College Jargon Buster

Fresher: You! Freshers are new college students – there’s usually a Freshers’ week near the start of the year with all sorts of social events organised with a view to welcoming (or exposing) you to college life. Also includes academic information like notes on how to reference.

SU: Stands for Students Union; it represents the student body and is run by elected students. It consists of various officers that are there to act as an advocate for the students; for example the Welfare Officer will provide you with information on fees and funding while a Disability Liaison Officer or Access Officer will assist disabled students.

ENTs Officer: The entertainment officer; usually a handy person to make friends with as they’re the ones that organise the drinks promotions.

RAG Week: Stands for Raise and Give; a whole week dedicated to raising money for a chosen charity; is usually packed full of an assorted array of crazy activities like a public waxing for the hairiest guy in college, an ‘Iron Stomach’ competition and other such hilarious monstrosities. Guaranteed to be buckets of fun; plus it’s all for a good cause so if your Mum asks you where you’re going four nights in a row you can say that you’re collecting for charity and ignore that slight twitch of guilt.

Accommodation Office: Usually located on campus; this isn’t an office that you can go to live in…it’s the place to go to get help on finding the cheapest, closest and best living options in your college’s vicinity.

Dissertation: This is a long report or essay on a chosen subject that sets out the results of research carried out by a student or study of that subject. This is normally produced as part of the degree course (although in some subjects this is optional). At first degree level the dissertation can be anything between 5, 000 and 20, 000 words.

Modular: Some courses are divided into modules and students are required to pass a number of these modules to successfully complete their degree programme. Modules can be compulsory or optional.

Reading Week: This is a week where there is no formal teaching, often seen by students as another holiday; but it’s not! The idea is that students are given a week to concentrate on their studies, a perfect time to catch up with study if they have fallen behind.

Undergraduate:  This is what a student is called when they are studying for their first degree.

Socs: This isn’t just what you give on the dance floor…these are clubs where people can get together to take part in sport or share a common interest, belief or religion. Some examples would be Athletics, Kickboxing, Sailing, Circus, Rock, Radio, Drama, Asian, Islamic.