.uk
Encyclopedia
.uk is the Internet
country code
top-level domain
(ccTLD) for the United Kingdom
. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain
worldwide (after .com
, .de
and .net
), with over 9.5 million registrations.
The use of .uk rather than .gb
for the top-level domain
is due to its pre-existing use in the (now obsolete) JANET Name Registration Scheme
in which the order of address components were reversed. .uk was made available in DNS
to simplify the translation to and from these addresses. There were plans for eventual transition to .gb to accord with correct usage, but this never occurred; the use of .uk is now entrenched, and it is impossible to register a .gb
domain.
Unusually, the '.co.uk' second-level domain
within '.uk' is more widely used than for most other countries where the ccTLD has primacy. This is a result of specific rules set by Nominet, the UK's naming body, prohibiting direct use of the ccTLD. The Nominet website itself is formally no exception to this rule, however, the second level domain it uses, 'nic.uk', is not open to public registration.
It uses OpenDNSSEC
.
. In time, it passed to Dr Willie Black at the UK Education and Research Networking Association. Originally, domain requests were emailed, manually screened by and then forwarded to the UK Naming Committee before being processed by UKERNA. Membership of this committee was restricted to a group of high-end ISPs who were part of a formal peering arrangement.
The Naming Committee was organised as a mailing list to which all proposed names were circulated. The members would consider the proposals under a ruleset that insisted that all domain names should be very close if not identical to a registered business name of the registrant. Members of the Naming Committee could object to any name, and if a small number of objections were received, the name was refused.
By the mid-1990s the growth of the Internet, and particularly the advent of the World Wide Web
was pushing requests for domain name
registrations up to levels that were not manageable by a group of part-time voluntary managers. Oliver Smith of Demon Internet
forced the issue by providing the committee with a series of automated tools, called the "automaton", which formalised and automated the naming process end to end. This allowed many more registrations to be processed far more reliably and rapidly, and inspired individuals such as Ivan Pope
to explore more entrepreneurial approaches to registration.
Various plans were put forward for the possible management of the domain, mostly Internet service provider
s seeking to stake a claim, each of which were naturally unacceptable to the rest of the committee. In response to this Dr Black, as the .uk Name, stepped up with a bold proposal for a not-for-profit commercial entity to deal with the .uk domain properly. Commercial interests initially balked at this, but with widespread support Nominet UK
was formed in 1996 to be the .uk Network Information Centre, a role which it continues to this day.
The general form of the rules (i.e. which domains can be registered and whether to allow second level domains) was set by the Naming Committee. Nominet has not made major changes to the rules, although it has introduced a new second level domain .me.uk for individuals.
It is prohibited to register a domain name directly under .uk (such as internet.uk) and a second-level domain must be used (such as internet.co.uk).
However, some domains delegated before the creation of Nominet UK
remain. Examples include mod.uk (Ministry of Defence
), parliament.uk (Parliament
), bl.uk and british-library.uk (the British Library
), nls.uk (the National Library of Scotland
), nhs.uk (The National Health Service
), and jet.uk (UKAEA as operator of the Joint European Torus
experimental fusion tokamak
). No new 'normal' registrations at the second level are accepted although there is a system for allocating new second level domains to expand the capacity of the system. Such allocations are rarely made.
It is possible to directly register a domain name with Nominet UK
but it is faster and cheaper to do it via a Nominet registrar.
.co.uk, .ltd.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .nic.uk, .org.uk, .plc.uk and .sch.uk are managed by Nominet UK
and except for .nic.uk are available for registration by the public (though they all carry various degrees of restrictions). The other second-level domains are managed by various government agencies, and generally more strongly controlled.
basis to qualified applicants. There are no territorial restrictions: applicants need not have any connection to the UK
other than those outlined below for .ltd.uk and other restricted domains.
.co.uk is by far the most used of the domains, followed by .org.uk then .me.uk. .plc.uk and .ltd.uk are only rarely used. The number of new registrations for each of the different .uk domains on a month by month basis can be seen on the Nominet website (www.nominet.org.uk/intelligence/statistics/registration/)
The intended restriction of .co.uk to companies is purely nominal; in practice it is open to any and all applicants. Likewise, whilst .org.uk is for organizations, there are no restrictions on registering domains. While .me.uk originally had no restrictions on registrants it has since been tightened up to require registrants to be natural person
s (i.e. not companies, etc.).
However, registrants in .ltd.uk must be, and remain, private limited companies incorporated under the UK
Companies Act
s. In addition, names can only be registered if they correspond (in accordance with the algorithm in the rules of registration) with the exact company name, as recorded at the companies registry at Companies House
. The same conditions apply for .plc.uk, but for public limited companies. Neither of these domains is widely used.
