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Admission Procedures
Students me admitted to British Universities largely on the basis of their performance in the examinations for the General Certificate of Education at ordinary and advanced level. The selection procedure is rather complicated.
A student who wants to go to university usually applies for admission before he takes his advanced level examinations. First of all he must write to the Universities Central Council on Admissions (UCCA) and they send him a form which he has to complete. On this form he has to write down (he names of six universities in order of preference. He may put down only two or three names, stating that if not accepted by these universities he could be willing to go to any other. This form, together with an account of his out-of-school activities and two references, one of which must be from the head teacher of his school, is then sent back to the UCCA.
The UCCA sends photocopies of the form to (he universities concerned. Each applicant is first considered by the university admission board. In some cases the board sends the applicant a refusal. I his may happen, for example, if the board receives a form in which their university is the applicant’s sixth choice and the university already has many candidates. If there are no reasons for immediate refusal, the university admission officer passes the candidate’s papers on to the academic department concerned. One or two members of this department will then look at the candidate’s application: see what he says about himself, look at his marks at the ordinary level examinations, see what his head teacher and the other referee say about him. On the basis of this, the department may make the candidate an offer (either a definite offer or a conditional one) or send him a definite rejection.
As a rule the department makes a conditional offer. This means that the candidate will be accepted by the university if he fulfils the requirements stated in the offer.
In his turn, the student may accept the offer conditionally.
When the Advanced level examination results come out in August, the university admissions department sees whether the candidate has fulfilled his conditions and, if he has, sends him a definite offer. The candidate must accept or refuse within 72 hours.
Lecturing and Assessment in Herriot -Watt University /Edinburgh, Scotland/
All of the courses given in the University at undergraduate level rely, in the main, on lectures given in fifty-minute periods throughout the three terms in the early years of the courses. Each subject will normally have at least two lecture hours per week with an additional tutorial hour. Xhe latter can consist of small groups with one tutor, or larger groups with several tutors, for example in mathematics tutorials. Additionally for many of the science and engineering subjects one or more afternoons per week may be devoted to laboratory work, at which experiments are conducted to back up lectures.
The University has a wide range of audio-visual equipment which is used both in lectures and in laboratory work but is also available for individual use for revision of, as well as additional material to, work done in classes.
Many of the subjects are assessed continuously on the performance achieved throughout the term on written work and in some cases good performances throughout the term can exempt from end of session examinations. However, most subjects are assessed at the end of each term in the first year of a course although the end of session examination contributes most to final achievement. In later years examinations are normally only held at the end of the first term and at the end of the session, and indeed first term examinations are rare in the final year of most courses. Final examinations are normally held in the May of final year. It should be noted that each student has a mentor or tutor who keeps an eve on his progress throughout his university career and is available to advise the student who experiences difficulties with his academic studies.
Г.М. Фролова и др. Учебник английского языка для 1 курса языкового вуза. – М. : ИЛБИ, 2000. Unit 8. My Future Profession/ Cc..292 - 294.