[TOPIC]adm:[ETOPIC] admission cost[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Alumni:[ETOPIC] 'Old-boys' and 'Old-girls', but they're not called that [PARA]in case they don't give the college any money when they [PARA]leave. Singular: alumnus. Feminine plural: alumnae. Neuter [PARA]dative plural: go ask a Latin scholar.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]AP:[ETOPIC] Alternative Prospectus[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Athletics Union/Sports Union:[ETOPIC] The student organisation [PARA]that runs student sports clubs and sometimes sports [PARA]facilities. They're usually hot-beds of sexism, alcohol [PARA]abuse and hairy chests... and that's just the women. Often [PARA]they are a part of the students' union or if there isn't an [PARA]Athletics Union, the students' union has probably got the job.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]AU:[ETOPIC] Athletics Union[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Ave:[ETOPIC] Average[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Bops:[ETOPIC] The word 'disco' went out of fashion with boob [PARA]tubes and satins. But then, most of the small sweat shops[PARA]with weak watt amps and lights that hardly put a torch to [PARA]shame certainly don't merit the term 'rave'. And so [PARA]instead, welcome to 'bops' - interminable dance nights in [PARA]anything from pokey rooms to purpose-built club venues.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]BUNAC:[ETOPIC] British Universities North America Club[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Campus:[ETOPIC] The area of land on which a collection of college [PARA]buildings are built. So, a campus university is one built [PARA]entirely or mainly on a single campus. A civic campus is a[PARA]campus in a town. And a greenfield campus is not.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]cap:[ETOPIC] capacity[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]CND:[ETOPIC] Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]CofE:[ETOPIC] Church of England[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]CofS:[ETOPIC] Church of Scotland[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]CVCP:[ETOPIC] The Committee of Vice-Chancellors & Principals[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]DFE:[ETOPIC] Department for Education[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]DofE:[ETOPIC] Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Ents:[ETOPIC] Short for entertainments, which are usually run by [PARA]the students' union and include such larks as bops, [PARA]hypnotists and, if you're unlucky, karaoke. Without ents, [PARA]students would just be studs.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Finals/Finalists:[ETOPIC] Otherwise known as judgement day, hell, [PARA]or the fifth rider of the apocalypse, finals are the exams in [PARA]the final year of study, that decide whether or not the last 3[PARA]or 4 years have been worth living in abject poverty for. [PARA]Hence, finalists are students with their heads on the [PARA]examination block, in their final year.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]FoE:[ETOPIC] Friends of the Earth[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Freshers:[ETOPIC] Freshers are first year students in their first few[PARA]weeks - when the pace is faster than curry through a dog [PARA]with diarrhoea and the main topics of conversation are [PARA]home towns, A Level grades and UCAS codes. During [PARA]students' time as freshers, they are likely to spend 99% of[PARA]their grant cheque, join hundreds of student clubs whose [PARA]events they never subsequently attend and become [PARA]horrendously drunk most nights. After 3 weeks of this, [PARA]they are hungover, broke and wiser - in short, a [PARA]fully-fledged student.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Hack:[ETOPIC] Not the sound of a bad cough or a lozenge to cure it,[PARA]but a person who is utterly committed to their [PARA]extra-curricular activities. Usually refers to those in [PARA]involved in SUs or student journalism. You can tell a hack [PARA]because they are the ones claiming everyone else is apathetic.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Halls:[ETOPIC] At most colleges, when students talk about halls, [PARA]they mean 'halls of residence', the accommodation blocks,[PARA]which traditionally provide catered meals (but increasingly [PARA]are becoming self-catered), cleaners, heat, light and [PARA]electricity and a variety of amenities such launderettes, [PARA]common rooms and TV lounges. Oxbridge, of course, [PARA]has to be different. At Oxford or Cambridge, halls are the [PARA]formal dining rooms.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Head tenancy scheme:[ETOPIC] Rather than handing out cardboard[PARA]boxes or have students cluttering up the gym floor, some [PARA]colleges have started to do the house-hunting themselves. [PARA]They get a group of landlords together, rent all their brick [PARA]boxes that pretend to be homes and then sublet them to [PARA]students, often at cheaper rates or better terms.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]HEFC:[ETOPIC] Higher Education Funding Council[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]JCR:[ETOPIC] Junior Common Room/Junior Combination Room[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Junior Common Room (JCR):[ETOPIC] Another name for a [PARA]students' union, but usually quite a modest affair such as [PARA]in a hall.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Living in/Livers in:[ETOPIC] Students who live in college [PARA]accommodation, such as halls are known as livers in. See[PARA]also Living out.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Living out/livers out:[ETOPIC] Students who fend for themselves, [PARA]dealing with landlord sharks, are livers out. See also Living in.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Mature students:[ETOPIC] It is not necessarily true that mature [PARA]students behave any more maturely than conventional [PARA]ones. Nor are they necessarily old fogeys - some are as [PARA]young as 21, but, generally, they are older than most other [PARA]students and are probably returning to education rather [PARA]than being fresh out of school. (Having a year out counts [PARA]as being fresh, having 10 years out living in a convent doesn't.)