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Many of you reading this blog are studying at universities or are hoping to attend a university in the future. So, today we are going to look at some important vocabulary related to the people you will see and meet at a university.
Let’s start by looking at the words ‘university’ and ‘college.’ These two words are usually used synonymously, but they do have a slight difference in meaning.
A college is an institution that offers undergraduate degrees. Some colleges offer 2-year degrees (called an associates degrees), while others offer 4-year degrees (called bachelor’s degrees). A university is an institution that offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees (called a master’s degree or doctorate) and is a place where research is conducted. Both universities and colleges are considered post-secondary schools, or learning institutions for people who have graduated from high school.
In British English you will often hear people refer to ‘university’ by the nickname “uni.” In the United States it is more common to refer to post-secondary school as “college” regardless of whether the school is really a university or a college.
There are also some commonly used names for the people you will meet in university settings and we are going to take a look at those now.
Students at a university can be divided into undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduate students are studying for a bachelor’s degree (usually a 4-year degree). Graduate students are studying for a master’s degree or doctorate (usually 2-6 more years of study after a bachelors degree).
Students at universities are often referred to by the year they are in their studies. In America the following terms are very common:
Freshman – a first year student
Sophomore – a second year student
Junior – a third year student
Senior – a fourth year student
College is typically 4 years of study in the United States, although some students may take longer (or less time) to complete their degree.
In the United Kingdom university students usually refer to themselves by the year they are in school: first year, second year, etc. For example: I’m a second year student at uni.
Graduate students are often simply called “grad students.” After completing a doctoral degree some students continue to work and learn at a university, but they are not part of the teaching faculty, and these students are called “post-docs.” This stands for ‘post-doctoral student.’
Other roles that graduate students have at universities include:
TA (or teaching assistant) – a graduate student who assists a professor in teaching and grading
RA (or research assistant) – a graduate student who assists a professor in conducting research
It is not just students at universities that have special names though, teachers do too.
At a university an “instructor” or “lecturer” is a person who teaches a class, often a lower level or undergraduate course. Usually an instructor or lecturer does not conduct research at a university and does not have tenure. Tenure is a term used at universities in the United States, which means a job is guaranteed and won’t be taken away and given to someone else for any reason. Lecturers and instructors often have only yearly appointments to teach so they don’t have tenure. “Professors” are people who have been teaching at a university for a certain period of time and have proven beneficial for the university to keep as permanent employees. Professors often conduct research part of the time and teach part of the time. A nick name for a professor is “prof.”
Other people at a university:
advisor (also spelled adviser)– A university advisor is someone who works for the university giving insight and direction to a student about their academic career (i.e. which classes to take and in what order), as well as social, or personal matters.
registrar – The university registrar is the person (or group of people) who keeps student records (i.e. grades) and who puts students into the classes they want to take.
dean – A university dean is the head of a group of professors, a school within the university, or an administrative office at a university. This is basically the boss of a group of faculty at the university. There are often multiple deans at a university who help with the administration of the university to keep it running smoothly for students and professors.
