Pen's Nest

Just to confuse things a little further, people very often refer to 'going to college' as well as 'going to university', although these days the hideous 'uni' is likely to be used instead. :-( Also, usage seems to be changing a bit, in that 'college' may more generally refer to the sixth-form college where A-Levels and their equivalents are taken, which are more common these days than the were in mine.

And, where a university is collegiate - ie Oxford and Cambridge - you tend to mention which college you were at rather than or as well as which university. The colleges are all constituent parts of the university, but are also run individually, with idiosyncrasies of their own. (Mine, for instance, was women-only, and had no chapel.) A bit as though the colleges are states and the university is the national government, possibly? But most universities are not collegiate.

I don't think there's much difference in cost to the students, generally, as the universities almost all charge the maximum in tuition fees that the government allows. Though the cost of living in London is higher than in, say, Norwich, which may be important to some. And I believe it's a bit more expensive to go to Oxford or Cambridge, too. But there isn't a significant differential in fees, the way I think there is in the US.

Student loans (for tuition and for living on) are available to families below a certain income level (which I can't remember), and are a reasonable deal, being at a very generous interest rate. It still seems wrong to me, though, since my generation was actually paid to *go* to university, with tuition being free and a grant towards living expenses made by the student's home local council.