Colleges/univerties in London?

The University of Western Ontario is in London.
Strong academics. Lovely Campus. Pleasant city.

Why London? I think you should go to Paris! :)

If all you want to do is go to school for a semester…that will be a challenge. First of all, learning at universities in the UK is not like learning in universities in the USA. There are no syllabuses/syllabi (sp?)...that is why it is called “reading for a degree” instead of “studying” for a degree. At the beginning of the course you are given a stack of books and told to “read” and you are tested on this once and then have a final exam. That’s it. No molly-coddling, no second chances, no pop quizzes, no “my dog ate my homework.”, no curving of grades. Are you ready for that? University in the UK is not for the faint-hearted. If you still want to do that, you should also look into a university in America (and there are scads of them) who have a junior year abroad program. Most do. What do you want to study? That would give me the idea of where to point you toward school——as in which school in the UK, anyway. I am not discouraging you in any way from living your dream, you know? But I want you to know what you are in for….it’s not easy…UK is extremely expensive to live in. Getting financial aid (if you are an American) for a UK undergrad program is difficult, too.

If what you want to do is just “experience” life in another country without the benefit of school (which I would recommend) I would take a “gap year” as they do in the UK. Usually after high school, you are knackered and need a break before college/university. Students take a year off after their equivalent of high school graduation and just travel and experience life in other countries and/or just take a year to rest. Most students in the UK do this. This usually helps you to come back to start university with a new perspective and refreshed and maybe even more appreciative. You can work as a volunteer somewhere in England and spend a half-year here on a visa (before it expires). You cannot work for money, however, so it would have to be a volunteer position. You can check out this website:

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Student+Volunteering/Are+you+a+student

Here is another great website for what you might be looking for (actually this one sounds more like what you are looking for):

http://www.bunac.org/

What do you want to study? Where do you live now? (Generally.)

Hope some of this helps!

@DarlingRhadamanthus I don’t want to be unkind, because I think you gave some great advice in parts of your answer. :) But, I just feel your representation of what university is like in the UK is incredibly inaccurate.

I’m from the UK and have lived here all my life, I’ve graduated from two different universities in the UK and are currently doing a PhD at a third, my dad is an academic, many of my friends went to university, and out of all of those different types of experiences, I’ve never come across any university courses that even come close to representing what you describe. I’m really curious as to what has given you that impression, as it just seems so extreme!

Of course, all degree courses in the UK expect students to do a significant amount of personal study and reading (hence the “reading for a degree” reflecting the autonomy that is expected at degree level here, and I’m sure even more autonomy was expected years ago). But of course students are taught and follow a timetable of teaching sessions, it would be absolutely unthinkable in this day and age to just send students away with a pile of books and examine them at the end. There is no way our students would pay tuition fees if we just left them on their own to get on with it! And of course, degree courses have syllabi! Most courses here are modular, with the subject divided up into different topic areas, with a variety of different teaching and learning activities structured right in. Moreover, most degree courses involve students experiencing a variety of lectures, seminars, practical classes and tutorials for each module they study, and then, depending on the subject, people are typically examined by either an examination, coursework, or both (of course, for practical subjects there may be practical assessments too!).

@icehky06 The “gap year” idea that @DarlingRhadamanthus suggested is a very good one! I have no idea how individual universities organize exchange programmes for international students, but I know that some universities here have courses which specifically involve a “year abroad” for students who want to live in another country whilst continuing their academic study at the same time. Perhaps universities in your country will have similar things. This might be worth considering, providing what you want to do is experience academic education in the UK, but if you are just more interested in a trip/volunteering experience, I’d consider the options suggested above. If you’re interested in learning about specific universities in London, check out the University of London site: http://www.lon.ac.uk/ It’s a very big and well-regarded university that is comprised of lots of different colleges and institutions. Alternatively, there are lots of universities that are very near to London, without actually being there (as someone who was born and spent her entire childhood in Cambridge, I’d say it’s a marvelous place to visit and live, obviously it’s an outstanding university, and it’s only 45 minutes away from central London on the train!).

@reverie….With all due respect to you…and your academic family….yes, there is an outline for the course, but nothing like it is in America, where you are spoon-fed each and every little bit at most schools. I am talking about the TOP university in the UK…actually TWO of the top universities in the UK. The two universities that have the annual rival boat race. Remember, please, that you might have been in a different department and academic course and perhaps it was different for you. I can only speak for these. And yes, you are right….in one instance, that you are not always actually given a set of books and “set free”...your professors are there, and you have tutorials. You can ask questions, you are given an outline of what you should study in most instances. But not in all instances.

But having also been to university in the States (which I am assuming, you have not) I am in a better position to explain the difference to a student who has been there and then come here. It is a totally different experience. American students are used to having a lot of their courses outlined in full, with many opportunities to revise and take lots of quizzes, homework, essay writing during the semester so that their grade point is based on a lot more small assignments. In the UK, grades are determined usually by a mid-term and a final and perhaps a paper. You cannot fall back on extra small assignments to get your GPA up. And you do not get second chances (unless you happen to have a professor who is a softy.) If you are in a liberal arts degree, you must be a good writer. Writing is extremely important. There are no multiple choice questions at university!