.net.uk is more open, but the Nominet regulations still mean that a registrant must be an ISP, or a similar body, and that the domain is not used for providing services to end-users. .nic.uk, however, is limited solely to domains operated by Nominet.
.ac.uk domains are intended for the use of higher education institutions (beyond compulsory education age), and are also used by some academic support bodies such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (www.ucas.ac.uk), public research establishments, and learned societies
such as the Royal Society
(royalsoc.ac.uk). Primary and secondary education uses .sch.uk.
has the domain name http://www.campion.havering.sch.uk/, and West Exe Technology College
in Exeter
has the domain name http://www.westexetc.devon.sch.uk. Previously applications were made in the normal way, but after Nominet came to an arrangement with the education authorities, one domain per school was issued automatically.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
country code
Country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The best known of these is ISO 3166-1...
top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
(ccTLD) for the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
worldwide (after .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
, .de
.de
.de is the country code top-level domain for the Federal Republic of Germany. DENIC does not require specific second-level domains, as it is the case with the .uk domain range which require .co.uk domain for example.The name is based on the first two letters of the German name for Germany...
and .net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
), with over 9.5 million registrations.
The use of .uk rather than .gb
.gb
.gb is a reserved Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. Introduced at the same time as the UK's other top-level domain , it was never widely used...
for the top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
is due to its pre-existing use in the (now obsolete) JANET Name Registration Scheme
JANET NRS
The JANET NRS was a pseudo-hierarchical naming scheme adopted for use on British academic and research networks before the superficially similar system used by the Internet DNS had been fully established....
in which the order of address components were reversed. .uk was made available in DNS
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
to simplify the translation to and from these addresses. There were plans for eventual transition to .gb to accord with correct usage, but this never occurred; the use of .uk is now entrenched, and it is impossible to register a .gb
.gb
.gb is a reserved Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. Introduced at the same time as the UK's other top-level domain , it was never widely used...
domain.
Unusually, the '.co.uk' second-level domain
Second-level domain
In the Domain Name System hierarchy, a second-level domain is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain . For example, in example.com, example is the second-level domain of the .com TLD....
within '.uk' is more widely used than for most other countries where the ccTLD has primacy. This is a result of specific rules set by Nominet, the UK's naming body, prohibiting direct use of the ccTLD. The Nominet website itself is formally no exception to this rule, however, the second level domain it uses, 'nic.uk', is not open to public registration.
It uses OpenDNSSEC
OpenDNSSEC
The OpenDNSSEC is software that manages the security of domain names on the Internet. The project intends to drive adoption of Domain Name System Security Extensions to further enhance Internet security....
.
History
As with other ccTLDs in the early days it was originally delegated to an individual by Jon PostelJon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
. In time, it passed to Dr Willie Black at the UK Education and Research Networking Association. Originally, domain requests were emailed, manually screened by and then forwarded to the UK Naming Committee before being processed by UKERNA. Membership of this committee was restricted to a group of high-end ISPs who were part of a formal peering arrangement.
The Naming Committee was organised as a mailing list to which all proposed names were circulated. The members would consider the proposals under a ruleset that insisted that all domain names should be very close if not identical to a registered business name of the registrant. Members of the Naming Committee could object to any name, and if a small number of objections were received, the name was refused.
By the mid-1990s the growth of the Internet, and particularly the advent of the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
was pushing requests for domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
registrations up to levels that were not manageable by a group of part-time voluntary managers. Oliver Smith of Demon Internet
Demon Internet
Demon Internet is a British Internet Service Provider. It was one of the UK's earliest ISPs, especially targeting the "dialup" audience. It started on 1 June 1992 from an idea posted on CIX by Cliff Stanford of Demon Systems Ltd. The branch in the Netherlands started in 1996, and was sold to KPN...
forced the issue by providing the committee with a series of automated tools, called the "automaton", which formalised and automated the naming process end to end. This allowed many more registrations to be processed far more reliably and rapidly, and inspired individuals such as Ivan Pope
Ivan Pope
Ivan Pope was involved with many early internet developments in the UK and across the world. He started networking in 1988 while a contemporary of Damien Hirst and the YBAs at art college in London. After graduation he went on to develop an early bulletin board systems for artists . Pope invented...
to explore more entrepreneurial approaches to registration.
