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“They're laughing on the inside.”
The first talk that I gave at a UK higher education conference was quite instructive. After sharing something that I thought was relatively humorous, the audience barely made a sound. Coming home on the train, I was a bit concerned. As a speaker, audience engagement is everything...and apparently I wasn't funny in the UK.
Thankfully, my wife reassured me that whilst sometimes overt laughter would take place during a keynote, “laughing on the inside” would also happen with a British audience. Ironically, whenever I share this story with a British audience, everyone laughs out loud.
This was the first of hundreds of cultural learnings that I experienced during my time living and working in a new country. 5 years of working with colleges and universities in the UK has required quite a bit of linguistic gymnastics. Although we speak English in the US and the UK, words often have different meaning...especially in higher education.
While this list isn't exhaustive, it does represent a large portion of the differences between UK and US HE:
- UK university* = US school/university/college
- UK course = US major/degree
- UK module = US course
- UK mostly academic focused | US mostly student focused
- UK subject specific undergrad course ≠ US broad-based undergrad degree
- UK “go to university” = US “go to college”
- UK staff/academics = US faculty/academics
- UK student services = US student affairs
- UK professional services staff/non-academic staff = US staff
- UK undergraduate course generally takes 3 years to complete = US undergraduate degree can take 4, 5, 6 or more years to complete
- UK tutor = sort of like a US academic advisor
- UK post grad course = US masters degree
- UK learnings = US lessons? (the plural of learning isn't generally used Stateside)
- UK revising = US studying
- UK editing = US revising
- UK Brexit = US Trump (both are quite bad for their respective countries...and the rest of the world)
- UK VLE = US LMS
- UK Russell Group = US Ivy League
- UK pastoral care = US residence life / academic advisers / counseling services / etc.
- UK student accommodation = US residence hall
- UK estate = US campus
- UK canteen = US cafeteria
* Sometimes a UK college is part of a university (e.g. Oxford University** is made up of more than 30 different colleges) and sometimes a UK college is a further education (FE) institution which can sometimes grant HE degrees.
** My last UK consulting engagement, at least during my time as a resident of the UK, will be at the University of Oxford (it's acceptable to say 'University of' or '____ University'). Also, my family and I are moving back to the US next month.
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