All children and young people between the ages of 4 or 5 and 16 must receive full-time education. About 93% receive free education in public schools, the rest attend private schools.
There are different kinds of educational institutions in Great Britain: universities, colleges, university extra-mural departments, evening departments at colleges.
At present there are about 40 universities in Great Britain: practically every big city has a university.
A university usually consists of some colleges, which is a part of the university. They provide training and give degrees to their students. The biggest universities are Oxford and Cambridge. They are the oldest. The modern universities are university of London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and others.
College is a separate institution. Most colleges are state colleges, but there are also private colleges.
At present there are about 300 technical colleges in England. The course for training specialists usually lasts 3 or 4 years, while at the universities it lasts more than 4 years.
Tuition costs a lot of money. Students have to pay for taking examinations, for attending lectures, for borrowing books from the library, for hostel accommodations. The academic year has 3 terms. Each term lasts eight-ten weeks. Between terms the students have their holidays: a month in winter, a month in spring and three or four months in summer.
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