Learn English – What word describes a university class in both the UK and the US

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In the US words like class, subject, course are used to describe a university class, while in the UK, words like subject and course are used to describe the name of the whole university degree. Instead in the UK words like module or unit are used to describe a university class.

Is there a word that will be understood by both British English speakers and American English speakers?

UPDATE: by university class I meant a series of lectures on a topic e.g. "Economics 101" or "Introduction to Statistics".

Best Answer

After a bit of research I came to a conclusion that it's hard to use a single word to explain the concept to both UK people and US people.

I found that among UK universities the word module is widely used to describe a series of university lectures on a topic e.g. "Economics 101" or "Introduction to Statistics". Although there are a few universities that interchangeably use both module and unit.

In the US however, I found that word course is used by universities to describe a series of university lectures on a topic. In contrast, UK universities use word course as well as word subject to describe degree names e.g.: A 3-year course in Anthropology or A table of subjects provided at university.

As such, I'd recommend using word module in the UK and word course in the US to describe a series of university lectures on a topic.

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