[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]MCR:[ETOPIC] Middle Common Room[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Modular:[ETOPIC] A course of study comprising a number of [PARA]components (modules) from various departments.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Moral Tutors:[ETOPIC] See Personal Tutors.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]MSA:[ETOPIC] Mature Students' Association[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]mth:[ETOPIC] month[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]NHS:[ETOPIC] National Health Service[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Nightline:[ETOPIC] All students have times when the skin on the cup[PARA]of cocoa of life is just a bit too thick and Nightline services, [PARA]available in most colleges worth their salt, are there for [PARA]those times. They are telephone counselling services, a bit[PARA]like the Samaritans, run (usually) by students for students.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]No:[ETOPIC] Number[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]NUOS:[ETOPIC] The National Union of Overseas Students[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]NUS:[ETOPIC] The National Union of Students, run by students who[PARA]never grew up, provides research, welfare information and[PARA]services to SUs which are affiliated. NUS is the only [PARA]national body which represents and campaigns on behalf [PARA]of students.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]NUS Conference:[ETOPIC] Every year, thousands of delegates [PARA]from all the member unions of NUS, battle it out for [PARA]political power, electing the NUS executive and deciding [PARA]campaigns, etc.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]OSA:[ETOPIC] Overseas Students' Association[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Oxbridge:[ETOPIC] The collective term for the 2 oldest universities in[PARA]the country, Oxford and Cambridge, which have a style [PARA]and prestige all of their own. Why did Camford never [PARA]catch on?![PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Pay-as-you-eat:[ETOPIC] Not a scheme where students have to put [PARA]10p in a box whilst simultaneously popping brussels [PARA]sprouts in their mouths, but rather a system operated in [PARA]some halls where, rather than buying all meals in advance,[PARA]students pay when and only when they eat hall food.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Personal Tutors/Moral Tutors:[ETOPIC] At many, if not most, [PARA]colleges, students are assigned to a personal tutor who is [PARA]charged with responsibilities beyond the purely academic. [PARA]The extent of their remit and of their usefulness varies [PARA]enormously. Some have regular meetings to discuss [PARA]everything from exams to sex, others introduce [PARA]themselves to their tutees at the beginning of their college [PARA]career with some Piat D'Or and limp cheese and don't see[PARA]them again till graduation day. Sometimes they're called [PARA]moral tutors, but expecting academics to give moral [PARA]guidance is like asking a fish to ride a bike.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]PGSA:[ETOPIC] Postgraduate Students' Association[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Polytechnic:[ETOPIC] Once upon a time there was something called[PARA]'the binary divide' which distinguished between universities [PARA]and polytechnics. It never meant much anyway and now it[PARA]means nothing at all. Polytechnics (or ex-polytechnics) [PARA]tend to have a slant towards vocational courses and an [PARA]often unfair reputation for lower academic standards than [PARA]universities. See University.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Postgrads:[ETOPIC] postgraduates[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Poly:[ETOPIC] Polytechnic[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]RC:[ETOPIC] Roman Catholic[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]RCP:[ETOPIC] Revolutionary Communist Party[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Quad:[ETOPIC] A square surrounded by buildings, usually covered [PARA]in grass and commonly found in Oxbridge colleges.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Rag:[ETOPIC] Rag is an excuse to dress up in stupid clothing and [PARA]get up to wacky, irresponsible and often illegal antics - and [PARA]all in the name of charity. Collectively, student charity rags [PARA]raise literally millions of pounds with stunts like parachute [PARA]jumps, sponsored hitch-hikes and so-called rag raids [PARA]where students (usually dressed as rabbits, nurses, [PARA]characters from Rocky Horror, etc) accost strangers in [PARA]the street and try to sell them 'rag magazines'. Rag [PARA]magazines are tackily printed joke books, which usually [PARA]fulfil 1 of 2 conditions: they are either not funny or are in [PARA]appalling bad taste, or both. Confusingly, the term 'rag' is [PARA]sometimes also used to describe student magazines, [PARA]because sometimes they have that tatty toilet paper quality[PARA]some laughingly call student media. To be fair, many are a[PARA]great deal better than many professional publications (and [PARA]that includes the Sunday Sport). To clarify matters, push [PARA]only uses 'rag' in the sense of a charity group. See also [PARA]'pushing the pennies'.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Redbrick:[ETOPIC] A redbrick building or campus does not [PARA]necessarily have to have a single red brick. Instead, it [PARA]refers to a style of building, or a period from around the [PARA]turn of the century through to the 2nd world war. What [PARA]redbrick means is not very precise, but what it doesn't [PARA]mean is easier to explain. A campus is described as [PARA]redbrick if it isn't an Oxbridge rip-off or a modern concrete[PARA]monstrosity.