Higher Education Terminology
Our glossary for all things higher ed!
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
Academic Year
The academic year is the summation of the academic sessions held during the Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer terms. Academic years typically begin in the Fall semester.
Accreditation
An academic program or an institution is accredited when it reaches the standards of a regional or national association.
Add/Drop
Add/Drop is the period of time at the beginning of each semester, regardless of class year or time ticket, when all students have the ability to make changes to their schedules. Students can add or drop courses from their schedule without penalty during this period at the beginning of standard semesters, usually lasting about a week or two depending on the institution.
Adjunct Professor
Adjunct faculty members are part-time instructors at an institution that are hired on an as-needed basis, usually semester by semester, with no contracted guarantee of continuing employment.
Applied Learning
According to SUNY, applied learning refers to an educational approach whereby students learn by engaging in direct application of skills, theories and models.
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professors are full-time faculty members that are seeking tenure, typically following the completion of their doctoral degree.
Assistantship
An assistantship is a grant of financial assistance to a student in return for services provided, which takes the form of teaching, research, or work experiences. Assistantships are usually offered to students enrolled in graduate programs.
Associate Professor
Associate Professors are tenured faculty members who are at the intermediate level. Most professors remain Associate faculty throughout their careers once it is achieved.
Associate’s Degree
An associate’s degree is awarded by a college or university upon completion of a program of study, usually requiring two years of full-time study. Associate's degrees can either be terminal or transferable, in that they can count towards the first two years of a bachelor's degree.
Asynchronous Learning
Asynchronous coursework is a type of distance learning that is offered through online courses, with no requirements for students to attend the class or complete coursework at a specific time and date throughout the week. In this asynchronous format, students are able to complete their work at their own pace while abiding by coursework deadlines.
Audit
Auditing is to take a class without receiving credit towards a specific degree.
B
Bachelor’s Degree
A Bachelor’s Degree is awarded upon completion of 120+ specified credit, which varies by school and academic program. This quantity of credits breaks down to approximately four years of study.
C
College
A college is a postsecondary institution that provides undergraduate education programs and, in some cases, master’s and doctoral programs. College, in a separate sense, can also be a division of a university, such as the College of Arts and Sciences.
Community College
Community colleges are postsecondary institutions that offer associate's degree programs as well as technical and vocational programs.
Course
Courses are regularly scheduled class sessions for a certain number of hours per week during an academic term. Degree programs are made up of a specific roster of courses and vary by institution.
Co-requisite course
A co-requisite course is a course or requirement that a student must take or complete at the same time as another course or requirement.
Credit Hour
Credits and credit hours are units used by institutions that are counted towards the completion of a degree.
D
Dissertation
A dissertation is a thesis written on an original topic of research. Dissertations are often presented by doctoral students as the final requirement for their degree.
Doctorate (Ph.D.)
A doctorate degree is the highest degree that is awarded by an institution after the successful completion of an advanced degree of study. Also referred to as a Ph.D., this type of degree typically requires 3 or more years of study beyond a master’s degree and the completion of a dissertation, which entails a student's own original topic of research.
Dual Degree
Dual Degree programs allow students to earn two degrees concurrently from the same institution.
E
Electives
Electives are courses that students can take for credit towards their degree but do not necessarily fulfill specific major or minor requirements.
F
FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)
The FAFSA is the first step to determine eligibility for federal and state financial aid programs. Contact the Office of Financial Aid to learn more!
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) is a federal law that grants certain rights, privileges, and protections to students concerning educational records maintained by the College. The law requires that the institution shall protect the confidentiality of student educational records. FERPA identifies 4 fundamental rights of students, including 1) The right to have access to their educational records; 2) The right, through consent, to specify which third parties may access their records; 3) The right to challenge/correct information in their records; and 4) The right to be informed of their privacy rights. You can find more information about FERPA under our Student Policies.
First Generation Student
A first generation (first-gen) student is a student who is the first person within their immediate family who has pursued and completed a college degree.
Full Professor
The rank of full professor is the highest rank that a professor can achieve. Full professors carry the responsibilities of an Assistant Professor with additional administrative responsibilities and membership in various committees.
Full-Time Student
A full-time undergraduate student is any student registered in 12 or more credit hours during a semester. Graduate students are considered full-time if they are registered in anywhere from 9 to 12 or more academic credits during a given semester.
