Text b #higher education only about one third of school leavers receive post- -school education. compared with over 80 per cent in germany, france, the united states, and japan. however, it must be borne in mind that once admitted to university relatively fewer (15 per cent) british students fail to complete their degree course fourteen per cent of 18- and 19-year-olds enter full-time courses (degree or #t other advanced courses higher than a level) and it is hoped that this will rise to #about 20 per cent by the end of the century. these courses are provided #in a universities, polytechnics. scottish central institutions, colleges of higher (hie) a# d яра further (fe) education, and technical, art and agricultural colleges. in 1985 86, tor s * example, a million students were enrolled in full-time courses, of whom were at universities, 300000 (on advanced courses outside universities, and another 400000 were on non-advanced vocational training and educational courses #r (addition there were 32 million part-time students. of whom half a million released by their employers. (over 90 per cent of full-time students receive gr! is to assist with their tuition and cost of living. however in september 1990. #le government, while still providing tuition fees, froze the grant for cost of liv i ту s expenses. and set up a new system whereby students were to take out loans to *e cover the short fall. today there are forty-seven universities in britain, compared with venteen in 1945 they fa! into four broad categories: the ancient eng! h (uncial! ions. the ancient scottish ones, the redbrick- universities, and plategiass ones. they are ll private institutions, receiving direct grants (rt n central government. oxford and cambridge, founded i! the thirteenth fourteenth centuries respectively, are easily the most famous of britain universities. today oxbridge, as the two together are known, educate less than one tenth of britain's total university student population. but they continue attract many of the best brains, and to mesmerise a greater number, partly: on account of their prestige but also on account of the seductive beauty of many к! their buildings and surroundings.