Education in Great Britain

     For graduate student admissions, many colleges express a preference for candidates who will be undertaking research in an area of interest of one of its fellows. St Hugh's College, for example, states that it accepts graduate students in most subjects, principally those in the fields of interest of the Fellows of the college.[46] Perhaps as a consequence of this, it is not uncommon for a graduate student to be a member of his/her supervisor's college, although this is not an official university requirement. For graduate students, admission is first handled by the relevant department, and then by a college.

       

     Access

     Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

      Despite the University's claims that its admissions policies avoid bias against candidates of certain socioeconomic or educational backgrounds, the fairness of Oxford admissions have continued to attract considerable public controversy through episodes such as the Laura Spence Affair in 2000. Oxbridge entrance remains a central focus for many private and selective-state schools, and the lack of a more representative social mix at the university remains a point of national controversyIn 2007, the University refined its admissions procedure to take into account the academic performance of applicants' schools. 

     Students who apply from state schools and colleges have a comparable acceptance rate to those from independent schools (25% and 32% of applicants accepted respectively, 2006). However, most pupils who are accepted from state schools come from 'elite' grammar and selective schools, rather than comprehensives.[51] About half of applications come from the state sector, and the University of Oxford funds many initiatives to attract applicants from this sector, including the new UNIQ Summer Schools, Oxford Young Ambassadors, Target Schools, and the FE Access Initiative. Most colleges also run their own access schemes and initiatives.

     The Ashmolean is the oldest museum in Britain.

      In 2002, the University of Oxford commissioned a research project under the auspices of Professor Anthony Heath. Almost 2,000 applicants for admission participated in the project; about one third of them were admitted. The project found that, if anything, admissions tutors treat applicants from state schools more favourably than applicants from private schools with the same attainment. The research also suggested that this discounting was justified as private school students need higher grades at entry to do as well as their state school educated peers in final university examinations. Finally, the study found that applicants to arts subjects had an advantage in admission when they displayed high levels of cultural capital.

     Mature and part-time students are supported by the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

       

     Scholarships and financial support 

     There are many opportunities for students at Oxford to receive financial help during their studies. The Oxford Opportunity Bursaries, introduced in 2006, are university-wide means-based bursaries available to any British undergraduate. With a total possible grant of £10,235 over a 3-year degree, it is the most generous bursary scheme offered by any British university. In addition, individual colleges also offer bursaries and funds to help their students. For graduate study, there are many scholarships attached to the University, available to students from all sorts of backgrounds, from Rhodes Scholarships to the new Weidenfeld Scholarships. 

     Students successful in early examinations are rewarded by their colleges with scholarships and exhibitions, normally the result of a long-standing endowment, although when tuition fees were first abolished, the amounts of money available became purely nominal. Scholars, and exhibitioners in some colleges, are entitled to wear a more voluminous undergraduate gown; "commoners" (originally those who had to pay for their "commons", or food and lodging) being restricted to a short, sleeveless garment. The term "scholar" in relation to Oxbridge, therefore, had a specific meaning as well as the more general meaning of someone of outstanding academic ability. In previous times, there were "noblemen commoners" and "gentlemen commoners", but these ranks were abolished in the 19th century. "Closed" scholarships, available only to candidates who fitted specific conditions such as coming from specific schools, exist now only in name. 

     From the inception of the Church of England until 1866 membership of the church was a requirement to receive the BA degree from Oxford, and "dissenters" were only permitted to receive the MA in 1871. Knowledge of Ancient Greek was required until 1920, and Latin until 1960. Women were admitted to degrees in 1920. 

     Collections

       

     Libraries

All Saints Church,

now Lincoln College's library,

on the High Street.

     

       

     The Radcliffe Camera, built 1737-1749, holds books from the Bodleian Library's English, History, and Theology collections. 
 
 
 

     Oxford's central research library is the Bodleian, founded by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1598 and opened in 1602With over 8 million volumes housed on 117 miles (188 km) of shelving, it is the second-largest library in the UK, after the British Library. It is a legal deposit library, which means that it is entitled to request a free copy of every book published in the UK. As such, its collection is growing at a rate of over three miles (five kilometres) of shelving every year. Its main central site consists of the Radcliffe Camera, the Old Schools Quadrangle, the Clarendon Building, and the New Bodleian Building. A tunnel underneath Broad Street connects the buildings. There are plans to build a new book depository in Osney Mead, and to remodel the New Bodleian building to better showcase the library’s various treasures (which include a Shakespeare First Folio and a Gutenberg Bible) as well as temporary exhibitions. Several other libraries, such as the Bodleian Law Library, Indian Institute Library, Radcliffe Science Library and the Oriental Institute Library, also fall within the Bodleian’s remit. 

