Of the full-time students now attending British universities the proportions of men and women are roughly the same. Nearly half of female students are engaged in the study of arts subjects such as history, languages, economics or law, the others are studying pure or applied sciences such as medicine, dentistry, technology, or agriculture.

The University of London, for instance, includes internal and external students, the latter coming to London only to sit for their examination. Actually most external students at London University live in London. The colleges in Oxford and Cambridge are essentially residential institutions and they mainly use a tutorial method which brings the tutor into close and personal contact with the student: each student meets his tutor to have his work scrutinized and discussed. These colleges, being residential, are necessarily far smaller than most of the colleges of the University of London.

Education of University standard is also provided in other institutions of higher learning such as colleges of technology and agricultural colleges, which prepare their students for degrees or diplomas in their specialist fields.

Traditional three terms into which the British University year is divided are roughly eight to ten weeks. Each term is crowded with different activities, and the vacations between the terms – a month at Christmas, a month at Easter, and three to four months in summer – are mainly periods of intellectual digestion and independent studies. These days many universities have adopted semesters instead of terms, typically about 14–15 weeks long.