Individual colleges in UK schools (is it just Oxford and Cambridge?)

International Students
1

<p>This is a really stupid question but I'm very confused about UK universities having "smaller colleges" (? -- I'mnot sure if that's what that's called). For example, Oxford has such smaller schools as Pembroke, St. Hugh's College, Trinity College, and Worchester College etc etc --- and Cambridge has Emmanuel College, Darwin College, Selwyn College, etc. First off, is this JUST an Oxford/Cambridge thing or do other UK schools do it? I've heard that each individual school has its own endowment too, but that's all I've heard.0</p>

<p>Also, what is the purpose of the individual schools? Are they to bring a sense of togetherness? Are students only allowed to study in that particular school only? Are they allowed to take classes in other schools within Oxford/Cambridge etc as well? Does it matter which school one ends up choosing? Does each individual school have a certain specialty, such as math or science or philosophy or history? Does the academic interview always change within each college?</p>

<p>I guess I'm just confused. Can someone give me an overall view of what exactly all of this is? (Confused US kid asking...)</p>

2

<p>Why does someone end up choosing a certain school, if it's not about a specialty, etc?</p>

3

<p>hey, i'm a singaporean and i'm applying to cambridge this year. i'm not really sure if there are other universities that have a oxbridge style of smaller colleges but the two of them are definitely the most famous and considered the best in the uk for most subs.</p>

<p>basically the feel i get is that the university is split into smaller colleges to have a homelier feel and to spread more togetherness. what happens is that your lectures will be centralised at a particular colleges so for example all econs students would attend the same econs lecture. the difference comes at tutorials where students go back to their own colleges to meet their tutors (generally a very small number of students per tutor).</p>

<p>With regards to choosing a particular college within oxbridge itself there can be many different reasons. cos tutorials are separate there is a difference in strength between the colleges but they are all really at the top of their field. apart from that, there is the history of the school, whether you like the building, sports teams, etc etc. from what i know, academic interviews held at cambridge itself do vary between the colleges ( go here, choose a topic and click on admission test and written work <a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/economics/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/economics/index.html&lt;/a> ) i'm not sure if this is valid for overseas applications cos in singapore everyone has the same admission process regardless of which college we apply to.</p>

4

<p>Some other UK schools have colleges, some don't; it's certainly most prominent at Oxbridge.</p>

<p>Academically: Students in the same course of study enroll in lectures together across the university, using university facilities, and then have supplemental small-group instruction within their colleges. There are a few courses that are only offered at specific colleges, but for most areas of study you can enroll in any college.</p>

<p>Student life: the colleges vary in size, with around 200-400 students. They each have their own dining halls, libraries, computer labs, sports facilities, etc. - basically, everything related to extracurriculars and student life is run on a college level. A lot of aid awards and student grants are administered by the colleges as well.</p>

<p>When you apply, you can either apply to a specific college, or apply to the university and be assigned to a college. The reasons one would pick one college over the others, aside from academic specialties, would be size and location on campus, the ratio of undergrads to graduate students, and facilities and accommodations. Also, room and board costs vary from college to college. If you look at the college</a> descriptions in the undergraduate prospectus, you can get a pretty good idea of the differences between colleges.</p>

5

<p>Only Oxbridge and Durham have colleges.</p>

<p>And these colleges are only a place to live. Your classes are administered by the University.</p>

6

<p>Also be careful, the colleges at the University of London are not the same sort of colleges as at Oxbridge. They are essentially separate universities.</p>

7

<p>Yes, as Mikalye says above, the University of London is just a name; you cannot apply to it through UCAS or anything. You can, however, apply to its individual colleges such as the LSE or Imperial College. The degree you will get in the end will be from UoL, but just remember that only Oxbridge and Durham in the UK have individual colleges.</p>

8

<p>Basically it works like this:</p>

<p>1) The university, through its faculties and departments, organizes (Brit Eng "organises") lectures, seminar and practicals (Am Eng labs), administers exams, and grants degrees. The university, through its various faculty boards, also sets out the curriculum and the graduation requirements for each "course of study" (British equivalent of a major in the US). </p>

<p>2) The colleges, on the other hand, serve as student residences and also supplement university lectures with individual tutorials/supervisions given normally by teaching fellows who, in most cases, also have faculty appointments in the university. Furthermore, quite differently from what happens in the US, the colleges also handle undergraduate admissions. When you apply to Oxbridge, you have to choose both an intended course of study offered by the university ** and ** a particular college you wish to enter. Once you are accepted into a college, you are allowed to enroll (Brit Eng "enrol") as a university student. Most colleges accept students wishing to pursue any course of study (natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, law, medicine, arts, or engineering ), although a few colleges accept graduate (Brit Eng "postgraduate") students only. </p>

