Education System in the USA and UK

EC English language schools offer programmes that will help enter USA and UK universities, often with guaranteed admission. For more information on this "must-do" course, click here: University Access Programme

Accessible to us through its movies, TV shows and music, American culture and language is very everywhere, but do you know much about the educational systems in English speaking countries and how to talk about them? Here are some basic examples in the differences between education in the USA and Britain.

In British English, a teacher sets an exam, while in the US, a teacher writes or gives an exam.

British English: "I sat an exam yesterday."
"I plan to set a difficult exam for my students, but I don't have it ready yet."

American English: "I took my exams at Harvard."
"I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam. I'm almost ready to give it to my students."

"what type of school did you go to?", someone may ask you. A public school has opposite meanings in Britain and America. In America, a public school is owned by the government and paid for by taxpayers. Confusingly, in Britain a public school is a school that is is actually privately owned and paid for by the students who attend. In Britain, state schools are the government schools, which are called public schools in America.

High school vs. Secondary school

In Britain, high school is known as secondary school regardless of whether it is state funded or private. High school is mostly an American English expression, as is junior high school.

In Britain secondary school school is for students age 11 - 16. At 16 students may leave education or go on to sixth form college before going to university at 18. In America high school is for students age 14 - 18. Before high school students spend three year in junior high. At 18, students may go on to university.

In Britain, you go to school until you are 16 years old before going into higher education (college or university). In America, university students describe themselves as "going to school". In Britain a university student would say, "I go to university", not, "I go to school."

Freshman, sophomore, junior and senior are all used in America to describe which year you are in (Freshmen = first, sophomore = second and so on). In Britain these words are not used an there is no alternative apart from fresher. A fresher is a first year student, but it usually refers to student in his/her first few weeks at university. A British university student would say, "I'm a fourth-year", not, "I'm a senior."

At British university, each module is taught by a lecturer or tutor, while professor is the job-title of a senior academic. In America classes are taught by a professor, while a lecturer is occasionally given to individuals hired on a temporary basis to teach one or more classes and who may or not have a doctoral degree.