Unit 3. Education in the United Kingdom. HIGHER EDUCATION.

 1.8 million students who completed A-Level study in the higher education system in
UK (1/3 of them go on18 years old) and 50% of the students are from Scotland.
 Undergraduate degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science 4 years in Scotland
and 3 in rest of states. Some degrees: medicine, dentistry, veterinary science 6 years.
 1 year a master´s degree, 2 years research master´s degree and 3 doctoral degree.
 Students pay for: contribution to cost of teaching and living costs (maintenance). But
government provides loans to help, but they must pay them back.
 University receives money from the state for each student.
 Head of university (responsible of management): Vince-chancellor.
 In UK, the universities are autonomous, so they decide the diplomas and certificates
granted and how to obtain them.

Education in the UK is provided in the following institutions:

 University: 50 universities in UK (8 Scotland, 2 Northern Ireland, 1 Wales, 39
England) great autonomy, but public funded, supported by University Grants
Committee.
 Polytechnics: specialize in applied science for commercial and industrial sectors and
offer humanistic disciplines. Created to respond to the social and economic needs ($).
They offer courses to get the professional field (related to industry, business). The
Committee of Polytechnics = Vice-chancellor.
 Colleges: They consist of nature centers and extensive options (not universities). The
polytechnics and Colleges issue Degrees that the National Council Degree grants
 Education and politics: Governments of both main political parties have recognized
the importance of education in helping Britain to adapt to its role as a post-industrial
society. 1980s created a need for an education system. Central government plays a
important role in an education policy at the expensive of local authorities and individual
head teachers.

The most Important Universities in English World Countries are the ones of Cambridge,
Oxford, and Harvard.
 University of Cambridge.
 It’s a public research university in Cambridge, England. 2nd oldest university in UK.
 Rich in history. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) first attended in 1661, the University
saw a rapid expansion of professorships in mathematics and sciences.
 Cambridge has 31 colleges but in three of them, Murray Edwards, Newnham and Lucy
Cavendish, only women are admitted. Darwin was the first college to admit both.
 Famous alumni are John Harvard, the poet John Milton.
 Many of important scientific discoveries and revolutions: Francis Bacon
(understanding the scientific method); Sir Isaac Newton (laws of motion); J. J.
Thomson (discovery of the electron); Ernest Rutherford (splitting of atom) and Sir
John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton (nucleus); James Clerk Maxwell (unification of
electromagnetism); Henry Cavendish (discovery of hydrogen) and Charles Darwin
(theory of Evolution by natural selection).
 The University has more graduates that go on to become Nobel Laureates (61). Two
Nobel Laureate winners: Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who discovered penicillin.
James Chadwick (neutron); John Hicks (equilibrium theory); Charles Barkla (the
characteristics of X-rays).
 Britain’s leading politicians studied: Robert Walpole (first Prime Minister). Oliver
Cromwell (Lord Protector), over 25 foreign Heads of Government: Prime Ministers of
Jordan, Singapore and India and the Presidents of Trinidad and Tobago and Zambia.
 Loved writers and poets: C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia); E.M. Forster (book
‘Howards End’); John Boynton Priestley (books ‘An Inspector Calls’ and ‘The Good
Companions’).
 Stephen Hawking became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (1979) and
continues his research on singularities and black holes; in 1988 he published the best
seller book “A Brief History of Time”.
 Motto is Hinclucemetpocula sacra (latin) “From here, light and sacred draugths”. In
2009 the University of Cambridge celebrated its 800th anniversary. The Duke of
Edinburg is the Cambridge´s Chancellor, Sir LeszekBorysiewicz is Vice-Chancellor.
In addition to the 31 colleges, the university is made up of over 150 departments,
faculties, schools, syndicates and other institutions.
 University of Oxford.
 Oxford was founded by William of Durham.
 The oldest university in the English-speaking world.
 Teaching existed at Oxford in 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167 (not clear
foundation).
 It has admitted both men and women since 2008. During 20th and early 21st century,
Oxford added to its humanistic core a major new research capacity in the natural and
applied sciences (medicine).
 The Oxford´s motto is Dominus Illuminatio Mea (latin) “The Lord is my light”.
 There are thirty colleges of the University Oxford and six Permanent Private Halls.
 Prime Minister (2013) in the UK, David Cameron was a student from Oxford.
 Some scientists graduated between 17th & 18th Centuries: Edmund Halley
(astronomer); William Harvey (discovered the circulation of the blood); Robert
Hooke (scientist). In the 20th & 21st: Dame Josephine Barnes (first female President
of the British Medical Association); Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of World Wide
Web); Stephen Hawking (physicist).
 In politics: Bill Clinton (President of USA 1993); John Kufuor (President of Ghana
2001-2009); Hon Raymond Robinson (President of Trinidad and Tobago 1997); Dr.
Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister of India, 2004).
 Nobel prize: Lester B Pearson (Nobel Peace Prize). Oliver Smithies (Nobel Prize for
Medicine). Aung San SuuKyi (Nobel Prize for Peace). V.S. Naipaul (Nobel Prize for
Literature).

