Jargon Jungle (F)
Faculty:
Old lecturers never die, they just lose their faculties. Universities are usually divided into departments (see above). Just in case these departments feel lonely, they're allowed to club together into faculties. So, the physicists join their chemistry and biology chums in a Science Faculty and the musicians get together with the drama luvvies in an Arts Faculty and everybody's happy. Except the lawyers, who usually have a Faculty on their own. Maybe they smell.
FC:
Free Church.
Finals/Finalists:
Finals are the exams in the final year of study that decide whether or not the last 3 or 4 years have been worth living in abject poverty for. Hence, finalists are students in their final year with their heads on the exam block.
First:
Not something you get when you don't drink enough water but the top-scoring honours degree.
Flunking:
To flunk is to drop out of university or fail. Hence the proportion of students who do it is the flunk rate. For the record, Push calculates its flunk rates based on the Higher Education Standards Authority's Table T3, which is a party in a spreadsheet.
Formals:
Posh universities and colleges sometimes have formal dinners where students are supposed to dress up sometimes in black tie, sometimes in suits or sometimes in gowns over their combats and T-shirts. Such formals may be compulsory or voluntary or they may be so popular that students have to sign up to attend (especially if the formal's followed by ents of some sort). Some places have formals every night, some have them only once a term.
Foundation degree:
A relative newby — they've been on offer since 2001 — these are employment-related courses studied over two years (if taken full time, but part of the lure is the flexible approach). While a university might offer a foundation degree, its content might be planned and even taught by an employer. For more info, see www.foundationdegree.org.uk.
Freshers:
Freshers are first year students in their first few weeks - when the pace is faster than curry through a dog with diarrhoea and the main topics of conversation are home towns, A level grades and UCAS codes. During students' time as freshers, they are likely to spend 99% of their student loan, join student clubs whose events they never attend and get stupidly drunk most nights. After 3 weeks of this, they are hungover, broke and wiser - ie. fully-fledged students.
Freshers' Week:
Also known as Week One, Orientation Week, Intro Week and 'Cyril' for all I know, this is the first week of the first term of the first year of a student's university career. It's packed with events and ents designed to help students settle in, make friends and to tell them everything they need to know about how the university and students' union work. In the process, they tend to both drink and spend too much, but have a damn good time. See Freshers, above.
Freshers' fair:
The freshers' fair usually happens in the first week. It's a chance for university clubs & societies to shake their wares and show students what's on offer. Students are bombarded with flyers, freebies and bribes containing varying quantities of sugar, and sign up for everything from the football team to underwater tiddlywinks. Most of these they'll never attend, but some will turn into regular (and hopefully pleasant) distractions from work.
Further education (FE):
Further education is what comes after primary and secondary education. In other words it's usually what 16 to 18 year-olds do. In yet other words, it's A levels, Highers and the like. And in other, other, other words, it's what you have to do to be qualified to go on to higher education (universities and the like).