Education

Small Talk

What kind of school did you go to? What was your favourite subject at school? Who was your favourite teacher?

Where do you study? Why did you choose that university? What do you think of your university? What is the best thing about your university/school? What year at the University are you in?

What are you majoring in? (What is your major?) Why did you choose to study that? What courses do you take? Which of them do you like the best? When did you start this course and when will you finish it? Which part of the course do you enjoy most? What is the most difficult/easiest part of the course? How do you study this subject? What skills are needed to study your subject?

Do you like life at university? What part of university life do you like best? How have you benefited from being at university apart from gaining knowledge? What facilities are there at your university to help you in your studies?

What are your future study plans?

How do you think your studies in university will prepare you for your job in the future? What is your career plan after you graduate? Do you think you will prefer having a job to being a student?

Vocabulary Section

A. Vocabulary

Admit/admission/admission rules

Attend/attendance/poor, high attendance/e.g. he was expelled from college for non-attendance

Academic year/an academic type

Aptitude/abilities – способности

To apply for/to apply to

Applied/ e.g. applied sciences, applied linguistics

Assignment – задание, назначение

Attain/attainable – достигать, достижимый

Assess/assessment–оценивать, оценка

Campus - студенческий (университетский) городок (кампус)

Class rank

Coeducational or Coed

Cooperative education - модель "учеба-работа" Учебный план, составленный таким образом, чтобы студент мог сочетать обучение по полной программе [full-time study] в течение определенного периода с работой в течение следующего периода.

Core requirements

elective courses

course load

Credits

Crib

Curriculum (pl. - curricula) – a course of study in a school or college

Cheat: (verb) To act in a dishonest way to get what you want.

To offer/to provide/to design a curriculum

To catch up with somebody

To cram (up) – зазубривать наспех/e.g. he is cramming facts and dates for his history exam

Also: swat (BR.E.)/grind (away) at, for (AM.E.)/e.g. he is swatting up his Maths. He is grinding away for his exam/at his studies.

Command/to have a good or poor command of the language

Course (full-time /evening /correspondence)

Don – преподаватель, член совета колледжа (Oxford)

Doctorate (Ph.D.

Dormitory

Drop

Distance learning:

Examination, entrance/admission examinations

End-of-term/end-of-year/final examinations

To take/to do an exam

To do badly at/in an exam

Ant. To do well at/in exam

To pass an exam, to pass with flying colors

To fail/flunk (at) an exam (to fail in a subject)

To scrape through – сдать с трудом

To be equipped with up-to-date devices

To enroll

Extracurricular activities:

Entry/registered entry

To be in one’s freshman/first/final year

Faculty

Freshman

Full-time student

To flunk

To get a grant/a scholarship/an allowance/an endowment/a donation

To grasp the meaning of–схватывать, понимать

To get a grasp of spoken English

To lag behind/to fall behind - отставать

Learner/to be a quick, a slow learner (to be a quick on the uptake)

Liberal arts

Associate’s Degree; Bachelor’s degree; Master’s Degree

Major

Notes/to make notes/to take (down) notes

Optional/obligatory courses - обязательный

To obtain practical experience/a diploma/a degree/further information

Period (double-period)

Post-graduate (student)

A project/to defend a project

Provost (warden, rector) - а) ректор в некоторых английских университетских колледжах б) проректор в американских университетах

To qualify (for)/qualifications/qualifying examination

Research/to do some research

To require/to meet requirements

Reference/a reference book - справочник

Refresher/a refresher course - переподготовка

Recreation activity

To retake an exam

To revise

Senior

Sophomore

Scholarship

To skip classes (to play truant - прогуливать, to miss/stay away from/cut a class)

To specialize in (to major/minor in something)

To slack (to loaf)/a slacker (loafer)–лодырь / прогульщик

Thesis/ dissertation

Tuition fee

Supervision, to work under (a) supervision– работать под наблюдением, контролем

Withdrawal:

B. This list of vocabulary comes from the British educational system. Different countries and cultures frequently use their own terminology. For instance, in American English it is quite possible to describe university as “college” or “school”. These words mean something quite different in British English.

To graduate is quite formal so in speaking you could use “I left university”

Fresher is a first year student, Americans use “freshman”

Level of degrees

if you study a humanities subject, you get a BA for your first degree and an MA for your master’s. If you study science, you get a BSc for your first degree and an MSc for your master’s.

Types of qualifications

You can only receive a degree for a full course at university; do not use “diploma” and “certificate” to mean degree. The piece of paper you receive when you graduate is a certificate.

Types of education

If you receive a degree from a university, you are in higher education

If you receive a diploma or certificate, you are in further education

Types of course Institutions

Be particularly careful with “college” and “school” which do not mean the same as “university” in British English

Forms of learning

a lecturer gives or delivers a lecture and is sometimes used as a rank of university teacher

a tutor is in charge of a seminar or tutorial

we don’t use “class” or “lesson” in university education (although Americans do use “class”)

Finance

a scholarship is won for academic merit

typically a grant is awarded either for a particular project or to allow a student to follow a course

Studying and lecture words

you review your notes, but revise for an exam

you concentrate in a lecture but on a subject