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]SA:[ETOPIC] Students' Association[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]sabb:[ETOPIC] sabbatical officer[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Sabbatical:[ETOPIC] Every year at most colleges, a few students [PARA]either take a year off their studies or hang around after [PARA]them because they've got nothing better to do. In the [PARA]meantime they are employed (at lower than peanut [PARA]wages) by various student bodies, such as students' [PARA]unions, charity Rags, students newspapers, athletics [PARA]unions and so on. Not just anyone can do this though. Oh [PARA]no, they almost always have to be elected by the other [PARA]students, who then spend the rest of the sabbatical's year [PARA]of office wondering why they ever voted for them... Just [PARA]like real politics.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Sandwich course:[ETOPIC] Nobody learns how to put one slice of [PARA]bread on top of another with some filling in between on a [PARA]sandwich course (unless it happens to be a sandwich [PARA]catering course). The bread in a sandwich course is [PARA]academic study. The filling is vocational experience, [PARA]usually on a industrial work placement. Usually it takes a [PARA]year to fill a sandwich (as a result many last 4 years), but [PARA]there are thin and thick versions with different amounts of [PARA]filling. push eagerly awaits the introduction of toasted and [PARA]club sandwich courses.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]SCA:[ETOPIC] student community action group[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]SCR:[ETOPIC] Senior Common Room[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Semester:[ETOPIC] A semester is the American word for a term [PARA]and is used in this country to describe American-style [PARA]college terms which are longer (usually about 15 weeks) [PARA]than British ones (between 8 and 11 weeks), but there are [PARA]only 2 in each academic year.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Sent down:[ETOPIC] Students are never expelled from colleges. [PARA]Hooray! They're sent down instead. Boo! Students aren't [PARA]suspended either. Yippee! They're rusticated. Ouch.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]SNP:[ETOPIC] Scottish Nationalist Party[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Socs:[ETOPIC] Short for 'societies', these are the student clubs [PARA]which range from serious political battlegrounds to sporting[PARA]teams, from cultural groups to seriously silly socs, such [PARA]as the Rolf Harris Appreciation Club and SFPTOTOOT [PARA](the Society For Putting Things On Top Of Other Things) - [PARA]both genuine. Punnily enough, there are also a number of [PARA]Odd Socs.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]soc:[ETOPIC] society or club[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Sports Union:[ETOPIC] See Athletics Union.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]SRC:[ETOPIC] Student Representative Council[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Students' Association:[ETOPIC] Just another name for a students' [PARA]union really. Often used in Scotland.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Students' Guild/Guild of Students:[ETOPIC] Another name for a [PARA]students' union.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Students' Union:[ETOPIC] Almost all colleges have a students' union[PARA](SU) and students are usually automatically members. An[PARA]SU will be variously referred to as 'a hotbed of radicalism', [PARA]'the only answer to all students' problems', 'bunch of lefty [PARA]hacks', 'the place to go'. This will depend entirely on who [PARA]you ask. To a greater or lesser degree, many of these [PARA]descriptions will be true. As a rule, a SU is usually a [PARA]services and representative organisation run by students [PARA]for students or the building in which such services are housed.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]SU:[ETOPIC] Students' Union[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]SWSS:[ETOPIC] Socialist Workers' Student Society[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Tel:[ETOPIC] Telephone number[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Thesp:[ETOPIC] An arty-farty acting type.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Town/Gown:[ETOPIC] An expression which describes the [PARA]juxtaposition of the local populace with the student and [PARA]academic staff community. Now you know why people [PARA]say 'town/gown' instead, even though students these days[PARA]are more at home in torn 501s than gown and mortar [PARA]boards. However, come Graduation Day, students are [PARA]geared up in 'subfusc', as the outfit is called, and photos [PARA]are taken of them. Late into retirement, parents then take [PARA]pride in their off-spring looking immensely uneasy and embarrassed.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]UAU:[ETOPIC] The Universities Athletics Union[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]UCAS:[ETOPIC] The Universities Central Admissions System[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]U'grads:[ETOPIC] undergraduates[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]URC:[ETOPIC] United Reform Church[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]USI:[ETOPIC] Union of Students in Ireland[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]Vice-Chancellor:[ETOPIC] University's have vice-chancellors or [PARA]proctors, colleges have principals or directors and oxbridge[PARA]colleges have masters, wardens or fuhrers. Whatever, [PARA]they're called, these are the big cheeses - the veritable [PARA]stilton amongst the cheddar of academia. Students rarely [PARA]get to meet them, but basically they run the place. Where [PARA]there are vice chancellors, there are also people called [PARA]chancellors or rectors, who are the token heads of the [PARA]institutions and often someone famous like a member of [PARA]the Royal Family, but usually they don't do much more [PARA]than shake students' hands at the graduation ceremony. [PARA]By the way, the scurrilous allegations that vice-chancellors [PARA]have anything to do with vice are entirely unfounded.[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]WWF:[ETOPIC] The World-Wide Fund for Nature[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]YHA:[ETOPIC] Youth Hostelling Association[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]YMCA:[ETOPIC] Young Men's Christian Association[PARA][PARA][TOPIC]YWCA:[ETOPIC] Young Women's Christian Association[PARA]