 University of Harvard.
 Harvard was established in 1636. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United
States.
 College’s first benefactor, the young minister John Harvard.
 The mission of Harvard College: to create knowledge, to open minds of students to
the knowledge, and to enable students to take best advantage of their educational
opportunities.
 In April 2012, Harvard and MIT announced EdX, a partnership to offer online learning.
 More than 60 percent of Harvard College students receive scholarship aid, and the
average grant this year is $40,000.
 Harvard College has around 21,000 students. Harvard University is made up of 11
principal academic units –ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

These are some famous graduated students from Harvard University:

 Famous actors Tommy Lee Jones, Ashley Judd, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman.
 Mexican Presidents that have graduated from Harvard are Felipe Calderon, Carlos
Salinas de Gortari and Miguel de la Madrid.
 Eight U.S. Presidents have graduated from Harvard: John Adams, John Quincy
Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George Walker Bush and Barack Obama.
 William Henry “Bill” Gates III an American business magnate and philanthropist was
the Co-founder (1975) with Paul Allen, Chairman (1975-2000), President (1977-1982),
and CEO (1992-1998) of Microsoft Corporation. He is the author of two books: The
Road Ahead (1995), and Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999).

Unit 4. Science and Technology in the United Kingdom

4.1-4.2 Inventors and Inventions from United Kingdom

 Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) was an English businessman who invented a

