United Kingdom

Primary education is free and compulsory from age 5 to 11. Secondary education is organized in a variety of ways for children aged 11 to 19 and is free and compulsory to age 16. In most parts of the United Kingdom, secondary schools are comprehensive; that is, they are open to pupils of all abilities. Pupils may stay on past the minimum school-leaving age of 16 to earn a certificate or take public examinations that qualify them for higher education.

The state finances primary and secondary education out of central and local tax revenues. Most expenditures take place at the local level, though about half of local revenues derive from the central government. Under the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, a new type of school was introduced—academies, which receive their funding directly from the central government (though they are eligible for some local funding and were initially required to have private sponsors). Academies operate independently of the local authority and have greater freedom than traditional (“maintained”) state schools over their curriculum and finance, as well as teachers’ pay and conditions. Academies generally arise from underperforming schools that have been given over to a new provider, whereas free schools, another new type of institution, operate as academies do but differ from them in that they are wholly new schools. Although the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government led by David Cameron pushed for a significant expansion of academies and free schools, in the early 2010s they still constituted only a small percentage of state-funded schools.

Private schools

Alongside the state sector, a small number of private schools (often called “public schools”) provide education for a small percentage of children. Their existence is controversial. It is argued that private schools divert gifted children and teachers and scarce financial resources from state schools and that they perpetuate economic and social divisions (an argument that some have extended to include academies and free schools). The counterarguments focus on their high quality, the beneficial effects of competition, and parents’ freedom of choice.

Higher education

Universities historically have been independent and self-governing; however, they have close links with the central government because a large proportion of their income derives from public funds. Higher education also takes place in other colleges.

Students do not have a right to a place at a university; they are carefully selected by examination performance, and the dropout rate is low by international standards. Most students receive state-funded grants inversely related to their parents’ income to cover the tuition fees. In addition, most students receive state-funded loans to cover living expenses. Foreign students and British students taking a degree at an overseas university are not generally eligible for public funding.

Public funds flow to universities through recurrent grants and in the form of tuition fees; universities also derive income from foreign students and from various private-sector sources. After a major expansion in the 1960s, the system came under pressure in the 1980s. Public funding became more restricted, and the grant system no longer supported students adequately. The government introduced the present system of student loans to replace dwindling grants for living expenses and established higher-education funding councils in each part of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) to coordinate state support of higher education. In 2010, in the interest of budget reduction, the government raised the maximum level of tuition for higher educational institutions in England to £9,000 (about $11,600) per year. In 2016 that limit was raised to £9,250 (about $11,900), with plans to allow further increases to keep up with inflation.

The Open University—a unique innovation in higher education—is a degree-granting institution that provides courses of study for adults through television, radio, and local study programs. Applicants must apply for a number of places limited at any time by the availability of teachers. Nicholas A. Barr Peter Kellner

Cultural life

English culture tends to dominate the formal cultural life of the United Kingdom, but Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have also made important contributions, as have the cultures that British colonialism brought into contact with the homeland. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland share fully in the common culture but also preserve lively traditions that predate political union with England.

The theatre district in the West End, London.© Telegraph Colour Library—FPG International