UK Education is the form of administration centralization where each country of the United Kingdom has separate education system under separate government. For England, UK Government takes the responsibility while the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executives are responsible for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively. Each country defines five stages of education namely early years, primary, post primary or secondary, further education and higher education. Read below about the responsible bodies for education in schools and higher education in the UK.
England
Schools
The Department for education is responsible for education and children’s services including early years, schools, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England. It is a ministerial department supported by 17 agencies and public bodies. www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education
Higher Education
- Universities UK
This is the representative body for Universities to maintain the world-leading strength of the UK university sector and provide support to its members to promote Higher Education sector as well as achieve their aims and objectives.
http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
The council promotes and funds research and quality teaching for universities in England to create and sustain the conditions for a world-leading higher education system.
Northern Ireland
Schools
The department of Education Northern Ireland’s main statutory areas of responsibility are 0-4 provision, primary, post-primary, special education and the youth service.
www.deni.gov.uk
Higher Education
- Department for the Economy
The department is responsible for the information and advice on higher education and further education sectors including policy & strategy, development, student finance and research policy. There are two Universities, Queen’s University of Belfast and University of Ulster and five further Education colleges.
https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/
Scotland
Schools
Education Scotland is the national body responsible for supporting quality and improvement in learning and teaching from early years to adult and community learning in Scotland.
www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Higher Education
Scotland has 19 autonomous higher education institutions that are funded by the Scottish Government via the Scottish Funding Council. The council is responsible for distributing funds to individual institutions for teaching, research and associated activities.
www.sfc.ac.uk
Founded in 1992, Universities Scotland is an autonomous national council of Universities UK and financed by the subscriptions of member institutions. The council covers higher education activities in Scotland including teaching, employability, research and knowledge exchange, internationalisation, funding, efficiency and governance. It develops policy on behalf of the university sector and campaigns publicly on higher education issues.
www.universities-scotland.ac.uk
Wales
Schools
The Department for Education & Skills works to raise the standards of education and training provision, attainment and infrastructure in the schools across Wales so that each child could reach their full potential. http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/?lang=en
Higher Education
The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales uses resources from the Welsh government and others to secure Higher Education learning and research in Wales. www.hefcw.ac.uk
Universities Wales is the representative body of Wales’s 10 Universities. Members discuss issues related to the higher education in Wales and decide upon collective positions and actions.
www.uniswales.ac.uk
To learn more about the top UK Universities, Study in the UK and the responsible bodies for higher education in the UK, arrange a free consultation with SI-UK today.
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