machine in 1769 using water power for spinning cotton, which had been spun by
hand until then. One of the early leaders of the Industrial Revolution.
 Henry Bessemer (1813-98) was an English Engineer and Inventor, best Known for
inventing the Bessemer Process in 1855, a way of making steel by blowing air
through melted iron to remove the other substances from it.
 Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) a Scientist and Inventor who is best known for
inventing the Telephone in 1876.
 George Boole (1815-64) was an English mathematician who invented a type of
mathematical logic known as Boolean Algebra in 1854. A simple form that later
became the language of computers.
 Frank Whittle is well known for being an English engineer, best known for inventing
the jet engine in 1929, the type of engine now used in most aircraft, which gives
forward movement by releasing a stream of gases at high speed behind it.
 John Cockroft (1897-1967) was an English scientist who Ernest Walton succeeded
with in splitting the atom at the Cavendish Laboratory in 1932.
 James Watt was a Scottish inventor whose work played an important part in the
development of the steam engine in 1774. His designs for engines improved on
those in existence at the time because they used much less fuel.
 In 1813, George Stephenson became aware that William Hedley and Timothy
Hackworth were designing a locomotive for the Wylam coal mine. So, at the age of
twenty, George Stephenson began the construction of his first locomotive.
 Charles Darwin was an English Naturalist who developed the theory of evolution
by natural selection. He published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection (1859)
 Richard Trevithick was an English engineer who was the first man to develop steam
engines into vehicles carrying passengers.
 Barnes Wallis was an English engineer. He designed some of the most important
aircraft and weapons of World War II, including the Wellington and Wellesley
bombers and a bouncing bomb used to destroy dams.
 William Thomson was a British physicist and inventor. He did much work on the laws
of thermodynamics and in 1848 produced a temperature scale that later became
known as the Kelvin Scale.
 English chemist Humphrey Davy, he discovered six chemical elements, including
calcium, potassium and sodium. However, he is better known for a practical
invention that saved many lives in 1815: the Davy Lamp.
 Dorothy Hodgkin was an English scientist, she discovered the structure of penicillin,
vitamin B12 and insulin. In 1964 she received the Nobel Prize for chemistry.
 William Herschel was a British astronomer, born in Germany. He discovered the
planet Uranus.
 Bernard Lovell was an English astronomer. He helped to develop radar during
World War II and later established the famous radio telescope at Jodrell Bank to
study radio waves sent out by objects in other parts of the universe.
 Edmond Halley was an English astronomer and mathematician who was a close
friend of Isaac Newton. He is best remembered for Halley’s Comet, which was named
after him.
 Francis Crick was an English scientist. His work with James Watson at the Cavendish
Laboratory led to the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953.
 Rowland Hill was a British Post Office worker who invented the postage stamp.
 Alexander Fleming was a Scottish scientist who became well known for discovering
penicillin, the first antibiotic that successfully killed bacteria and cured infections.
 Jane Goodall is remembered as a British scientist who became famous for her study
of chimpanzees. She discovered that these animals can use tools.
 JJ Thomson was an English physicist who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1906
for discovering the electron.
 Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965) was a British aircraft designer whose company
produced many of Britain’s best-Known aircraft.

4.3 Inventors and Inventions from the United States of America. Pg. 64

 George Eastman was an American who invented a camera small enough to carry
and film in a flexible roll. He started a company in 1884 that later became the Eastman
Kodak company
 Richard Feynman was a US Physicist who began the first research into quantum
electrodynamics.
 Henry Ford was the American who created the Ford car in 1885 and changed the
motor industry by introducing new ways of making cars in great numbers.
 R Buckminster Fuller was an engineer from US and inventor, his best-known
inventions include the geodesic dome and the Dymaxion House.
 Tomas Edison was a famous US inventor. His inventions included a machine for
reproducing sound, the electric light bulb and the kinescopic camera which was
later used in cinemas.
 Albert Einstein a physicist, born in Germany, who was possibly the greatest scientist
of the 20th century. In 1905 he published his theory of relativity. This led to equation
giving the relation between mass and energy (E=mc²) which is the basis of atomic
energy.
 Samuel Colt was an American who invented the revolver (a gun with a container for
bullets that turns) in 1835.
 Isaac Asimov was a US writer of science fiction who invented the word Robotics.
 Bill Gates is a US businessman who, in association with Paul Allen, started the
Microsoft Corporation when he was only 19 on April 4th, 1975.
 Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (May 14th,1984) is a programmer and American
businessman known as the creator of Facebook.

4.4 Patenting an Invention

A patent is a property right granted by the Government of a country to an inventor to

exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention without his
permission for a limited time.

A typical patent application takes 2 or 3 years grant. There is an organization in each

country for getting a Patent. Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the organization in
England for getting a Patent. In the United States of America, it is the USPTO (United
States Property and Trademark Office) and in Mexico the IMPI (Instituto de la Propiedad
Intelectual).

5.1 Music Bands lmL

In 1965 there was a generation of adolescents in the United Kingdom that had grown
listening to the blues of the black Americans and thanks to this they invented their own
sound which was charged with the emotions of the moment, adrenaline and rebellion.

