Jargon Jungle (H)
Hack:
Not the sound of a bad cough or a lozenge to cure it, but a person who is utterly committed to their extra-curricular activities. Usually refers to those involved in SUs or student journalism. You can tell a hack because they are the ones claiming everyone else is apathetic.
Halls:
At most colleges, when students talk about halls, they mean 'halls of residence', the accommodation blocks, which traditionally provide catered meals (but increasingly are becoming self-catered), cleaners, heat, light and electricity and a variety of amenities such as launderettes, common rooms and TV lounges. Oxbridge, of course, has to be different. At Oxford or Cambridge, halls are the formal dining rooms.
Head tenancy scheme:
Rather than handing out cardboard boxes or have students cluttering up the gym floor, some colleges have started to do the house-hunting themselves. They get a group of landlords together, rent all their brick boxes that pretend to be homes and then sublet them to students, often at cheaper rates or on better terms.
HEFCE:
The Higher Education Funding Council for England is known as HEFCE, pronounced 'heff-key', to its friends of which it has many as it's the Government agency that hands out money to the unis. Or the ones in England at least – there are similar bodies for the rest of the UK. It does other things too like promoting going to university under the banner of Aim Higher and doing research to check all is tickety-boo in the world of unis. For instance, in April 2008, after months of analysis, HEFCE published a report roundly criticising the uni league tables that appear in newspapers for being based on dodgy foundations and for having far more influence over applicants' decisions than they merit. (Something Push had been saying for years.)
HESA:
The Higher Education Statistics Agency — higher education number crunchers. Push uses HESA's official statistics wherever possible, such as in the flunk rate or when telling you the numbers of students in the institution profiles.
Higher education (HE):
After primary school, there's secondary school, then further education and, finally, higher education which takes place at universities, colleges of higher education and so on. HE includes undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, higher national diplomas (HNDs) and a few other things like certain vocational qualifications (such as LCPs for lawyers, for instance).
Highers:
In Scotland, students take Highers as the equivalent of A Levels.
HND:
The Higher National Diploma is based on vocational studies, generally aimed at prepping students for a particular career or industry. It can lead on to, or count towards, a degree course.
Honours degree:
When people boast about having an honours degree, don't be too impressed. Most degrees are honours degrees and, depending on how you do in your exams or coursework, are split into: first class honours (or firsts), upper second class or 2.i (pronounced 'two-one'), lower-second class or 2.ii (a 'two-two', more commonly called a 'Desmond') and third class honours, or a third. If a student does badly, but not quite badly enough to fail, that's when they might not get an honours degree, but an ordinary degree instead.
Humanities:
The study of human creative endeavour, whether it's literature, art, music or whatever. 'Richard & Judy' probably doesn't count. Humanities aren't quite the same as actually doing the creative bit, ie The Arts (which includes almost anything likely to get Lottery funding).