrators, school counsellors, and specialists who help pupils with
learning difficulties. An art academy offers studies in drawing, painting,
sculpture, photography, print making, textile design, and other visual arts. A
music academy teaches students the history of music, how to sing and play
instruments, and how to compose music. A military academy prepares army, navy,
or air force officers. Government departments often sponsor an academy for
training experts in the field of work the departments perform.
Hence,
there can be an academy for a nation's census bureau, one for the treasury
department, and another |l for the foreign service.
Organization and responsibilities
Organization. The land on which a university stands is
called a campus. The main buildings on a campus usually include lecture theatres,
an administration building, a library, laboratories, halls of residence, and a
union building, where social gatherings are held. In some countries,
university systems may have more than
one
campus. The California State University system in the United States, for
example, includes 19 universities and colleges.
The student
body of a university is divided into graduates and undergraduates. Graduates have
already received their bachelor's degree and are working for a master's or
doctor's degree. Undergraduates are studying for their bachelor's degree.
The
teaching staff of a university is divided into departments. Each
department deals with one general course of study, such as English,
mathematics, or physics. Each department is headed by a dean or chairman,
who is usually a professor. Under the dean are other professors, associate
professors or readers, and lecturers. Some university departments include
research workers who do not teach.
Finance. University finance varies from country to
country. In Great Britain, for example, the Universities' Funding Council
assesses the overall needs of British universities. It negotiates with the
central government a grant from public funds based on its estimate. The committee
shares out this sum among the universities. In other countries, private
colleges depend primarily on student fees, endowments, and gifts for their operating
income. Public institutions may also have these sources, but depend mainly on
state and local taxes for their funds.
Students
may receive grants from the government or local education authorities to cover
tuition fees and living expenses. Some students receive scholarships from
universities, the government, or other institutions. In some countries,
students may obtain loans to cover the costs. They may also help support
themselves by taking part-time jobs while attending university, or working during
holidays.
Responsibilities. In most countries,
universities are assigned three major tasks—teaching, creating new knowledge,
and public service.
The
teaching role is aimed at making sure the world's
mportant
knowledge is passed from one generation to the next. Teaching is also expected
to prepare people to succeed in occupations that require high-level knowledge
and skills. Therefore, teaching is the main job of most higher education
institutions.
Another
major responsibility of universities is that of research—
making new discoveries and creating new knowledge. In science and technology,
many inventions are the result of the creative ideas of university professors
and their advanced students. For example, progress in space travel, electronic
computers, laser-beam surgery, and atomic energy have depended heavily on the
expertise of university faculty members. Most archaeologists who explore the
ruins of ancient cities, historians who reveal events of the past, and
psychologists who develop new ways of treating mental disorders are on
university staffs. Symphonies may be composed by music professors, and insights
into political events are offered by political science professors.
Although
the task of creating new knowledge falls heavily on institutions of higher
learning, most members of staff do little or no research. There are several
reasons. In many institutions, the instructors' hours are nearly all taken up
with teaching, leaving little or no time for creative work. Furthermore, many
forms of research require large amounts of money to support staff and
resources, and such funds are often not available. In addition, not all
university teachers have the interest or skill needed to make new discoveries.
Although
only a small percentage of higher education faculty members create new
knowledge in every country, a lack of research and creative activity is most
obvious in countries of Asia, Africa, South America, and the Pacific islands
that were once held as colonies of European and North American nations. When
those territories were colonies, the local people were given very few
opportunities to attend a university. After winning their political freedom
(mostly in the 1950's, 1960's, or 1970's), they lacked enough well-trained
professors to operate a new universities adequately. Furthermore, members of
staff usually have so many students to teach that there is no time left for
research. As a result, most of the world's research and creative work in recent
years has come from institutions in Europe and North America and from those in
several other industrial nations, including Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.
The
third major responsibility of universities is to provide service to the
public. They are expected to help solve immediate problems faced in their own
communities. Examples are air and water pollution, drug use by teenagers,
heavy motor car traffic, mental illness, inadequate housing, and food
shortages, and they may deal with many other problems. In certain
countries—especially in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and South
America—the public-service role of universities is often far more important
than research. Developing nations, in particular, need the immediate help of
universities to help solve pressing problems.
Selecting students
No
country offers openings in universities sufficient for all the students who
would like to attend. Furthermore, university officials want to make sure that
those students who do enrol are qualified and prepared to learn what is taught.
Therefore, every standard academic institution has entrance requirements.
