UK Academic Institutions Explained
There are many different kinds of institution in the various levels of UK education This can be confusing so below is a list of the various institutions with a description of there main functions.

Higher Education
This sector includes universities and colleges. These institutions are centres of high level teaching and research activity and most courses offered at this level lead to degrees and post graduate qualifications.

The first University was founded over 800 years ago but some colleges were upgraded to university status as recently as 2005. About half of all universities were established as such, the rest were upgraded more recently. The first time this happened was in 1993 when around fifty polytechnics were upgraded to university status. These universities are commonly know as "New" universities but since the turn of the century there has been another, though smaller, wave of upgrades.

So what is the difference, if any, between an established university and a "new" university?

There are differences but not necessarily in quality but rather in focus. Estabilshed universities were always and for the most part still are, research led with a very academic focus. For this reason about one hundred and fifty years ago, the first polytechnic was established for the purpose of teaching people the skills that would be useful in their careers. Therefore the old polytechnics or "new" universities with their roots in teaching and not research can score as high in the Government's Teaching Quality Assesment and in many cases, particularly business subjects, higher than the established universities. For research however, this is not normally the case. The established universities will almost always out perform the "new" universities and hence, they will always appear at the top of the unofficial university ranking lists that appear each year in the leading UK newspapers. In listings for teaching quality only, The "new" universities very often perform well, outstripping their more illustrious counterparts.

Further Education
Coming soon.....

Secondary Education
Coming Soon......

Language Schools
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