The university system in the UK is a hell of a lot more demanding (than most US schools, not ALL) because you are usually expected to do a lot of independent research and study. .However, I do suppose it depends on the university. Some won’t be as demanding, right? I don’t want students in the USA to come here and be ill-prepared. You have to be a lot more motivated and self-directed (the emphasis on the latter) in order to succeed. And a hell of a lot braver. You have to go ask questions of (often) extremely curmudeongly professors who have had tenure for 150 years and it is quite daunting, especially for an American who is used to teachers being open and friendly and easy to approach. Some of the professors I had were not forthcoming in that way. However, yes, I had very friendly professors, too, okay? And to be honest, I had three or four classes where I was actually handed a stack of books and basically told that I would have to learn what was in the books in order to pass the class. I had to attend each lecture or I would have been lost. I didn’t make that up.

If someone went to Harvard and then came to Oxford…it might be a different story as far as the work that is expected.They might be well prepared. But it wouldn’t be easy if someone from University of Highway 66, USA came to Oxford. Likewise if someone comes to the UK and attends the University of Swindon, it’s going to be a lot easier than going to Oxford. I am talking about attending Oxbridge and the top schools as that’s all I have to base my own experience on. It’s definitely not a cakewalk and no one is going to hold your hand. I was actually paying a compliment to the system of education in this country. A lot of students (me included) thought that it was going to be exactly the same system as in the USA, and it is not. I just don’t want prospective students to be led down the garden path. Yes, come to the UK, but do your research…..pick a school that suits you and prepare to work hard…unless you pick a school that is smaller, less well-known and more liberal in its policies. It still will be different than in the US and you have to be ready to be more of an independent learner.

(Yes, I know…there is no University of Swindon or University of Highway 66…that was just using an illustration.)

@DarlingRhadamanthus I wasn’t commenting at all on the difference between academic institutions in the UK and USA, as you rightly said, I have no experience of university education in the States, and thus deliberately didn’t make any comment on the situation in the USA. Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t in any way think you were being insulting about universities in the UK (I am guessing you wouldn’t have gone to one if you didn’t think positively of it!), but I was just concerned that based on my experience, you seemed to be really misrepresenting to the person who asked the question what universities in the UK are, on the whole, actually like. Of course, if this is your experience then it’s not wrong at all to share it, and I think your comparisons can be really helpful and valuable to someone wanting to appreciate cultural differences, but as you reminded me in your post, I think you should also remember that your experience is just one experience, and other classes, courses and departments may be very different indeed. You seem to be totally aware of that in your most recent post, but I really didn’t get that impression in your original response to the question, which is really why I said something. I just didn’t really think it was right to generalise and say that British universities are places where you are just “given a stack of books and told to “read” and you are tested on this once and then have a final exam” based on what happened to you in “three or four classes”. Please don’t think I am disagreeing with you that UK universities may be harder, or require more autonomy than American institutions (I have absolutely no reason not to trust what you say in that respect), but even without your cross-cultural knowledge, I think I can still disagree with your characterisation of things in the UK, even with my total ignorance of the American system.

Actually, one of the universities that you are referring to is one I am, personally, highly familiar with, and I would still disagree with your characterisation, despite this. Undoubtedly, Oxbridge is more of a challenging academic environment, and of course, there will always be occasional lecturers and individual modules that may be closer to what you describe, but I really don’t think this is by any means the norm. I was born in Cambridge and spent the first 21 years of my life living there, my dad has been a professor there for the past three decades, and I used to be employed there in one of the academic schools. In terms of the broader perspective that my opinion is based on, I have personally studied at York and Sheffield, and am currently at Exeter doing a PhD and working as a graduate teaching assistant. Obviously, having lived in this country all my life, I have close friends and family that went to even more different places (e.g., Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, Leicester, London, Glasgow, Surrey, just to name a few!), so with all due respect, and without trying at all to dispute your experience (obviously it is what happened to you personally), I think my disagreement with your perspective is based on a variety of different experiences of British universities of varying prestige. With this in mind, whilst undoubtedly respecting the differences that exist, I think I have plenty of experience on which to base my opinion that the broad characterisation you made in your original post isn’t accurate, and something I wouldn’t consider to be a fair representation of how universities in the UK generally are. I’m not saying that it never happens, but I just don’t think that the generalisation is really true.

P.S. There are actually multiple choice questions at university in the UK! When I studied Psychology at York (some years ago, when it was second in the league tables for that subject, ahead of Oxford but behind Cambridge – so by all means, not a soft option and a very well respected course), we had several exams with multiple choice questions.

Thank you both for your help! I don’t mean to sound creepy but I have some questions still would one of you mind giving me your email or something? I can’t find anyone else to answer these questions I have. Ahh. Thanks again!

I spent the fall of my Junior year at University College London in their Town Planning program and I really enjoyed the experience. To get a feel for the different universities in England, I would suggest looking at a site like this http://www.ucas.ac.uk/ – which runs the system of applying to university. Its like a stream-lined Common Application – one application for 6 schools (extra essay and interview for Oxbridge). Surf around there and you will get a sense of the different subjects that you could study while in England. However, before you get too excited, every American college differs is what they allow you to do for study abroad! Thus, I would also look at the study abroad websites at the schools you are looking at and then see what options they suggest for the UK. Enjoy – but don’t worry too much about this – enjoy your summer vacation while you still have one!