2.1. Choosing a course & college

Focus on

CHOOSING A COURSE

CHOOSING A COLLEGE

The first stage of applying to university is choosing which course you'd like to do.

At Cambridge, courses tend to start out more broadly, to give you a good background in the subject and to introduce you to lots of different topic areas. You can then specialise in the area you're most interested in later on.

If you're not sure about which subject to study, and would like to find out more about the courses offered at Cambridge, click here .

At Cambridge, once you've chosen which course you'd like to study, you need to decide which College to apply to (or whether you'd prefer to make an open application).

A College is where you live when studying here, but it is much more than a hall of residence; it's also where you'll do a lot of your studying and socialising.

Click here for some advice about factors you might want to consider when choosing a college.

Reading activity

Colleges, schools, faculties and departments in Cambridge

The colleges are self-governing institutions with their own endowments and property, founded as integral parts of the university. All students and most academics are attached to a college. Their importance lies in the housing, welfare, social functions and undergraduate teaching they provide. All faculties, departments, research centres and laboratories belong to the university, which arranges lectures and awards degrees, but undergraduates receive their supervisions—small-group teaching sessions, often with just one student— within the colleges. Each college appoints its own teaching staff and fellows, who are also members of a university department. The colleges also decide which undergraduates to admit to the university, in accordance with university regulations.

Cambridge has 31 colleges. In addition to the 31 colleges, the university is made up of over 150 departments, faculties, schools, syndicates and other institutions. Members of these are usually also members of one of the colleges and responsibility for running the entire academic programme of the university is divided amongst them. The university also houses the Institute of Continuing Education, a centre for part-time study.

A "School" in the University of Cambridge is a broad administrative grouping of related faculties and other units. Each has an elected supervisory body—the "Council" of the school— comprising representatives of the constituent bodies. There are 6 schools:

Arts and Humanities
Biological Sciences
Clinical Medicine
Humanities and Social Sciences
Physical Sciences
Technology

Teaching and research in Cambridge is organised by faculties. The faculties have different organisational sub-structures which partly reflect their history and partly their operational needs, which may include a number of departments and other institutions. In addition, a small number of bodies entitled "Syndicates" have responsibilities for teaching and research, e.g. Cambridge Assessment, the University Press, and the University Library.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge#Colleges

Do it yourself

Match the following words taken from the text above with their definitions. The first one is given as an example.

WORD	ANSWERS	DEFINITION
01. College	01. e	a. A supervisory body comprising representatives of the constituent bodies.
02. University	02. Cloze (1):JXUwMDNl	b. A broad administrative grouping of related faculties and other units.
03. Academic (noun)	03. Cloze (2):JXUwMDNm	c. The bodies in charge of teaching and research.
04. Housing	04. Cloze (3):JXUwMDM1	d. Small-group teaching session, often with just one student.
05. Welfare	05. Cloze (4):JXUwMDM0	e. A self-governing institution with its own endowments and property, founded as integral part of a university.
06. Undergraduate teaching	06. Cloze (5):JXUwMDMy	f. An educational institution where students study for degrees and where academic research is done.
07. Faculty	07. Cloze (6):JXUwMDMw	g. A teacher or researcher in a university.
08. Department	08. Cloze (7):JXUwMDMx	h. One of the departments of learning, as theology, medicine, or law, in a university.
09. Research centre	09. Cloze (8):JXUwMDM2	i. One of the sections of a school or college dealing with a particular field of knowledge.
10. Laboratory	10. Cloze (9):JXUwMDM3	j. Teaching addressed to students who are studying for a first degree at a college or university.
11. Lecture	11. Cloze (10):JXUwMDI4	k. A student in a university or college who has not received a first, especially a bachelor's, degree.
12. Degree	12. Cloze (11):JXUwMDJj	l. The good fortune, health, happiness, prosperity, etc., of a person, group, or organization; well-being.
13. Undergraduate (noun)	13. Cloze (12):JXUwMDMz	m. The providing of houses for a group or community.
14. Supervision	14. Cloze (13):JXUwMDNj	n. A place where certain people meet to study something in order to discover new facts, especially in a university or scientific institution.
15. Teaching staff	15. Cloze (14):JXUwMDJi	o. A building or large room where people do scientific and medical experiments or research.
16. University regulations	16. Cloze (15):JXUwMDJh	p. A talk to a group of people about a particular subject, especially at a college or university.
17. Syndicates	17. Cloze (16):JXUwMDNi	q. A plan of activities to be fullfilled within an academic year.
18. Academic programme	18. Cloze (17):JXUwMDI5	r. The official rules that controls the way that things are done in universities.
19. School	19. Cloze (18):JXUwMDNh	s. The people who work for an educational institution.
20. Council (of the school)	20. Cloze (19):JXUwMDM5	t. An academic title conferred by universities and colleges as an indication of the completion of a course of study, or as an honorary recognition of achievement.

Enable JavaScript