Morris Minor Owners Club

To all you students out there, has my investment in you all, been worthwhile!! Question--- what is the difference between a person who studies a subject and one who reads it?

Anyone can read a subject, you have to study it to really understand it...

i think... that in further education and higher education to undergraduate level you "study".
The exceptions may be the likes of Oxford and Cambridge where anyone there 'reads' a subject. (or maybe they just like to adopt airs and graces)

In higher education upper levels you 'read'. The term "post graduate student" is common. I've heard of "post-doctorate sudents" (aka post-docs) but they might be 'readers' in olde worlde language.
Where that level starts I'm not fully sure but it runs at the top of higher education e.g. the post-doctorates working to become professors are a 'reader' until they get a professorship.


I paid my own way through uni - but everywhere I've worked in industry we've had government money... it's a mixed up world.

Seems a bit hazy to me, If you watch University Challenge there's a lot of this going on, members of the same team alternate between studying and reading, sometimes in the same subject. Would be nice to get a definitive answer, before dismissing it as snobbery! Come on, I know there are plenty of students here, Give me the answer!

I thought they just drank beer and made fools of themselves

I think it depends on what the subject is:

Studying is learning facts and putting the knowledge into practice eg science, technology, maths etc

Reading is gaining knowledge of a subject but not applying it practically eg literature, history, politics etc

So for example you would be reading history but studying chemistry. Those on University Challenge using both terms for the same subject are probably confused

I have never been a student though so could of course be completely wrong!

Thanks for all the above replies, however, grateful though I am, they seem to be considered thoughts. I am hoping for something conclusive. Why are all the actual students keeping a low profile? They can't all be studying or reading!

les wrote:Why are all the actual students keeping a low profile? They can't all be studying or reading!

Sorry, i was just down the pub spending my loan and your money

the reason we're all keeping quiet is that none of us knows, obviously!

i can't give you a conclusive answer, i'll try asking one of my tutors tomorrow.

i'm definately studying Motorsport Engineering, there's not a lot of reading involved!

It is purely a term - and by all accounts an old one at that!

You went to university to read a subject (medicine, history whatever, arts or science subjects) because that is precisely what you had to do - read up on and around the subject with the odd lecture and tutorial interjected into the timetable. You used to be very much left to take in a subject on your own. You went to college to study, as at a college you were taught the subject and not necessarily expected to go beyond what the tutor at the front of the class told you - Think school but with more interesting subjects.

That was way back when Universities weren't full of courses such as "Putting Green Maintenance" and "Foundation Degrees in Beauty Therapy"!

It would be grammatically correct for all on University Challenge to say that they were "Reading....." but is an old fashioned term probably doomed to be forgotten in a year or twos time and everyone will be studying.

that's pretty much what my tutor told me!

IanC .. exactly what i was told on my first day at Uni over 20 years ago.. i now feel old

Thanks Ian, that gives a much clearer insight. Appears many students are/were as baffled as I was!

No worries, probably find I am wrong and someone will come along now with a better answer. Like C_M_M it was what I was told (first day only 18 years ago for me - but also feeling old now!).

Chris, glad to hear in these days of impoverished students that you are still finding time to spend some of my tax in a wise and constructive manner.

Les, off topic and out if interest the mini in your sig picture - is that sat on a race circuit? Lydden or Brands H maybe given your location?

Ian, re-photo, It's on a driveway. The mini was one I restored/ modded many years ago, in fact after it had gone, realizing I hadn't taken a photo of it, travelled to Oxford where the buyer lived, and took a few snaps. (I say buyer infact it was in part exchange, £150 + the mini,for a cooper s) After coming across it recently though I'd like to see more of it!