Each year several thousand American students
come to the UK to continue their studies. While some are postgraduate
students, attracted here to pursue research under the supervision
of a particular individual, or to pursue a Masters programme at
a particular institution, others are undergraduates on Junior Year
Abroad (JYA) programmes.
Although the flow of students in the opposite direction is not
so great, a sizeable number of British students do depart each August
to experience the United States for the first time. The majority
of these are on American Studies programmes which require a period
of study in the USA. Each year those who have completed their stint
abroad return home, many of them fascinated and exhilarated by their
experiences, with every intention of returning to their adopted
country as soon as circumstances and finance permit.
It is not surprising that the overwhelming majority of those who
study abroad find the experience agreeable and worthwhile. The reasons
for study abroad are as much to do with widening students horizons
and cultural experiences as they are to do with subjecting them
to new and different approaches to study.
Differences in Costs
For very bright students the existence of prestigious scholarships,
particularly at graduate level, has ensured a small but steady flow
between the major centres of learning on both sides of the Atlantic.
The current President of the United States is but one individual
who has benefited from such scholarships in the past. However, the
majority of students do not benefit from scholarships and thus have
to meet any additional costs that arise when studying abroad. These
additional costs might arise as a result of differences in tuition
fees, differences in the cost of maintenance and additional expenditures
on travel. While there is little that can be done about travel costs,
or indeed, differences in the cost of living between the UK and
the USA, institutional arrangements can be made to overcome differences
in tuition costs.
Given the prevailing exchange rate between the pound and the dollar,
the tuition costs for a year of study on a Social Science or Arts
Programme in a British university might be higher or lower than
the corresponding cost of study in an American university. Typically,
the cost is higher in a British university than in an American state
university, but lower when compared to the more expensive private
American universities.
Exchange Programmes
In order to encourage study abroad many British and American universities
have entered into formal exchange programmes with each other. Such
exchanges are usually balanced, at least in the first instance.
This then allows each university to waive the fees for incoming
students under the exchange without losing any fee income, provided,
of course, that participating students leave behind their tuition
fees at their home university. Within the context of such a student
exchange, only if one university wants to send more students than
the other is there a need for the transfer of tuition income.
The incentive for British universities to enter into exchange programmes
of this sort has arisen largely because of the needs of students
on four-year American Studies programmes that require a period of
study in the USA. Up until now, students on designated four-year
degree programmes have had all four years of tuition fees paid for
by their local education authority. In addition, they have qualified
for a maintenance grant for the additional year. Others, on designated
three-year programmes, who wanted to study abroad for any period
have generally had to pay for that period themselves - both the
tuition and maintenance costs - unless they were in a university
which allowed periods of study abroad within the framework of existing
three-year programmes. Thus, outside of the officially recognised
four-year degree programmes, there have been relatively few British
students at undergraduate level studying in the USA.
JYA Programmes
In contrast, however, there have been far more American students
- over the last two decades at least - wanting to study in the UK.
This is no doubt due in large part to differences in absolute size
of the British and American higher education systems. However, it
is also attributable to differences in the nature and duration of
the British and American undergraduate degrees. The American degrees
last four years rather than three, are based on credit accumulation
and tend to be less highly structured than their British counterparts.
All of this has meant that they have traditionally provided students
with greater choice and flexibility in putting together their programmes
of study, including the opportunity of studying for a period of
time at another university, either in the USA or elsewhere, and
transferring the credit received from that institution back to their
home university.
Thus, in the USA, the practice of spending a year abroad - usually
the third (i.e. junior) year of undergraduate study - developed
into the so-called Junior Year Programme. And British universities
have responded to this by welcoming additional students (i.e. over
and above the number involved in exchange) on to such programmes.
While studying in the UK, American studies sit alongside their
British counterparts, taking exactly the same courses and fulfilling
exactly the same course requirements. At the end of their stay,
their home university receives a transcript indicating the courses
taken, the number of credits earned for each course, and the course
grade. This can then be fed back into the students’ transcripts
back home.
Shift Towards Semesters
Despite the emphasis on "year" in the title, JYA programmes
also admit students for less than a year, i.e. for one or two terms
or a semester. During the last turndown in the US economy (i.e.
in the early 1990s) there was an increasing demand from American
students to spend a semester rather than a full year of study in
British universities. This coincided with the period when many British
institutions were thinking about adopting the semester system, although
in the final analysis its adoption was not as widespread as once
seemed likely.
Given that those universities which have introduced a semester
system have, by and large, superimposed it on to the traditional
British academic calendar, with its three-term system, the operation
of the semester system in the UK is not nearly as straightforward
as in the USA. For example, the first semester is interrupted by
the traditional three-week Christmas vacation and does not end until
the last week of January, or even later. The second semester is
likewise divided into two unequal parts by the Easter vacation.
The fact that not all British universities are on the semester
system means that those American students wanting to come to the
UK during the second semester are restricted in their choice of
universities. Obviously entry in January to a British university
run along traditional lines, with year-long courses, is out of the
question since it would mean entering courses that have already
been running for 10 weeks. Even the first semester is not without
its problems since American students who stay until the end have
the additional expense of remaining here throughout the Christmas
vacation, with the probability that they will arrive back late for
the beginning of the second semester at their home university. The
upshot is that students opting to come in the first American semester
are likely to stay for only one British term.
Intermediary Organisations
American students who want to study in the UK but attend universities
and colleges which do not have formal links with a British institution
have two options. They can apply direct to the British university
or college of their choice, or they can apply indirectly through
two specialist institutions - Butler University and Beaver College
- both of which have extensive programmes with many British universities
and colleges. Beaver College is based in Philadelphia, while Butler
University is in Indianapolis. Both have offices in London which
maintain contact with their British partners. Students opting to
come through the Beaver or Butler programmes are well catered for,
with all travel arrangements being made for them and induction on
arrival.
Butex
Following the elevation of polytechnics to university status in
1992, British universities and colleges with interests in North
America joined together to form Butex, the British Universities
Transatlantic Exchange Association. This replaced two similar bodies,
one which had catered exclusively for the old university sector,
the other for the former polytechnic sector. The BUTEX mission is
to promote mobility between universities and colleges in the UK
and the USA and Canada. In order to achieve this, it promotes UK
higher education in North America and acts as a conduit for the
exchange of information on current issues among its members. It
represents its members at the annual NAFSA (Association of International
Educators) Conference and runs a biennial international conference
of its own on issues affecting the higher education relationship
between the UK and North America. In addition, it publishes guides
to both undergraduate and graduate study in the UK.
BUTEX is therefore an important umbrella organisation for British
higher education, particularly in relation to the contacts that
it maintains with other organisations such as NAFSA, CBIE (Canadian
Bureau of International Education) and CIEE (Council on International
Educational Exchange). These contacts enable it to keep its members
informed about current and emerging issues in higher education in
the USA and Canada.
Given that the special relationship between the UK and the United
States is reflected in the relationship between its higher education
institutions, it seems quite a natural development that future issues
of Educational Courses in Britain will concentrate on both British
and American higher educational issues, and that this will be reflected
by a change in title.
The Author: Professor J. J. Hughes, Professor of Industrial
Economics, University of Kent at Canterbury & Chairman of the
Educational Courses in Britain Editorial Steering Committee.
This article first appeared in Educational Courses in Britain
