Yes, but it has an old-fashioned, colloquial ring to it. And it would only apply to young students (perhaps first through sixth grade, and sixth grade may be stretching it). Orofessional educators refer to them as students, even in kindergarten.[/quote]
“Orofessional”. Now there’s a word you don’t hear every day.[/quote]
Sounds like a field I’d like to get into! 
[quote=“Chris”][quote=“irishstu”]
“Orofessional”. Now there’s a word you don’t hear every day.[/quote]
Sounds like a field I’d like to get into! 
[/quote]
We should invent a meaning for it, though I think there’s a particularly obvious one.
Interesting. So, when Rod Stewart sang Maggie May, he was singing about a young boy seduced away by an older woman?
[quote=“Rod Stewart in Maggie May”]
Wake up Maggie I think I got something to say to you
It’s late September and I really should be back at school
I know I keep you amused but I feel I’m being used
Oh Maggie I couldn’t have tried any more
You lured me away from home just to save you from being alone
You stole my heart and that’s what really hurt
The morning sun when it’s in your face really shows your age
But that don’t worry me none in my eyes you’re everything
I laughed at all of your jokes my love you didn’t need to coax
Oh, Maggie I couldn’t have tried any more
You lured me away from home, just to save you from being alone
You stole my soul and that’s a pain I can do without
All I needed was a friend to lend a guiding hand
But you turned into a lover and
mother what a lover, you wore me out
All you did was wreck my bed
and in the morning kick me in the head
Oh Maggie I couldn’t have tried anymore
You lured me away from home 'cause you didn’t want to be alone
You stole my heart I couldn’t leave you if I tried
I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school
Or steal my daddy’s cue and make a living out of playing pool
Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helpin’ hand
Oh Maggie I wish I’d never seen your face
You made a first-class fool out of me
But I’m as blind as a fool can be
You stole my heart but I love you anyway
Maggie I wish I’d never seen your face
I’ll get on back home one of these days[/quote]
I’d always just figured the singer was a college/university student.
I’d always assumed it was a teenage schoolkid, say 16-18. Not able to get a real job, but able to get into bars in the days before ID cards.
Great info…more insight into the wacky world of the English language!
I’d never thought of universities as “schools” until I came to Taiwan and got used to hearing them termed as such by locals speaking American-English. It no longer jars, but I still think we need to maintain a distinction between the places where children study and the places where adults study.
And while I don’t normally think of those receiving higher education as “pupils”, I was actually a pupil in my 20s - a pupil barrister. After passing all my exams and being called to the Bar, I had to complete two six-month pupillages before I could be considered a full-fledged barrister. Pupillage, for those who don’t know, is somewhat akin to being apprenticed to a senior barrister (the “pupil master”, though my second was a mistress), who acts as a kind of mentor and shows his young charge the ropes of practicing at the Bar. The novice barrister can only start to take cases of his own during the second pupillage.
Finally, my university consisted of colleges that were divided into faculties, not schools, such as the Faculty of Law in which I misspent and idled away such happy years with those lovely girls from every nook and cranny that had ever belonged to the British Empire. Ah, the memories!
School - common usage in the UK means 5ish - 16/18. Generally, compulsory education.
More formally and also archaically it is used for schools at Universities such as The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (as part of a collegiate university, SOAS is practically a University in its own right).
As is often the case, and can be seen from some of the etymological references above, the American usage shows how English was used in the UK a few hundred years ago and how the two versions of the language have since gone their own ways.
Another difference between leftpondian and rightpondian English:
In the US, colleges are divided into “departments”, while the entire teaching staff of a department, college or university is known as its “faculty”.
i dunno - I am a fairly recent graduate, and my group rebelled against the “cool idea” that just because youve left home you havent stopped going to school - so we just kept on calling Uni school - I mean, uni is a pretty wank name as well so why not just accept it - we did:
Definition of school: somewhere you go to pretend youre studying
I reckon university is definately school… oh and just to contradict myself, dont get me started on the US English of College - for me that is one of two places
It had never even occured to me that a university wasn’t a school. Very enlightening. Good info for avoiding language blunders.
Hmm, I lived in HK for a good while but never got the feeling that university there was not considering school. I’d be interested to know if it was taught that way there.
my university in the USA had a law school. It was called the UPS School of Law. It was the only graduate program that was called a school. We had a College of Arts, a College of Education, and a College of Sciences. So the term “school” meant some sort of educational institution.
I did my postgrad in England, and I was just checking out their website. They have a “School of Education”, a “law school”, a “school of arts and cultures”, etc. In fact, the British school uses the word “school” much more often than the American school. So it’s not really an American usage, it’s just a standard term for an educational institution or a group of fish.
In the UK, it is used in the names of institutions but not as a way of referring to studying past elementary level. A university student in the Uk would say that he or she goes to uni or college.
You can imagine what a fright we British guys get in the States when the young lady we’re snogging tells us she’d better go home soon as she has school in the morning. 
Prep to year 12 is a school. Anything else is something else
When you’re in a job interview the interviewer might ask “where did you go to school?”
He sure as hell isnt asking about your middle school or high school.