Glossary

Higher education glossary and acronyms

A

• ACES – The Academic Coaching and Employability Skills (ACES) team can provide a range of academic and employability skills development opportunities at ncn. They can help with grammar and punctuation, writing essays, journals or reports, critical analysis, working on a dissertation, or just seeing how coursework can be improved.

B

• BA (Hons) – Our BA (Hons) Top-up Degree programmes allow students currently holding a Foundation Degree, a Higher National Diploma (HND), or Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE) to add the additional academic credit to convert their qualification to a full honours degree.
• Bursary – A form of non-repayable financial support.

C

• CELTA – Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults. This highly regarded course is accepted by thousands of language schools, universities and teaching organisations around the world.
• Clearing – A service put in place in order to help people without a place on a higher education programme to find a suitable vacancy.

D

• DTLLS – Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector is designed for anyone working as or planning to become a teacher in further, adult or continuing education.

E

• Extra – UCAS Extra provides opportunities for students holding no offers to apply to one course at a time where vacancies still exist. UCAS Extra operates between set dates.

F

• FdA – Foundation Degree in Arts.
• FdEng – Foundation Degree in Engineering.
• FdSc – Foundation Degree in Science.
• FE - Further education.
• Foundation Degree - Foundation Degrees are higher education qualifications that are one level below an honours degree.

H

• HE – Higher education.
• HEFCE - Higher Education Funding Council for England.
• HNC - Higher National Certificate.
• HND - Higher National Diploma.
• Honours degree - A Bachelor's Degree with honours carries greater academic credit, covering greater depth than a general or ordinary BA.

I

• IELTS – International English Language Testing System. An internationally-recognised test of English language proficiency in 4 main areas: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The IELTS test is widely accepted as part of the entry requirements for colleges, universities and immigration authorities in the UK.

L

• LLB – Bachelor of Laws.

M

• MA – Master of Arts.

N

• ncn – New College Nottingham.
• NTU – Nottingham Trent University.

P

• ProfGCE – Professional Graduate Certificate in Education is a two year part-time programme that allows those holding an undergraduate degree to train to be a teacher.

Q

• QAA - The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education are responsible for assuring standards in higher education.

S

• SFE - Student Finance England provides financial support to students from England entering higher education in the UK and is a partnership between the UK Government and Student Loans Company.

T

• Top-up Degree – A course to top-up your HND or Foundation Degree to a full honours degree.
• Tuition fees – the amount of money charged per year for a higher education course. Tuition fees vary between different colleges and universities and may even differ between courses taught at the same institution.

U

• UCAS - Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. UCAS is the centralised admission service for all full-time higher education applications. Applications can be made online at www.ucas.com
• UCAS Tariff – A system of allocating points to qualifications which can be counted for entry to a higher education course.
• UCAS Code – The institution code for ncn is N30; each course has its own unique UCAS course code.
• Undergraduate - Student working towards a First Degree, Foundation Degree or equivalent.
• Unipol – A registered charity to support students find good-quality and safe accommodation.