<p>3) Graduate students must also be members of a college, but unlike undergrads, they apply for admission through a university department/faculty and are assigned to a college "a posteriori". Sometimes, college-affiliated PhD students may also serve as tutors in college supervisions.</p>

<p>4) As I said before, the classes and exams one has to take to complete a certain course of study (Am Eng major) are determined by the university, not by the colleges. Therefore, the classes and exams you will have to take will not depend on which college you are in. All students in a given course typically take the same classes and the same final written exams (Brit Eng "papers") in their first year of studies. In the second year, the majority of classes and exams are still compulsory, while, in the third and (in the case of 4-year courses) fourth years, most classes are elective and students have the opportunity to specialize (Brit Eng also "specialise") in a sub-field within their course. It is also customary for third or fourth year students to complete a research project and/or write a graduation thesis.</p>

<p>5) As you've correctly said, colleges are independent bodies that normally own the buildings they occupy and have an endowment of their own. Some colleges therefore are richer than others, which may make a difference in terms of facilities and availability of student bursaries/scholarships (although, in practice, financial aid also tends to come directly from the university, not only from the colleges). Colleges also vary in size and, sometimes, even in gender balance (a few colleges still admit women only). Smaller colleges may have to hire outside tutors or have their student members go to other colleges for their supervisions/tutorials, but, one way or the other, all students are guaranteed the right to full access to the tutorial system (which is a major part of an Oxbridge undergraduate education).</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
Yes, as Mikalye says above, the University of London is just a name; you cannot apply to it through UCAS or anything. You can, however, apply to its individual colleges such as the LSE or Imperial College. The degree you will get in the end will be from UoL, but just remember that only Oxbridge and Durham.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Just as a side comment, Imperial College officially withdrew from the University of London last month. The first independent Imperial degrees were actually awarded on July 9, 2007 in a ceremony where Her Majesty The Queen was in attendance. </p>

<p>The LSE on the other hand remains a constituent unit of the University of London (at least for the time being), despite persistent rumors (Brit Eng "rumours") that it may also eventually secede in the future.</p>

10

<p>Some of the comments here are rather understating the role of the colleges in education at Oxbridge. They are certainly not just a place to live. That's why we don't talk about "residential colleges" in the American fashion.</p>

<p>The University determines the overall curriculum, sets and marks exams, and awards degrees. It organises the parts of the teaching that bring together undergraduates from more than one college, i.e. lectures, seminars and practicals/labs in the sciences. It supplies departmental libraries, the Bodleian and the various museums.</p>

<p>The colleges organise tutorials/supervisions. It is not unknown for them to organise seminars. They also provide libraries; your college library is usually your first port of call for the resources you need. It is not accurate to say that tutorials only "supplement" university lectures, especially not in the humanities. For those subjects the tutorial is the fundamental core of the system, with lectures very much an optional extra. </p>

<p>Some, maybe the majority, of your tutorials will be in your own college, but as you specialise more you will have at least some tutorials in other colleges if that is where a particular expert is. It is your college that arranges them. So although I had a lot of tutorials for Modern History at St Peter's, my own college, I also had them at Merton, Keble, Balliol and Christ Church, and seminars at Wadham. I went to very few lectures, but that was still more than most of the other historians I knew.</p>

11

<p>UCL now has degree awarding powers of its own. Future graduates are being offered UoL or UCL degrees...if you choose a UoL degree, UCL still appears on it though...I'm choosing this option. UCL has no plans to separate from the federal University of London, however. I'm glad about this because there are many advantages for UCL of remaining a constituent UoL college.</p>

<p>As Mikalye says, University College London and King's College, London are really like separate universities- each has around 19,000 students. They really don't have any resemblance to the collegiate system at Oxbridge or Durham.</p>

12

<p>This is really cool. I read that the 5 Claremont Colleges were based off Oxford's system. Thanks!</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
This is really cool. I read that the 5 Claremont Colleges were based off Oxford's system

[/quote]
</p>

<p>possibly, but the 5 claremont colleges really function more like 5 individual colleges that just happen to be next to each other and share resources. a more analogous setup is at UCSD, where there are six colleges within a single university.</p>