“The Who” were the responsible of introducing the attitude and the volume, “The Rolling
Stones” came with the arrogance and sex. This new Sound was a revolution which ended
up changing and influencing everything from the political thoughts to the ways of living of
the people, this sound was called “Rock”.
Rock and Roll

The major movement in rock and roll in Britain was due to the impact of The Beatles in
popular music at that time and their impact upon popular culture too. Thanks to this new
wave of rock and roll in the sixties, many other acts of a similar genre emerged: The
Rolling Stones, Queen, The Yardbirds, Alan Price and The Kinks.

The 1970s decade gave us new styles influenced by a more relaxed and confused youth,
with groups like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. And singers in the scene
like Rod Stewart, David Bowie and Elton John.

Rock and roll in Britain at that time started as a liberation from pre-war austerity;
teenagers could dance, drink and smoke, and enjoy the new sounds and freethinking
lyrics of these bands and singers. The era momentum coincided with the advent of the
pill and the sexual liberation creating a big part of this intoxicating package.

The Beatles

One of the most representative groups of music were The Beatles, it was an English rock
band known as the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed in the history
of popular music. The band was formed in Liverpool in 1962 by John Lennon (rhythm
guitar, piano, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass, vocalist, pianist), George Harrison (lead
guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals).

“Yesterday” is a song by British rock band The Beatles.

The Rolling Stones

The name of the band comes from a song by Muddy Waters, after the creation of the
group; the band found itself playing in places like the crown night club. In 1964 the cover
of the song “Little Red Rooster” reach the top on the lists, their career took off and a new
band called “The Yarbirds” came to take their same place, after this success multiple
arrests caused by drugs, sexual escapades and other similar cases were the reason the
band started to have more confidence about what they could play and they began to
experiment on the creative liberty of writing their songs.
Queen

Queen is a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie
Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar,
vocals) and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals) Queen´s earliest works were influenced by
progressive rock, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-
friendly works, incorporating more diverse and innovative styles in their music.

Their 1977 album “News of the World” contained two rock´s most recognizable songs,
“We will rock you” and “We are the champions”, this last song is a ballad composed by
Freddie Mercury and it´s one of his most famous and popular song in the world.

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25th, 1947) is an
English singer, composer and pianist. Both of John´s parents were musically inclined.
John started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him
picking out Winifred Atwell´s “The Skater´s Waltz” by ear. He showed musical aptitude at
school, including the ability to compose melodies, and gained some notoriety by playing
like Jerry Lee Lewis at school functions. At the age of 11, he won a junior scholarship to
the Royal Academy of Music. during the 1970´s.Elton John performed his song “Candle
in the Wind” at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997 and the song went.

Brit Pop

Britpop started in the early 1980's and last until late 1990s, with the rise of several bands
such as U2, Oasis, Blur and the Cranberries, who heralded a new movement of British
pop bands, having his top with a very huge phenomenon, the Spicegirls.

Bands and singers that have emerged since 2000 includes: Razorlight, Coldplay, The
Streets, James Morrison, James Blunt, The Arctic Monkeys, The Fratellis, the late
Amy Winehouse, and Adele. Blue, Franz Ferdinand, Joss Stone and Keane.
5.2 Music Festivals lml :v lml

5.2.1 Glastonbury

Glastonbury is the Most Famous British Music Festival, and the top of all British music
festivals. The first Glastonbury festival was held in 1970, the day after Jimi Hendrix died.
Attendance at the first Glastonbury festival was a mere 1500 people compared with the
150,000 in the last years.

The four day festival attracts the biggest names in music; this is why tickets are usually
sold out within a matter of hours. Attendees who do manage to get their hands on tickets
can usually expect some rain and mud and the musical experience of a lifetime.

5.2.2 Coachella

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, is an annual three-day music and arts
festival, organized by Goldenvoice the third weekend or the last week of April.

5.2.3 Lollapalooza

Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal,
punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances.