First degree courses in the UK

The UK has an excellent reputation for higher education and research. It offers a lot of opportunities to both national and international students at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Degrees
The degrees vary according to the practice of each university.
First degrees after leaving school are often called undergraduate. Arts, social science and pure science degrees normally last 3 or 4 years because they are designed to follow a very specialized school-leaving qualification. Traditionally university graduates will be awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Science, Engineering, Medicine etc.
Later they may continue to take graduate or postgraduate courses. There is a another higher educational qualification in the UK, known as the Higher National Diploma or HND. It lasts a year less than a degree course – either two full-time or three years as a sandwich course.
HNDs are vocational (or job related), so a student will not find them in purely academic subjects as history or philosophy. They are available in, for example, science subjects, engineering, business studies, hospitality and tourism management.

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The American education system

Complete the paragraph with the words : it , the former,  that (3),  this, they, the latter, who, which (2) such as.


The American education system requires that students complete 12 years of primary and secondary education before they attend university or college. …(1) may be accomplished either at public schools, or at private schools. …(2) are usually supported and financed by state and municipal governments, while …(3) are operated privately.

Numerous American colleges, schools and universities offer programs …(4) lead to a variety of degrees. …(5) include an associate degree …(6) is given upon completion of a 2-year programme and a bachelor’s degree …(7) normally requires at least four years of full-time college-level coursework. For those college graduates …(8) want to advance their careers higher education institutions offer advanced degrees …(9) a master’s degree or doctorate (also known as PhD) degree.

The master’s degree typically requires two years of full-time graduate school coursework to complete. Unlike students pursuing a bachelor’s degree, students in a master’s degree program will complete courses … (10) are highly focused in their field of study (major) so the students must have already decided on the major before applying to a master’s degree program.

The PhD degree is even more focused and specialized than the master’s degree. Some students will complete a master’s degree before applying to a doctorate degree prog-ram, but …(11) is not always necessary. Completion of a doctorate degree typically takes between three and six years but a student with a master’s degree may take less time to complete his PhD if …(12) is in the same field

British English vs American English

Some students ask questions about differences between between the British accent and North American accent. Watch a video and compare.

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Are you sure this water is pure?
The bar is quite far, we need a car.
The first year you learn a lot of words by heart.
There were four more birds this morning.
Last week I cut my ass on some glass in the bath, so I asked for plaster.
My new secretary is so stupid! She had to look up "inventory" in the dictionary!

Comment what variant of English do you prefer to learn and why?