Glossary of Education Terms

ABD - "all but degree" or "all but dissertation" Not a formal degree; applies to someone who has completed all the requirements for a Ph.D. except the dissertation.

Acceleration - Completion of a college program of study in fewer than the usual number of years, most often by attending summer sessions and carrying extra courses during regular academic terms.

Associate Degree - Degree granted upon the completion of a two-year academic program mostly offered at two-year institutions.

Associate Professor - A tenured member of the faculty.

Auditing - Taking a class to acquire knowledge but not for credit or grades. Audited courses do not count toward degree requirements.

Baccalaureate - Bachelor's degree

Bachelor's Degree - The first university degree awarded upon the completion of an undergraduate curriculum. The degrees are usually known as 'bachelor of arts'; 'bachelor of science'.

Bulletin - An institution's catalog of programs, curricula and courses.

Bursar - The university official responsible for collecting student fees.

Chair/Chairperson - The head of an academic department.

Challenge Examination - Examination created by an institution as the equivalent to a course. Students who pass challenge tests are commonly exempted from, or given credit for, the course counterpart of the examination.

Class Rank - The relative position of a student in his or her graduating class, determined by grade average.

Closed Course - Fully-subscribed course which is no longer enrolling students

College - A general term for post-secondary education. It often refers to institutions which offer undergraduate programs or to the undergraduate divisions of large universities.

Dean - Middle-level academic or administrative officer in charge of an administrative unit.

Dean's List - A published list of students who have earned a specified high grade-point average in a term.

Department - The formal faculty group, together with its support staff, responsible for instruction in a general subject area.

Discipline - An area of academic study.

Dissertation - The formal writing requirement -- often an original contribution to knowledge -- for a doctoral degree.

Early Admission - A program allowing well-qualified high school students to enter college full time before completing secondary school.

Elective - A course chosen freely by the student from the institution's offerings. Also called 'free elective'.

Elementary School - Primary school (grades 1-6 or 1-8)

Enrollment - The process of registering for classes. The total number of students at an institution.

Faculty - The body of teaching personnel in a department, division, or an entire institution. An academic administrative unit, e.g., The Faculty of Engineering.

Fellow - A student (graduate or undergraduate) granted a 'fellowship' on the basis of academic achievement.

Final Examination - A course-based examination taken at the end of the term.

Financial Aid - Scholarships, grants and loans provided for students by academic institutions from government and private sources to helpdefray educational costs.

Graduate Advisor - The faculty member who serves as advisor to all graduate students in a department.

Graduate School - The academic unit within an institution which administers graduate education.

GRE (Graduate Record Examination) - A two-part standardized external examination designed to measure general verbal, quantitative and analytical skills (General Aptitude Test) and knowledge and understanding of subject matter basic to graduate study in specific fields (Advanced Tests). The GRE is generally required by graduate schools and is used to assess the qualifications of applicants to master's and Ph.D. programs.

Secondary School (grades 7-12 or 9-12). - In the 6+6 scheme, the first three years (grades 7-9) are known as 'junior high school' and the final three years (10-12) as 'senior high school'.

Homework - Regular assignments to be completed outside the classroom and taken into account in the student's course grade.

Honors Special recognition of students' outstanding academic achievement.

Incomplete - Temporary grade indicating that the student has not met all course assignments at the end of the term.

Independent Study - An assignment (reading or research) carried out by a student under faculty supervision.

Instructor - A formal term which designates a part-time, temporary, university teacher. It is also a synonym for teacher.

Junior - Third year student. (Applies to both college undergraduates and high school students.)
Junior College Private two-year institution.

Land-Grant Institution - A state-run institution founded under the terms of the 1862 Morill Act which granted public lands to the states to establish colleges to provide full-time education in agriculture and mechanic arts.

Language Requirement - An institution's requirement that its graduates master one or more foreign languages.

Letter of Recommendation- Letter written in support of a student's application for admission to a study program which assesses the candidate's qualifications for the program in question.

Liberal Arts - The traditional fields of study in the humanities, sciences and social sciences as distinct from technical and professional education.

Liberal Arts - College Higher education institution in which the bachelor's degree emphasis is on liberal or general undergraduate education.

Major professor - The professor who advises a doctoral candidate in the final stages of the program, also known as 'dissertation advisor'.

Make-up examination - A late examination for students who missed the original date.

Master's degree - A post-baccalaureate degree usually earned after one or two years of course work.

MBA - Master of Business Administration

Minor - A secondary area of concentration.

Multiple-choice examination - An objective examination giving students several choices of answers to a question of which one is correct.

Participation - Student's contribution to class discussion, often taken into account in grading.

Part-time Student - taking fewer that 12 semester credits.

Pass-Fail - A system of grading which distinguishes only those who pass from those who fail.

Prerequisite - A course which must be completed before a student is allowed to register for a more advanced course.

Private Institution - An institution which is supported primarily from private funds in the form of tuition, fees, endowments and donations.

Qualifying Examination - Examinatins given at the conclusion of master's or doctoral coursework.

Quarter System - Academic calendar in which the year is divided into four quarters of 10 weeks.

Recitation - A small-group session where students discuss material covered in large lectures.

Regional Accreditation - Accreditation granted to an entire academic institution by the accrediting commission responsible for institutions in the particular geographic area. There are six regional accrediting commissions in the United States.Regional accreditation is also referred to as 'institutional accreditation'.

Seminar - A small class of generally advanced students which meets with a professor to discuss specialized topics.

Semester System - The academic year is divided into two 15-week semesters.

Senior Fourth year student - (Applies to both college undergraduates and high school students)

Summer Session - Formal course offerings during the summer.

Take-home examination - A course examination which is completed outside of the classroom.

Teaching Assistant (TA) - A graduate student who is employed part-time to assist with faculty teaching.

Tenure - The status of a permanent member of the faculty earned by peer-review on the basis of publications and scholarship.

Transcript - The official record of a student's academic performance at an institution.

Transfer credit - Credit awarded toward a degree on the basis of studies completed at another institution.

Trimester System - Academic calendar in which the year is divided into three 15-week terms; students may study full-time in two of the three or full- or part-time in all three.

Undergraduate - Description of a post-secondary program leading to a bachelor's degree; or a student enrolled in such a program.

University - An institution of higher learning and research consisting of several units which offer programs leading to advanced degrees. Universities stress graduate and professional education and research, but also have important undergraduate divisions.

Visting Scholar or Student - Individual attending a US institution by special agreement with a foreign institution. A visting scholar or student does not-matriculate which means that he or she is not engaged in a degree program. To change status and matriculate in a degree program a visiting student or scholar must apply for admission to the institution and undergo the usual selection process.

Withdrawal - Formal process of leaving an institution before (and without) completing a degree.