The search for knowledge is central to British life. In fact, four of the world’s top ten universities can be found here. Every year, huge amounts are invested in science and research in this country… so why is knowledge so important to Great Britain?
Oxford has been a place of learning for hundreds of years and more world leaders have been educated here than any other university. This is the Old Schools Quad, which is part of the famous Bodleian Library, at the heart of this historic establishment.
A quad or quadrangle is a courtyard with buildings on all sides. Oxford University is made up of thirty-eight different colleges. There are twenty thousand students studying here, from nearly a hundred and fifty countries.
Dr Sally Mapstone is Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Education.
Richard: Sally. Tell me about Oxford University.
Sally: Oxford University is one of the world's leading universities. It's highly international, it's very modern and it has a great sense of history.
Richard: And how old is it?
Sally: The university has been here for nine hundred years. Many of the colleges are almost as old as that too, though some of them were established in the twentieth century.
Richard: You've had a lot of famous names here over the years.
Sally: Yes, we've had a lot of famous people at Oxford, from prime ministers, such as Margaret Thatcher, Harold Wilson, David Cameron, US presidents, such as Bill Clinton, writers, such as Oscar Wilde, and even film stars, such as Hugh Grant.
Richard: So why is it, do you think, that the search for knowledge and education is so important to Great Britain?
Sally: Great Britain and universities like Oxford have always had a rich interest in critical enquiry. By that I mean the search for knowledge, the investigation of truth, the asking of questions. Whether it's to do with drama, to do with development, or even to do with disease, we're always asking the big questions to try and change things for the better.
There are universities all across the UK but they're not the only places where you can gain knowledge.
Comments
1) Unfortunately, I've never been to Oxford and UK. But I hope to visit this wonderful country and this great university.
2) Yes, of course. Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge are the world-famous universities. Plenty of its is found in USA and European countries, such as UK.
3) I guess that universities are very important stage for progress to understanding of science, art and other similar things. In consequence of its people have a chance to achieve the knowledge, the truth and answer their questions.
I never have been in Oxford. Other world famous University is Harvard in the US.
I think Universities are important because knowledge is the basis of progres, and a good University make the difference.
I am having some glitches with this task. It's happening when I'm typing between two letters in the cell.
OS: Windows 8.1
Browser: Opera 19; Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/32.0.1700.76 Safari/537.36 OPR/19.0.1326.56
Hello nopainnogain,
That's strange, because I was just able to complete the exercise without any trouble with the gaps, though I'm using Windows 7 instead of 8. Is the problem that you can not enter only one space between words? Have you had similar problems with other exercises on the same page or other pages? Also, which browser exactly were you using? All of those that you indicated?
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello nopainnogain,
I just downloaded and installed Opera 19 on my Windows 7 machine and could not replicate this problem. Have you tried the exercise in a different browser? I think that might be the simplest next step. I'm sorry if your last message indicated that you've already done this - I just didn't understand all the details you sent, since several browsers are listed in your reply.
Please also let us know what kind of device and operating system you're using if using a different browser doesn't work.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
I didn't understand what's the meaning of ( Pro-vice chancellor) could you please explain what does it mean ?
Hi Tahani,
A Pro-Vice-Chancellor is simply an assistant to the Vice Chancellor. They are also known as Deputy Vice-Chancellors. As you'll see in the Cambridge Dictionaries Online (on the right), a Vice-Chancellor is normally in charge of a university.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Unfortunately, I have never been to The UK.
Oxford university is great I liked its nice old building it makes you feel warmth, isn't it ?
There are also loads and loads of other great university like Harvard and Cambridge. Universities in my Country are not that famous we have Alex and Cairo universities.
I`ve been in Oxford City, it`s beautiful place. There are a lot of university in the town. It`s a wonderful city. So I`ll hope, in the future they will discover this place.
I have never been to UK. It is a fabulbous country and i wish I would have chance to visit one day. Oxford is one of the most famous universities where any student want to study here. Thank you for this video, I have learnt more about education in UK.
Pages