Various plans were put forward for the possible management of the domain, mostly Internet service provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s seeking to stake a claim, each of which were naturally unacceptable to the rest of the committee. In response to this Dr Black, as the .uk Name, stepped up with a bold proposal for a not-for-profit commercial entity to deal with the .uk domain properly. Commercial interests initially balked at this, but with widespread support Nominet UK
Nominet UK
Nominet UK is the .uk domain name registry in the United Kingdom, which was founded by Dr Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the 'Naming Committee' was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. Nominet is a non-profit...
was formed in 1996 to be the .uk Network Information Centre, a role which it continues to this day.
The general form of the rules (i.e. which domains can be registered and whether to allow second level domains) was set by the Naming Committee. Nominet has not made major changes to the rules, although it has introduced a new second level domain .me.uk for individuals.
It is prohibited to register a domain name directly under .uk (such as internet.uk) and a second-level domain must be used (such as internet.co.uk).
However, some domains delegated before the creation of Nominet UK
Nominet UK
Nominet UK is the .uk domain name registry in the United Kingdom, which was founded by Dr Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the 'Naming Committee' was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. Nominet is a non-profit...
remain. Examples include mod.uk (Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
), parliament.uk (Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
), bl.uk and british-library.uk (the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
), nls.uk (the National Library of Scotland
National Library of Scotland
The National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter...
), nhs.uk (The National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
), and jet.uk (UKAEA as operator of the Joint European Torus
Joint European Torus
JET, the Joint European Torus, is the largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment worldwide currently in operation. Its main purpose is to open the way to future nuclear fusion experimental tokamak reactors such as ITER and :DEMO....
experimental fusion tokamak
Tokamak
A tokamak is a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a torus . Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape...
). No new 'normal' registrations at the second level are accepted although there is a system for allocating new second level domains to expand the capacity of the system. Such allocations are rarely made.
It is possible to directly register a domain name with Nominet UK
Nominet UK
Nominet UK is the .uk domain name registry in the United Kingdom, which was founded by Dr Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the 'Naming Committee' was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. Nominet is a non-profit...
but it is faster and cheaper to do it via a Nominet registrar.
Second-level domains
- .ac.uk - academic (tertiary educationBritish universitiesUniversities in the United Kingdom have generally been instituted by Royal Charter, Papal Bull, Act of Parliament or an instrument of government under the Education Reform Act 1988; in any case generally with the approval of the Privy Council, and only such recognised bodies can award degrees of...
, further educationFurther educationFurther education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
colleges and research establishments) and learned societiesLearned societyA learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,... - .co.uk - general use (usually commercial)
- .gov.uk - government (centralGovernment of the United KingdomHer Majesty's Government is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining Ministers...
and localLocal government in the United KingdomThe pattern of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to the local arrangements. Legislation concerning local government in England is decided by the Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom, because England does not have a devolved...
) - .judiciary.uk - courts (to be introduced in the near future)
- .ltd.uk - limited companiesLimited companyA limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...
- .me.uk - general use (usually personal)
- .mod.uk - Ministry of DefenceMinistry of Defence (United Kingdom)The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
and HM ForcesBritish Armed ForcesThe British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
public sites - .net.uk - ISPsInternet service providerAn Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
and network companies (unlike .net.netThe domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
, use is restricted to these users) - .nhs.uk - National Health ServiceNational Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
institutions - .nic.uk - network use only (Nominet UKNominet UKNominet UK is the .uk domain name registry in the United Kingdom, which was founded by Dr Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the 'Naming Committee' was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. Nominet is a non-profit...
) - .org.uk - general use (usually for non-profit organisations)
- .parliament.uk - parliamentary use (only for the UK Parliament and the Scottish ParliamentScottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
) - .plc.uk - public limited companiesPublic limited companyA public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....
- .police.uk - policePolicing in the United KingdomLaw enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England & Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland ....
forces - .sch.uk - local education authorities, schools, primary and secondary education, community education
Rejected second-level domains
- .soc.uk - proposed for Social and Society use.
- .cym.uk - A domain for WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
; it did not have support of the Welsh Internet community, with a .cym.cym.cym is a top-level domain that might be eventually be assigned to the Cayman Islands. The primary top-level domain used by the Cayman Islands is .ky. The Islands already have the international three letter code, CYM...
domain being proposed. - .scot.uk - A domain for ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
; it did not have the support of the Scottish Internet community, with .sco domain being proposed.
Individual institutions
- .bl.uk and .british-library.uk - British LibraryBritish LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
- .jet.uk - Joint European TorusJoint European TorusJET, the Joint European Torus, is the largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment worldwide currently in operation. Its main purpose is to open the way to future nuclear fusion experimental tokamak reactors such as ITER and :DEMO....
- .nls.uk - National Library of ScotlandNational Library of ScotlandThe National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter...
