About Higher Education

Education Guardian

Higher Education is education provided by universities, vocational universities (community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and technical colleges, etc.) and other collegial institutions that award academic degrees, such as career colleges. Post-secondary or tertiary education, also referred to as third-stage, third level education, or higher education, is the non-compulsory educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium. Tertiary education is normally taken to include undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as vocational education and training. Colleges and universities are the main institutions that provide tertiary education (sometimes known collectively as tertiary institutions). Examples of institutions that provide post-secondary education are vocational schools, community colleges and universities in the United States, the TAFEs in Australia, CEGEPs in Quebec (Canada) and the IEKs in Greece. They are sometimes known collectively as tertiary institutions. Tertiary education generally results in the receipt of certificates, diplomas,or academic degrees.

Higher education includes teaching, research and social services activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level (sometimes referred to as tertiary education) and the graduate (or postgraduate) level (sometimes referred to as graduate school). In the United Kingdom post-secondary education below the level of higher education is referred to as further education. Higher education in that country generally involves work towards a degree-level or foundation degree qualification.

In most developed countries a high proportion of the population (up to 50%) now enter higher education at some time in their lives. Higher education is therefore very important to national economies, both as a significant industry in its own right, and as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy.

There can be disagreement about what precisely constitutes post-secondary or tertiary education: “It is not always clear, though, what tertiary education includes. Is it only that which results in a formal qualification or might it include leisure classes? In the UK, are A-levels tertiary education as they are post-compulsory but taught in school settings as well as colleges? Is professional updating or on-the-job training part of tertiary education, even if it does not follow successful completion of secondary education?”^[1]

There are two types of higher education, the higher general education and the higher vocational education.

• Higher general education
• Higher education in sciences
• Higher education in arts
• Higher vocational education
• Higher education in applied sciences
• Higher education in Applied arts
  • Performing arts
  • Plastic or visual arts
• Working in higher education
• Asia
• Europe
• North America
• Notes
• See also
  • Adult education
  • Community college
  • Education by country
  • Further education
  • Lifelong learning
  • Vocational education
• Further reading
• External links
  • Spirituality in Higher Education
  • VidyaSoochika – Higher Education Opportunities
  • Higher Education Resource Hub
  • Encyclopedia of Higher Education in the United States
  • How Minority Students Finance Their Higher Education
  • Ensuring Quality and Productivity in Higher Education
  • Writings on Higher Education Practice from the National University of Singapore
  • Reform Initiatives in Higher Education
  • Budgeting for Higher Education at the State Level: Enigma, Paradox, and Ritual
  • Blue Ribbon Commissions and Higher Education
  • Part Time MBA – Balancing Life, Work and School – Article
  • American Association of State Colleges and Universities
  • American Council on Education
  • Higher Education Research Institute
  • Association for the Study of Higher Education
  • Information about Erasmus/Internship in Europe
  • European universities fear “Americanization”
    

Academic Qualifications

The main academic qualification available to 16-18 year olds is the Advanced Level GCE. An A-Level consists of 6 modules in each subject, three of which are typically taken in the first year. After taking 3 modules, students can choose either to continue studying the subject to obtain a A-Level, or to “cash in” the first three modules for an AS-Level. Students aiming for university entry typically study 3 or 4 subjects to A-Level and an additional (often contrasting) subject to AS-Level. Alternative vocational qualifications such as the AVCE can also be studied. Most students can expect to receive a university offer based almost entirely upon the results of their A-Levels, either with specific grades or using the UCAS Tariff.

• Year 12 or Lower Sixth, age 16 to 17 (AS-level examinations)
• Year 13 or Upper Sixth, age 17 to 18 (A2-level examinations. Both AS-levels and A2-levels count towards A-levels.)
• The International Baccalaureate is an alternative to A-levels offered by a few institutions.

A Degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study.

Degree

• History
• Types of academic degree
  • Australia
  • Ireland
  • Germany and Austria
    • Germany
    • Austria
  • Poland
• Fake degrees
• References
• See also
  • Ad eundem degree
  • Bologna process
  • Degrees of Oxford University
  • Lambeth degree
  • List of Education Articles by Country
  • Higher education
  • Honorary degree
  • European Higher Education Area
  • Lisbon Recognition Convention
  • External degree
• External links
  • Brief Guide to Academic Qualifications