101 such as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US a student
studies or
majors in a subject (although
concentration or
emphasis is also used in some US colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study.
To major in something refers to the student's
principal course of study to study may refer to any class being taken.
BrE: She read biology at Cambridge" She studied biology at Cambridge" She did biology at Cambridge" (informal)
AmE: She majored in biology at Harvard" She studied biology at Harvard" She concentrated in biology at Harvard" At university level in BrE, each
module is taught or facilitated by a
lecturer or
tutor;
professor is the job-title of a senior academic. (In AmE,
at some universities, the equivalent of the BrE lecturer is instructor, especially when the teacher has a lesser degree or no University degree, though the usage may become confusing according to whether the subject being taught is considered technical or not. Also, it is not to be confused with Adjunct Instructor/Professor.)
In AmE each class is generally taught by a
professor (although some US tertiary educational institutions follow the BrE usage,
while the position of lecturer is occasionally given to individuals hired on a temporary basis to teach one or more classes and who mayor not have a doctoral degree. The word
course in American use typically refers to the study of a restricted topic or individual subject (for example,
a course in Early Medieval England,
a course in Integral Calculus) over a limited period of time (such as a semester or term) and is equivalent to a
module or sometimes
unit at a British university. In the UK a
course of study or simply
course is likely to refer to the entire program of study, which may extend over several years and
be made up of any number of modules, hence is also practically synonymous to a degree programme.