; it also held another domain .national-library-scotland.uk, which has now been deleted.
Inactive second-level domains
- .icnet.uk - Cancer Research UKCancer Research UKCancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. As the world's largest independent cancer...
- now deleted. - .govt.uk - former government domain, now deleted and replaced by .gov.uk
- .orgn.uk - former non-profit organizations domain, now deleted and replaced by .org.uk
- .lea.uk - local education authoritiesLocal Education AuthorityA local education authority is a local authority in England and Wales that has responsibility for education within its jurisdiction...
; since fallen out of use. - .mil.uk - the Ministry of DefenceMinistry of Defence (United Kingdom)The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
have always used mod.uk for their external domain, but use mil.uk on their private network. mil.uk exists only as a CNAME (alias) for mod.uk in the .uk zone file. The url http://mil.uk is accessible as CNAME of http://mod.uk - .nel.uk - National Engineering LaboratoryNational Engineering LaboratoryThe National Engineering Laboratory was originally one of several large government-funded public research laboratories in the UK, staffed by scientists and engineers of the Scientific Civil Service...
(now TÜV NEL) - now deleted.
.co.uk, .ltd.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .nic.uk, .org.uk, .plc.uk and .sch.uk are managed by Nominet UK
Nominet UK
Nominet UK is the .uk domain name registry in the United Kingdom, which was founded by Dr Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the 'Naming Committee' was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. Nominet is a non-profit...
and except for .nic.uk are available for registration by the public (though they all carry various degrees of restrictions). The other second-level domains are managed by various government agencies, and generally more strongly controlled.
Allocation of domain names
Allocations are on a strict first-come, first-servedFirst-come, first-served
First-come, first-served – sometimes first-in, first-served and first-come, first choice – is a service policy whereby the requests of customers or clients are attended to in the order that they arrived, without other biases or preferences. The policy can be employed when processing sales orders,...
basis to qualified applicants. There are no territorial restrictions: applicants need not have any connection to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
other than those outlined below for .ltd.uk and other restricted domains.
.co.uk is by far the most used of the domains, followed by .org.uk then .me.uk. .plc.uk and .ltd.uk are only rarely used. The number of new registrations for each of the different .uk domains on a month by month basis can be seen on the Nominet website (www.nominet.org.uk/intelligence/statistics/registration/)
The intended restriction of .co.uk to companies is purely nominal; in practice it is open to any and all applicants. Likewise, whilst .org.uk is for organizations, there are no restrictions on registering domains. While .me.uk originally had no restrictions on registrants it has since been tightened up to require registrants to be natural person
Natural person
Variously, in jurisprudence, a natural person is a human being, as opposed to an artificial, legal or juristic person, i.e., an organization that the law treats for some purposes as if it were a person distinct from its members or owner...
s (i.e. not companies, etc.).
However, registrants in .ltd.uk must be, and remain, private limited companies incorporated under the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Companies Act
Companies Act
Companies Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and South Africa relating to company law....
s. In addition, names can only be registered if they correspond (in accordance with the algorithm in the rules of registration) with the exact company name, as recorded at the companies registry at Companies House
Companies House
Companies House is the United Kingdom Registrar of Companies and is an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills . All forms of companies are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by the...
. The same conditions apply for .plc.uk, but for public limited companies. Neither of these domains is widely used.
.net.uk is more open, but the Nominet regulations still mean that a registrant must be an ISP, or a similar body, and that the domain is not used for providing services to end-users. .nic.uk, however, is limited solely to domains operated by Nominet.
.ac.uk domains are intended for the use of higher education institutions (beyond compulsory education age), and are also used by some academic support bodies such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (www.ucas.ac.uk), public research establishments, and learned societies
Learned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...
such as the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
(royalsoc.ac.uk). Primary and secondary education uses .sch.uk.
sch.uk
Unusually, .sch.uk domains are allocated at the fourth level, with the third level being taken up by the name of the local authority (LA, previously LEA or Local Education Authority) e.g. schoolname.leaname.sch.uk. For example, The Campion School in HornchurchHornchurch
Hornchurch is a large suburban town in England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. Hornchurch is in North-East London .It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan. It comprises a number of shopping...
has the domain name http://www.campion.havering.sch.uk/, and West Exe Technology College
West Exe Technology College
West Exe Technology College is one of the five secondary schools in Exeter, Devon, England. West Exe was previously known as St Thomas High. The catchment area for the school is the St Thomas area, Alphington, and some parts of Exwick...
in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
has the domain name http://www.westexetc.devon.sch.uk. Previously applications were made in the normal way, but after Nominet came to an arrangement with the education authorities, one domain per school was issued automatically.