5 Things You Need To Know About The UK Higher Education System
Obtaining a UK degree is one of the most popular choices for Malaysian students. It is the second most popular destination for international students and for good reasons too. A UK degree is one of the most highly respected and recognized degrees in the world. Still, if you are considering getting a UK degree these are important things you might want to know:
5) The Entry Requirements
Unlike the US education system where students can directly enter into a four year degree after high school, a UK university requires students to complete a pre-university programme first.
The preferred pre-university programme is A-levels, a 18 to 24 months (1.5 – 2 years) course that is administered by British educational bodies. However, a number of UK universities offer one year Foundation programmes designed for transition to the same university’s undergraduate degree. Other pre-university programmes such as STPM, International Baccalaureate (IB), and Canadian Pre-University (CPU) are often also be accepted.
For non-native English speaking international students, they are also usually required to demonstrate their English speaking, writing and listening proficiency by taking and passing the IELTS test.
4) A Focused In-depth Curriculum
An undergraduate degree from UK universities takes typically three years to complete. The curriculum is focused and specialized, the aim is to give students in-depth knowledge and effective practical skills on their field of study.
Students are required to have already decided on their intended field of study when they select a programme. Hence, it has more depth in the student’s chosen field. There is also a large emphasis problem-based learning, ensuring student’s will be critical thinkers with skills that are highly relevant to their career.
3) Exam Focused Evaluation
In terms of evaluation, UK universities utilizes an honors system from First Class to Third Class while the US utilizes a 4.0 GPA scale with the traditional A to F.
Though students are assigned a mixture of assignments, discussions and presentations throughout the semester, the UK higher education system is more heavily lecture and exam based. The big final exam in the end of the semester takes a much larger and significant portion of the grade. In some cases, the entire grade is based on the final.
2) Strong Tradition of Research Excellence
The universities of the UK are world-leaders in research innovation. Researchers from UK universities were the great minds that were responsible for breakthroughs in penicillin, fibre optics, cloning, computer programming and the World Wide Web. It recently even overtook the US in global research citations. 30% of UK university research is classified as ‘world-leading’ and 46% as ‘internationally excellent’ by the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF).Thus, UK education students are able to learn from brilliant world-leading researchers with the most advanced research facilities available to them.
1) You Don’t Have To Go To The UK For a UK Degree
Many prestigious UK universities have sought to expand their prestige, increase global connections and collaborations by establishing official overseas branch campuses. In Malaysia, Educity, Johor, has become a hub of illustrious international branch campuses. There is the Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia which shares the over 180 year old legacy of Newcastle University UK, University of Reading Malaysia which houses the distinguished world-renowned Henley Business School and University of Southampton Malaysia, the first branch of a Top 20 ranked UK University.
These universities follow the same curriculum as their UK counterparts and completion of their programs lead to the awarding of the same official UK degree. Thus, Malaysian students gain a distinguished UK education all at an affordable cost without leaving their home country. However, they also have ample opportunity to study in the parent campuses of their respective universities in the UK itself. There are many transfer or exchange programmes available that give them a smooth transition into studying in the UK.