One
of the most common requirements is that a student successfully completes
secondary school. It is also usually necessary to show that they studied a
particular selection of subjects during their secondary-school years. For
example, the required pattern of studies might include a specified number of
classes in mathematics, in literature, in foreign languages, in science, and
in history. The pattern of secondary-school studies may differ, moreover, for
students who wish to enter a university's science division from that for those
who wish to study fine arts, music, history, or languages. Secondary-school
students are often advised to look ahead to the kind of higher education
speciality they would like to pursue so they can meet special requirements for
entrance into a programme for a given speciality.
In
countries that have a school-leaving examination at
the
close of secondary education, universities often use a student's examination
results for deciding whether thy individual should be admitted to their
institution, in other nations, either the university itself or a nationwide5
testing organization gives a special entrance examination to assess the ability
of applicants to succeed in f higher education. Universities also ask for letters of recommendation
from people who have known the student in secondary school. Such letters are
expected to tell if the student has been hard working, honest, friendly, and ! likely
to make intelligent decisions.
Teaching methods
By
far the most common teaching method used in universities in all countries is
the nonillustrated lecture.
An
instructor standing in front of a large classroom of students either talks
spontaneously or reads aloud from notes. Occasionally, the instructor may write
on the blackboard in front of the classroom. The students are expected to make
notes and master, if not memorize, what they have heard in the lecture. The
popularity of the lecture method derives less from its proven efficiency than from the ease
with which it can be carried out and from tradition. Each new generation of
instructors tends to teach in the same manner as they were taught—by lectures.
In
recent decades, a variety of newer techniques have! been adopted. Instructors
have tried either to improve 1 the traditional lecture or to replace it with
methods that f make students active
learners rather than passive listeners. Among the devices that provide visual illustrations |
to clarify the content of a lecture are charts, maps, over- head projectors,
slide shows, films, videotapes, and enlarged computer displays. Seminars, or discussions,
often based on selected readings, provide opportunities! for students to
exchange views with instructors and with| one another. Tutors may guide
students in their studies and meet them individually to review the students' progress.
Many
universities endeavour to increase opportunities for students to apply what they
learn to real-life situations, so that students' experiences are not limited to
memorizing formulas and listening to lectures in the classroom. Science
departments traditionally have fostered such applications by assigning work in
chemistry and physics laboratories and by field trips to geology and biology
sites. Professors in the social sciences and humanities have also sought to
increase the practical nature of their students' studies.
Open universities
In
recent years a new form of higher education has been the open
university. The word open in this case usually
means there are no formal entrance requirements. Anyone can try. The
institution is also open in the sense that it does not require that students
gather on the same campus in order to attend classes. Instruction is offered by
means of lessons sent through the mail or broadcast over radio and television.
Students may occasionally meet at a central location to engage in discussions
or take tests. In effect, learners study in their own homes and at their own
pace.
The
first open university of modern times was started in Great Britain in 1971 with
nearly 24,000 students. Within a few years the annual enrolment had increased
to 70,000. Open universities modelled on the British version have been set up
in various nations. India's Indira Gandhi National Open University began in
1985 and within four years enrolled more than 54,000 students.
For
instruction, India's students rely on printed materials and twice-monthly
visits to one of 130 regional study centres, most of which are situated in
existing educational institutions. In 1990, the Soviet Union's first open
university began with 15,000 students. Several dozen other countries have
adopted the open-university pattern, among them Canada, Indonesia, Israel, the
Netherlands, and South Africa.
Degrees
An
important goal for most students who enter higher education is to earn a
degree: that is, to receive a diploma or certificate indicating command of
particular skills and knowledge. The most common pattern of degrees consists
of three ranks that are usually designated the bachelor, master, and doctoral
levels.
To
earn a bachelor's degree, students on the initial
undergraduate level are required to engage in full-time study for three or more
years, depending on the academic tradition of the country in which the
university is located. In Great Britain and India, the length of the course is
usually three years; and in the United States, four years. In Australia and
Malaysia, it varies from three to six years, depending on the subject matter
and the university. Typically, a master's
degree is earned by one or two further years of study after the bachelor's
degree. The doctor's degree requires an additional two to five years.
All
three of these degrees are said to be earned, because
people receiving them have mastered a specified body of knowledge. Universities
also occasionally present someone with an unearned
degree. Such is the case of an honorary
doctor's degree, designated by the Latin term doctor honoris causa. That
degree may be presented to people who have not completed the institution's
academic requirements but have distinguished themselves in some aspect of
public service, the arts, business, athletics, or other activities.
