STUDYING AN UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD
This is a guide created for students to help understand what some of the terminology we use while studying means, and to signpost to support available. We hope you find it useful!
When you study for your first degree, you are called an undergraduate. You receive your degree when you graduate.
The programme is the course you are on, made up of modules on a specific subject e.g., Environmental Management, Civil Engineering, Zoology. For each programme, there is a member of academic staff who is responsible for your programme. This person is called the Programme Leader.
Your school is dependent on the programme you are studying on. Your programme sits within the School of Science Engineering and Environment.
School of Science, Engineering and Environment
School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology
Salford Business School
School of Health and Society
Welcome week is a period of time before your first trimester starts, including the period of events that introduce you to the University and Student life. You may have also heard this referred to as ‘Welcome Week’ or ‘Freshers’.
The period of the year in which teaching is taking place is divided up into three trimesters. Many undergraduate students’ study in Trimester 1 & 2 only, but other students may study in different patterns.
Each programme is divided into smaller units of study called modules. Some modules on your course will be core (compulsory) and others you can choose to study (optional). Each individual module will have its own learning outcomes and usually have their own assignment(s). The size of a module is described as a number of credits, and you need to gain a specific number of credits to pass each year of study
Our “virtual learning environment” (VLE)a website where all of the teaching materials and information are stored. Your individuals modules will be displayed and within each of these you will find teaching materials, assessments and reading lists.
The library gives you access to books, study space and helpful librarians. There are sessions you can book onto to support you with referencing, writing a CV and structuring your thoughts, ideas and research. salford.ac.uk/library
Microsoft Teams is an online tool where you can talk to others through video calls. Occasionally some teaching sessions may be held online on Teams. You can access it for free through your student Microsoft 365 account.
All students are given access to an Outlook student email address. You may receive important information by email, so it is essential that you have access to your Outlook account and check it regularly.
A general word describing a member of staff who teaches and researches. Sometimes we use the word “lecturer” or “tutor” instead.
At university you are expected to plan and study in your own time. You have timetabled lectures, but you should also follow the instructions to do reading, prepare for classes and assessment yourself.
A large group teaching session that can take place in a lecture hall or a smaller room. A lecture is intended to give you an outline or introduction to a subject area. You are expected to take notes and follow this up with reading yourself.
A tutorial is where you meet an academic either for a one-to-one session or as a small group, usually taking place in a smaller room than a lecture or a seminar.
A seminar is a mixture between a lecture and a tutorial. You often need to prepare for seminars before attending (make sure you check Blackboard). These will be led by an academic and include anywhere up to 40 students (sometimes a few more on popular courses). This may differ from course to course.
A piece of work that you do to practice your skills and get feedback. It does not count towards your module grade or results. At Salford we refer to these as ‘practice for success’ opportunities
A piece of work that does count towards your module grade. Compulsory - you must do this work.
Information provided to you by the person teaching you, or by a peer, that is designed to show you where your work is good and where it can be improved. Feedback can be formal, written in response to something you have written, or informal. On assessed work you will usually receive generic and individual feedback.
Information given to students about a piece of assessed work. It often gathers together common mistakes made by students on the module and gives general guidance on how to improve. Read it with your individual feedback.
On your assessed work the marker will give you personal feedback on what you have done and how to improve.
A marking guide showing you what you need to do for a piece of work and will be used by the marker to assess your work.
Assessments can be an essay, exam, presentation or other task that evaluates your progress. For each assessment, you will receive an assignment brief which will tell you exactly what you need to do.
References show where you got your information from or what influenced your thinking. A bibliography is a list of ALL the sources used in preparing the work
A member of staff marks your work, and it is then “moderated” by other staff to ensure that it has been marked fairly and consistently with other students’ work.
Software which checks your work against a database for similarities with books, websites and other students’ work. The similarity score shows how similar your work is to other people’s writing.
Plagiarism means using someone else’s work without giving them proper credit. In academic writing, it involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without citing it correctly. Avoiding plagiarism is essential for maintaining academic integrity and ensuring your work is truly your own and avoiding academic misconduct which can get you into trouble’.
To ensure fairness, we limit the length of your work. Writing concisely is a key skill. This may be a word limit/count which means you should not write more than the set limit of words. Bibliographies do not usually count towards word limits, but your assignment brief will detail this.
These are times that academic teaching staff are available to meet with their students. Staff may offer “in-person” meetings in their office or virtual meetings online. Sometimes they are bookable, other times they are drop-in office hours where you just go along. You can find out the office hours for members of staff on Blackboard.
Every student has an academic tutor. Your academic tutor is your first point of contact for any questions. They are responsible for your academic, personal and professional development.
The member of staff responsible for each module you study - they organise the module, support the teaching staff and can answer any questions about that module.
If you are affected by circumstances outside your control (e.g. if you are ill or dealing with a personal crisis) and it affects your studies and your ability to meet a deadline then you can use the PMC process.
There may be times when you need a little bit of extra support. Whether you need advice about accommodation, settling into student life or just to chat with the wellbeing staff you can contact the askUS team.
Our Disability and Inclusion Service works with you to ensure you have fair and equal access to your education. If you experience a disability, long-term condition or a specific learning difficulty, then you may be entitled to appropriate academic support in your teaching and assessments. This can include extra time for assessments, extended book loans from the Library and support for field trips.
RAPs are something we can help put in place to ensure you have fair and equal access to your education. You’ll meet with a Disability Adviser to discuss what barriers may be present in your course so we can understand what support you might need. We’ll explore support strategies that may help enable you to access teaching, learning, as-sessments and other aspects such as placement or field trips.
Thanks to Dr Helen Whitehead for initiating and pursuing the idea to create a hidden curriculum booklet for our students
Based on work carried out at the School of Law, University of Reading by Amanda Millmore & student partners.
© University of Reading 2024. This glossary, created by Amanda Millmore & Student Partners at the School of Law, University of Reading, is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence (excluding photos).
@SalfordUni @SalfordUni /salforduni