     As well as the Bodleian, there are a number of other specialised libraries in Oxford, such as the Sackler Library which holds classical collections. In addition, most academic departments maintain their own library, as do all colleges. The University’s entire collection is catalogued by the Oxford Libraries Information System, though with such a huge collection, this is an ongoing task. Oxford University Library Services, the head of which is Bodley’s Librarian, is the governing administrative body responsible for libraries in Oxford. The Bodleian is currently engaged in a mass-digitisation project with Google. 
 

     Museums

The interior of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

          Oxford maintains a number of museums and galleries in addition to its libraries. The Ashmolean Museum, founded in 1683, is the oldest museum in the UK, and the oldest university museum in the world.It holds significant collections of art and archaeology, including works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Turner, and Picasso, as well as treasures such as the Scorpion Macehead, the Parian Marble and the Alfred Jewel. It also contains "The Messiah", a pristine Stradivarius violin, regarded by some as one of the finest examples in existence. The Ashmolean reopened in November 2009, after a £49m redevelopment, doubling the display space as well as providing new facilities. 

     The Museum of Natural History holds the University’s anatomical and natural history specimens. It is housed in a large neo-Gothic building on Parks Road, in the University’s Science Area. Among its collection are the skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops, and the most complete remains of a dodo found anywhere in the world. It also hosts the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science, currently held by Marcus du Sautoy. 

      Autumn in the Walled Garden of the Botanic Garden. 

     Adjoining the Museum of Natural History is the Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, which displays the University’s archaeological and anthropological collections, currently holding over 500,000 items. It recently built a new research annexe; its staff have been involved with the teaching of anthropology at Oxford since its foundation, when as part of his donation General Augustus Pitt Rivers stipulated that the University establish a lectureship in anthropology. 

     The Museum of the History of Science is housed on Broad St in the world’s oldest-surviving purpose-built museum building. It contains 15,000 artifacts, from antiquity to the 20th century, representing almost all aspects of the history of science. In the Faculty of Music on St Aldate's is the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, a collection mostly comprising of instruments from Western classical music, from the medieval period onwards. The Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in the UK, and the third-oldest scientific garden in the world. It contains representatives from over 90% of the world’s higher plant families. Christ Church Picture Gallery holds a collection of over 200 old master paintings. 
 

     Reputation 

     In the subject tables of the Times Good University Guide 2008, Oxford is ranked as the top university in the UK with Cambridge as the second. Oxford is ranked first in Politics, Physiological Sciences, English, Fine Art, Business Studies, Middle Eastern and African Studies, Music, Philosophy, and also Education and Linguistics which it shares first with Cambridge. Oxford comes second after Cambridge in a further seventeen subjects. The University then takes three third-places and an equal-third, as well as a fourth, fifth, and equal-sixth place in one subject each. 

     In the Guardian's subject tables for institutions in tariff-band 6 (universities whose prospective students are expected to score 400 or more tariff points) Oxford took first place for Anatomy and Physiology, Anthropology, Biosciences, Business and Management Studies, Earth and Marine Sciences, Economics, English, Law, Materials and Mineral Engineering, Modern Languages, Music, Politics, Psychology, and Sociology. Oxford came second to Cambridge in Geography, Archaeology, Classics, History, History of Art, Mathematics, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies. Oxford came second in General Engineering, and third in Fine Art, General Engineering and Physics; fourth place in Chemistry and Medicine; second place in Computer Science and IT. 

     In the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities, Oxford was ranked 10th in the world and second in Europe. In the 2010 QS World University Rankings[76] Oxford University dropped a place to sixth in the world (while Cambridge University came first), falling from fifth (alongside Imperial College London) in the 2009 THE - QS World University Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings). It had been consistently in the top five since the rankings began in 2004. In 2009 it had been ranked second in the world for arts and humanities, third in life sciences and biomedicine, third in social sciences, and fifth in natural sciences. Oxford also came second in the world in terms of graduate employability. 

     Oxford is one of four UK universities that belong to the Coimbra Group, one of four UK universities that belong to the League of European Research Universities, and one of three UK universities that belong to both. It is the only UK university to belong to the Europaeum group. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Kazakh National Medical University named after S.D.Asfendiyarov 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Theme: Education in Great Britain 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Written by:

Faculty:

Course:

Cheked by:  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Almaty 2010 

Plan 
 
 

Introduction

University of Oxford…………………………………………………………………..1

1 History……………………………………………………………………………….2-4

1.1 Women's education

2 Organization………………………………………………………………………….4-7

2.1 Central governance

2.2 Colleges

2.3 Teaching and degrees

2.4 Academic year

2.5 Traditions

3 Finances……………………………………………………………………………...7

4 Admission……………………………………………………………………………7-10

4.1 Procedure

4.2 Access

4.3 Scholarships and financial support

5 Collections……………………………………………………………………………10-12

5.1 Libraries

5.2 Museums

6 Reputation……………………………………………………………………………12-13

Conclusions

Literature 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Literature 
 

http://www.ox.ac.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford

http://www.nndb.com/edu/486/000068282/

http://www.answers.com/topic/oxford-university