A band of about 20 universities that have a smaller usually more specialised research focus than the better-known Russell Group.They attract a lot of money for research and have high teaching standards. There are also other so-called 'mission groups' such as Guild HE and Million+.

A levels are the exams most students take at the end of school or college (further education) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Usually, students heading for university take three or four A levels. They're usually taken over two years with the first year leading to an AS level (worth half an A level in terms of university entry qualifications). You can stop there or top it up with an A2 to make a full A level. Some other qualifications are often treated as an equivalent to A levels, including Highers in Scotland, the International Baccalaureate or qualifications such as vocational A levels. For the purposes of bestCourse4me, we've grouped these other qualifications under the heading of A levels. Even though they're not. But, believe us, it's simpler this way. In short, we've grouped under 'A levels' anything that UCAS gives tariff points for. When the difference matters we'll show which we mean.

The admissions office of any university or college handles the applications and enrolments. That's the department to ask for if you phone up to talk about getting a place. The admissions tutor is the member of the academic staff within a uni department that's in charge of who they decide to give a place to.

bestCourse4me provides results of two different types of earnings, depending on whether a result is drawn from the HESA or the LFS data. Which type of average earnings is specified with each result displayed in bestCourse4me. See average hourly pay and average graduate salary below.

Earnings as recorded on the LFS.  The LFS is a survey of all people in a particular occupation, not just recent graduates.  For example, it will include the earnings of a 58 year old policeman with a degree and the earnings of a 23 year old policemen without a degree.  By averaging earnings across the whole group of policemen, the LFS provides an average of earnings across a career as a policeman.  It is shown as average hourly pay before tax is deducted.

...of Arts, Science, Education, Engineering, etc. At English and Welsh universities, this is the degree most undergraduate students are heading for. When you get it, you can put BA, BSc, BEd, BEng or whatever else is appropriate at the end of your name.

See 'Occupation'.

Each year after the A levels are published, many students find they haven't got the place they wanted and many universities find they haven't filled their courses. Clearing is the sometime frantic process during which those students and unis try to find each other and pair up.

A vague word that could mean (a) a sixth form college where students do A levels, (b) a semi-self-contained unit in a collegiate university, (c) an institution of higher education that isn't allowed to call itself a university or (d) any university, college of higher education, its buildings and/or its administrative authorities.

An undergraduate degree course that involves several subject areas - usually three - in approximately equal parts (to start with at any rate).

See 'Subject'.

The analysis and results displayed on bestCourse4me use source data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS). See the Data Sources section of the users' guide. At least 52 incidents of a particular scenario must be available in the data for a result to be displayed. For instance, in order that we can list conservation as a career that geology graduates go on to pursue, there must be at least 52 people who studied geology and went on to become a conservation professional.

A higher education qualification of a certain level. They split into undergraduate degrees or first degrees which are usually Bachelorships degrees (masters, doctorates, and various postgraduate PGCEs and so on). A university isn't a university if it doesn't teach degrees although some do other higher education qualifications too like Higher National Diplomas (HNDs). Degrees are also sometimes taught at places that aren't fully fledged universities.

The mark the student is awarded at the end of their degree, in descending order 1st, 2i, 2ii, 3rd.

Most universities break down different subject areas into departments and students 'belong' to whatever department teaches their course. It gets more complicated if they study more than one subject, because they may end up in several departments. Some universities don't have departments, they have schools or faculties instead (or even as well - faculties are often groups of departments), but they're basically the same thing.

bestCourse4me uses 'Destination of Leavers' survey data collected by HESA.  This survey provides information on the activities of students after they leave a university (or other higher education institution, HEI). The data is collected approximately six months after students leave their uni. It details the type of work a graduate has entered and in which type of industry sector. Much of the data is also linked to data from the HESA Student Record which allows for the analysis of destinations by students' attributes such as gender, subject of study and qualification obtained. It only contains data of people who completed their degree course.

Graduates who are neither employed nor unemployed and are not seeking work.  These people may be involved in further study, although this is not specified.

People in employment. This includes full time, part time, self employment and people who are due to start work within the next month.

A specific grouping of departments, subjects and courses as defined by each university on an individual basis for its own activities. The social sciences faculty at one university may not be a direct parallel with a faculty with the same name at another university, as each will vary in the range of departments it has and the courses it runs. The faculty name may also not completely match up with a subject area (see below) with the same name. Therefore results for a faculty should not be compared with results for a subject area with the same name.  The term faculty is only used in bestCourse4me in the context of research ratings.  These are provided at faculty level for each university as well as an overall score for each university as a whole.

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.

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).

Someone who's completed a degree course.

What a graduate earns as recorded in the HESA Destination of Leavers Survey.  This provides a snapshot of earnings six months after graduating so provides a specific picture of graduate entry earnings. It's shown as annual earnings before tax is deducated to the nearest £1k for a full time position.

An organisation that represents a number of Higher Education colleges, specialist institutions and some universities.

Higher Education Institution - in other words a university, college or other similar institution.

Higher Education Statistics Agency - the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education.

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).

In Scotland, students take Highers as the equivalent of A levels. For the purposes of bestCourse4me, we've grouped Highers under the heading of A levels. Even though they're not. We really apologise to Scotland, but, believe us, it's simpler this way.

A particular field or area of study, eg. chemistry. It does not refer to a particular course, but is a way of referring to groups of courses which share a common subject area. HESA and the LFS use different subject area groupings.  See JACS and LFS subject areas above.