H
HBCU
An HBCU is a Historically Black College or University. These institutions, founded prior to 1964, were originally founded to educate Black Americans.
HSI
An HSI is a Hispanic Serving Institution. HSIs are not-for-profit institutions whose undergraduate student enrollment is at least 25 percent Hispanic students.
I
Independent Study
Independent Study refers to when a student works with a faculty member outside of a typical classroom structure towards a specific number of credit hours. Independent study typically ranges anywhere from 1 to 4 credit hours.
Integrative Learning
Integrative Learning describes the method and practice of cross-disciplinary thinking and connection-making that is the hallmark of a 21st century liberal arts education. Individuals need to have the capacity to see connections and integrate disparate facts, theories, and contexts to make sense of the complexity.
Internship
An internship is a supervised training program or opportunity that is designed to provide students with hands-on experience in a particular workplace setting. Some degree programs require the completion of an internship in order to graduate from said program.
L
Lecturer
A lecturer is a professional who teaches a designated subject at a college or university. Lecturers typically currently have or previously have had hands-on work experience in the field in which they teach, which informs the lesson plans they create for the subject.
Liberal Arts College
Liberal Arts refers to the traditional path of studies that include Arts, Social Sciences, Humanities (Philosophy, English, History, Communications, and Languages) and Natural Sciences. Liberal does not refer to a political stance but points to the broad course of studies that are covered. A Liberal Arts College also offers smaller classes and a more personalized experience than larger Liberal Arts Universities.
M
Master’s Degree
A Master’s Degree is awarded after the completion of an advanced program of study at a college or university. A master’s degree program typically requires one to two years of study past a bachelor’s degree.
N
Non-Traditional Student
A non-traditional student is a student that does not enter college within a year after graduation from high school.
O
Orientation
Orientation is a college or university’s official process of welcoming incoming first year and transfer students to campus! This program covers relevant information regarding how to navigate campus resources and ways to get involved in the campus community. Fall new student orientation usually takes the form of a summer model or a fall model, while students entering in the spring semester will have a spring orientation.
P
Part-Time Student
A part-time student is any student that is enrolled in less than 12 credit hours during a given semester.
Prerequisite Courses
A prerequisite course is a course that a student is required to complete (and earn the required grade) prior to registering for a listed course. It often signifies that there is a progression of information and/or level of difficulty in the required sequence of courses.
R
Residence Hall
Residence Halls are where students live on campus. Geneseo offers a variety of residence halls across campus, each featuring different living styles such as double-style, suite-style, and townhouses. Fun fact: all Geneseo residence halls are named after New York counties, except for Jones Hall!
S
Student Organizations
Student Organizations, often referred to simply as Student Orgs, encompass all clubs and organizations on a college or university’s campus. Student Orgs can span across multiple categories in terms of their focus, including Academic, Advocacy/Political, Club Sports, Cultural, Fraternal, Media/Publications, Performing Arts, Recreational, Special Interests, Spiritual, and Volunteer organizations.
Syllabus
A syllabus is a document provided to students enrolled in a course by their professor, which outlines the details of the course. This document typically includes course expectations, the material that a course will cover, assignment due dates, instructor office hours, and relevant resources.
T
Tenured Professor
Tenured professors hold full-time teaching positions with job security at the college or university they are employed. Professors can be eligible for tenure when they have conducted a certain quantity of research in their field while gaining years of teaching experience at the collegiate level.
Time Ticket
All students do not register for classes at once; there are multiple windows for advance registration prior to the open “general registration” time period each semester. These registration windows are called “time tickets” and are available for students to view in KnightWeb once they are posted. The assigned window of time is based on a student’s “completed credits” rather than the year they are listed as. To see when time tickets will be issued and the time periods for registration, students should refer to the Academic Calendar.
Transfer Credit
Transfer credits are credits that are put towards the completion of a degree at an institution that were earned from a different institution. Examples of transfer credits include those accumulated from college-level courses taken in high school, credits from a community college, or credits from another institution that a student previously attended.
V
Virtual Privacy Network (VPN)
A VPN is a mechanism that allows restriction of certain information services that require directly assigned, on-campus access, such as file servers, different databases, websites, and other privileged applications.
W
Work Study
Work study opportunities are part-time employment opportunities that are available to qualifying students through their financial aid.