History
When
and where universities first began is a matter of considerable debate. In
ancient Greece, such famous teachers as Socrates and Aristotle gave instruction
in philosophy and science, but their teaching was not within a university
setting. In those days, students did not have to pass entrance examinations or
attend regularly scheduled classes, nor did they receive academic degrees.
Likewise, in early India, Hindu scholars taught religious lore, but their
tutorial approach could not be considered university instruction in the
present-day sense.
Although
early forms of advanced education exerted some minor influence over the nature
of present-day education, the direct ancestors of modern universities were
institutions that arose in Europe in the Middle Ages. The earliest universities
were not founded as complete institutions. They grew gradually as collections
of individual schools, and the conditions and dates of their beginnings remain
unclear. The most prominent of the early centres were the University of Bologna
in Italy, which came into existence about 1100, and the University of Paris,
which developed in the late 1100's. Each evolved as a merging of separate
colleges.
The
original subjects taught were the seven liberal arts—
Latin grammar, rhetoric (speaking and writing well in Latin), dialectic
(reasoning skills), arithmetic (using Roman numbers), geometry, astronomy, and
music.
Such
programmes were expanded when the work of Muslims in the Middle East, North
Africa, and Spain brought long-lost Greek and Roman scholarship to the
attention of European academicians. The efficient Arabic number system was
substituted for Roman numerals, a clumsy system that had made computation slow
and difficult. Among the Islamic institutions that contributed to this
intellectual renaissance was Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, founded more
than 1,000 years ago and still operating today.
The
University of Paris was the model on which Oxford and Cambridge universities,
in England, were fashioned. At both Oxford and Cambridge, students at first
lived wherever they pleased. But, gradually, they collected in lodging houses
that developed into the colleges that still serve as students' living quarters
and study centres.
The
six earliest colleges founded at Oxford were University (founded 1249),
Balliol (1263), Merton (1264), Exeter (1314), Oriel (1326), and Queen's
(1340). For centuries, Oxford accepted only male students. However, after 1878
five women's societies were founded; most of them attained the status of
colleges in 1926. Now colleges are generally coeducational, with
both men and women students.
The
evolution of colleges at Cambridge was similar to the Oxford pattern. The six
earliest Cambridge colleges were Peterhouse (1284), Clare (1326), Pembroke
(1347), Gonville and Caius (1348), Trinity (1350), and Corpus Christi (1352).
Throughout
the following decades, a variety of Europe's most distinguished universities
were established, including Vienna (1365) in Austria; Heidelberg (1386),
Cologne (1388), and Leipzig (1409) in Germany; St. Andrews (1410) in Scotland;
and Copenhagen (1479) in Denmark.
When
the United States was still a British colony, institutions of higher learning
were founded, each modelled on Oxford and Cambridge. The first was Harvard,
which was founded in 1636 in the Massachusetts colony, where more than 100
graduates of Oxford and Cambridge had already settled. The second was William
and Mary. It was founded in 1693 in the Virginia colony by authority of a
charter from Britain's King William III and Queen Mary II. The third was Yale.
Inaugurated as a collegiate school in 1701 in the Connecticut colony, Yale was
then reorganized as a university a century late when schools of medicine,
divinity, law, and fine arts were added.
Other
colonial universities patterned after their European predecessors include
McGill (1821), Toronto (1827), and Ottawa (1848) in Canada; Sydney (1850) in
Australia; Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras (all 1857) in India; Otago (1869) in
New Zealand; and Cape of Good Hope (1873) in South Africa. In the Philippines,
two universities have a long history: Santo Tomas (1611) and San Carlos
(founded 1595, university status 1948). The Technological University of
Malaysia was founded in 1925 (university status 1972). The National University
of Singapore, established in 1980, has its origins in the King Edward VII
College of Medicine (1905).
Today,
there are hundreds of universities throughout the world. Most have been created
by expanding existing academies and colleges to serve the rapidly growing
numbers of students seeking higher education. In formerly colonized areas of
Asia and Africa, nations that attained independence after World War II ended in
1945 have established many universities to serve populations that previously
lacked opportunities for advanced education. Related articles: Al-Azhar
University; Bologna, University of; Cambridge University; Dublin, University of;
Edinburgh, University of; Education; Glasgow,
University of;
Harvard University; London, University of; Open
University; Oxford University; Paris, University of; Sorbonne Yale University.
Outline
Universities and other education institutions
Organization and responsibilities
Responsibilities
Finance
Organization
Selecting students
Teaching methods
Open universities
Degrees
History
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