"HIGHER EDUCATION" and "FURTHER EDUCATION"

[Kirsten P]

Can you help me distinguish the meanings of the 2 noun phrases?
And for instance, if I study MBA or Ph.D (after graduating in university), what is it called (___ education????)
Thanks a lot in advance!!

[Ouisch]

In AmE, "Higher Education" refers to any accredited classes taken after a student graduates from high school. A four-year university degree is called a "Bachelor's Degree." If a student goes to study for a Master's or Doctorate degree, he will refer to that four-year diploma as his "undergrad" degree.

While taking classes in pursuit of an MBA or PhD it is referred to as "graduate school."

"I did my undergrad at North Carolina University, got my Master's from Duke University, and now I'm working on my PhD at Harvard."

[BobK]

In the UK, the distinction is between what happens at Universities (from undergrad to post-grad it's all Higher Education), and anything else that happens after a pupil leaves school at 17-18 - retaking GCSEs, learning to be a plumber, re-training for a change of career, evening classes attended by 60-yr-olds..... This is all 'Further Education', which is a bit of a catch-all term. It allows for strange inconsistencies like teachers in FE being paid less than school-teachers, but having high-falutin' job titles like 'Lecturer in the Built Environment'. "Lifelong Learning' is the FE buzzword: http://www.lluk.org/

In fact (in my view) FE is the poor relation of HE. For example, education is covered in the Times Education Supplement. There is a separate publication called the Times Higher Education Supplement. Meanwhile, FE gets a few pages at the back of the TES.

b

[Searching for language]

In AmE, "Higher Education" refers to any accredited classes taken after a student graduates from high school. A four-year university degree is called a "Bachelor's Degree." If a student goes to study for a Master's or Doctorate degree, he will refer to that four-year diploma as his "undergrad" degree.

While taking classes in pursuit of an MBA or PhD it is referred to as "graduate school."

"I did my undergrad at North Carolina University, got my Master's from Duke University, and now I'm working on my PhD at Harvard."

The only difference I see in the Canadian and the US is that we call anything beyond high school, post graduate. The various degrees are the same.


As for further education, I think of that as anything that you might want to learn. You might have a Masters but decide that you would like to learn about flower arranging............... that is still "further education" in my mind!

P.S. on edit............... and I further my education every time I log onto this site and read the questions and answers!