WEEK 9

THE ENGLISHUNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION—READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE THE CLASS
This lecture will give you some ideas about higher education in England, and how it is very different from that in Japan. We will start by considering the great difference between the way the Japanese rank universities, and the way the rest of the world ranks them. We will then go on to look at some key differences between universities in Britain and Japan (and especially Doshisha): the nature of the professors, the nature of the learning experience, and the way students are evaluated. In the second part of the lecture, we will be mainly concerned with the history of higher education in Britain, and concentrate in particular on two historically very important universities (both of which I attended as a student): Oxford and University College London.

Part One: Standards

1) What is a university for?

TO CREATE KNOWLEDGE.

2) How to Become a Professor

To become a permanent, full-time professor at Doshisha you need to have published 5 essays. These can be (and often have been) published in Doshisha’s own academic bulletins.

To become a permanent, full-time professor in most British universities you need to have published a book, or obtained a contract for a book, with an academic publisher – or to have equivalent publication.

To become a permanent, full-time professor in good American universities you need to have published 2 books with an academic publisher – or to have equivalent publication. The standards are much higher!

Part Two: Producing Knowledge

1) The Nature of Learning

“In patterns of study the UK, historically, used to have no continuous assessment but final exams at the end of the year, and particularly at the end of the programme. The US always worked on a semester system with exams at the end of each semester and, except the best universities, no exam at the end of the course.”

(David VanderLinde, “Reflections on Higher Education in the US and the UK,” 2001)

2) Main differences between US and British degrees

“UK degrees are more focused on the practical aspect of the profession as opposed to the US liberal arts education, which requires each student to learn a broader curriculum. For students who have a clear idea of what profession they wish to follow, a specialised British degree is ideal as they are able to concentrate their efforts on the designated subject area from the beginning of the degree.

The UK education style is particularly relevant to students who want to concentrate their efforts and energy on a specific subject area or combination of subjects straight out of high school. … Undergraduate students are expected to be proactive, read widely around their subject and to motivate themselves outside of lectures.

… The close contact between student and tutor in seminars and tutorials is a particular strength of UK degree courses.”

(“Across the Pond” – An American website encouraging American students to study in Britain)

The Key Point: To do well in a university like Doshisha, you need to study many different things, and to satisfy the different grading criteria of many different professors. But most of the knowledge does not need to be retained. To do well in a British university, you need to have studied one subject area deeply, and to retain your knowledge until the end of the course, when you are expected to be able to answer general questions: for example, “Does Shakespeare represent marriage positively or negatively?”

Part Three: Institutions

1) Oxford

The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second or third oldest surviving university in the world (preceded by the University of Bologna and, possibly, the University of Paris). For its entire history it has been judged one of the world’s top universities.

The exact beginning of the University of Oxford is mysterious. The earliest reference to higher education at Oxford is in 1096. In the 1100s it developed as a leading centre of learning in Europe, the main rival of Paris. In the 1200s Oxford developed into something like its modern form, with a series of colleges all separately administered but joined together at the university level.

In 1209 a group of scholars from Oxford went to Cambridge and created the University of Cambridge. Cambridge developed as Oxford’s great rival – for over 600 years they were the only universities in England.

For a long time the monopoly that Oxford and Cambridge held over higher education in England was unchallenged. But problems started in the 1600s, for religious reasons. In 1581 Oxford introduced a religious test for any student graduating at the university – they had to publicly accept the 39 Articles of Faith established by the Church of England. Cambridge followed in 1616, making this a requirement for graduating students. Many Protestant Dissenters refused to accept this condition, and in the late 1600s they began setting up Dissenting Academiesto offer an alternative education – but these academies could not grant degrees.

In the 1700s both Oxford and Cambridge seemed to be increasingly old-fashioned. Gradually this led to the idea that there should be other universities. When new universities began to be created in the 1800s this forced Oxford and Cambridge to greatly improve their standards.

2) UniversityCollegeLondon

UniversityCollegeLondon (UCL) opened in 1826 as the first part of the University of London. At first it was simply called LondonUniversity. UCL was the third university in Britain, and it was designed to be very different from Oxford and Cambridge. There was no religious test: anyone could be a student if they met the intellectual requirements. And the curriculum was meant to be far more modern, and responsive to intellectual and scientific progress made outside Oxford and Cambridge.

UCL was the first university to offer a degree in Economics. It also put a strong emphasis on practical science (Chemistry, Engineering, etc.), Medicine and Modern Languages. Classes on the English language were taught from 1828, and in 1859 UCL became the first university in the world to offer a degree in English Literature. It took Oxford and Cambridge a long time to respond to these developments.

UCL was a leader in many other respects, too. In 1878 it became the first university to allow female students to be admitted on the same terms as men (Oxford and Cambridge took about 100 years to catch up!). In 1893 it became the first university in Britain to have a Students’ Union set up to organize social events and clubs and societies for students, as well as fighting for students’ rights.

During the 1800s UCL was, in many ways, Britain’s leading university. Today it is ranked one of the top five universities in Britain and one of the top twenty in the world.

3) Japan

The University of Tokyo was opened in 1877 as Japan’s first university. Its major purpose was to create knowledge relevant to the modernization of Japan: in this sense, it was closer in concept to UCL than to Oxford or Cambridge. The big difference from all the British universities was the idea that it should be directly controlled by the Government. In 1886 it was renamed the ImperialUniversity to emphasize its connection to the Government. Not surprisingly, people like Jo Niijima were horrified at the idea that higher education in Japan would be directly controlled by the Government!

In 1890 KeioUniversitybecame the first private university in Japan.

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