remedial education

Definition

Courses covering material students should have learned earlier, offered at college for credit that doesn't count toward degrees but definitely counts toward tuition bills. Academic do-overs at premium prices.

Example Usage

Over half the incoming freshmen required remedial math, spending their first year relearning algebra while paying university tuition.

Origin

Expanded dramatically with open-access higher education in the 1960s-70s

Fun Fact

Remedial education costs students and institutions billions annually, with completion rates under 30% in many programs.

Source: Developmental education programs and policy

Related Terms

Beginner

Elective

A course students choose freely, usually because it has the word "introduction" in the title or meets at a time that doesn't require waking before noon. Academic freedom in its purest and laziest form.

🎓 Education / Academia

Intermediate

office of institutional research

The university's data wizards who crunch numbers on everything from retention rates to demographic trends, producing reports that administrators cite selectively. They know exactly how badly things are going before anyone else does.

🎓 Education / Academia

Beginner

advising hold

A bureaucratic ankle bracelet preventing students from registering for classes until they've had a mandatory chat with their academic advisor. It's the university's way of ensuring you can't make terrible scheduling decisions without adult supervision.

🎓 Education / Academia

Advanced

brown envelope research

Academic research covertly funded by industry or special interests who have a stake in particular outcomes, often disguised to appear independent. The findings mysteriously align with the sponsor's commercial interests while maintaining a veneer of scholarly objectivity.

🎓 Education / Academia

Advanced

DFW rate

The percentage of students receiving D's, F's, or Withdrawing from a course - a metric that makes everyone uncomfortable because high rates could indicate either rigorous standards or terrible teaching, and nobody wants to examine it too closely.

🎓 Education / Academia

Beginner

study abroad

A program where students take classes in another country, theoretically for cross-cultural learning but often functioning as an expensive semester-long vacation with occasional lectures. Parents fund it; Instagram documents it; transcripts barely reflect it.

🎓 Education / Academia

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