To complain about something trivial that is prevalent just now at this time of year?

[Salmotrutta]

The use of the word "Uni" as opposed to University.

It really bugs me.

It started around the time the first Australian soaps were shown back in the early 1980s (Neighbours etc.) because they use that term in Australia - apparently.

Nobody ever referred to it as "Uni" before that in the UK - it just annoys me and I always say University because Uni sounds daft.

Just my opinion of course.

"Surely college is the one between school and uni? "

College is quite a general term; it doesn't refer to a specific educational stage. You're thinking, for example, of a 'sixth form college' - but many people complete KS5 in the same secondary where they completed KS3 and 4.

It can also refer to distinct institutions which, together, make up a university.

With regards to the OP, 'uni' is on the list of arbitrary abbreviations that make my teeth itch, too, along with 'preggers' and 'soccer'. No real rhyme or reason to it.

Do you prefer to say 'Varsity' cos you is posh?

I was at Uni in the 80s and I remember a posho London friend saying I shouldn't use the term 'Uni' as it sounded exclusive so he always said College. Fair dos, thanks for the lecture, oh privately educated man, just what this comprehensive educated local girl needed.

Oh dear.

I've heard it said that if you call it "uni" then it won't be one of the prestigious ones. In my limited experience that does hold true - Oxbridge is "college" as are UCL, IC, etc, Edinburgh etc are "university" and if someone says her DD has just gone to "uni" then it will be somewhere obscure doing Applied Photocopying.

Is it a first generation thing too?

Huh. Turns out I'm horribly prejudiced and a crashing snob.

Well, the Uni I was at in the 80s (see story above about patronising London posh boy) was Edinburgh, so that doesn't really fit your snobby theory MrsHathaway

I've heard it said that if you call it "uni" then it won't be one of the prestigious ones.

Not true in my experience.

When I was at Cambridge we only said "college" if we were specifically referring to something that related to the college

e.g. "I've got to go to college to pick up my post"

"Your college does better cooked breakfasts than mine"

The institution as a whole was "university", or "uni" (fairly interchangeably)

e.g. "I'm going back to uni on the 3rd"

YANBU to complain about whatever you want.

It doesn't make you right though...

well I went to a RG university in 1988 and it was called a uni then, polys have always been called polys and my dad went to 'the tech' in the 50s.

Language always develops and adapts. Selfies and onesies were not a thing then!
When more people actually start using a word, it is bound to get abbreviated, and as more and more people catch on and use the abbreviation, it becomes the norm and replaces the full word in common everyday situations. For example, I don't know anyone except my aged nan who refers to 'photographs' or 'telephones'....and she still calls a radio 'the wireless' too!

We have Sainsbourg. I suppose it's a contraction of Serge and Gainsbourg, but it still sounds relatively genteel

My parents call the radio the "wireless" too!

They're in their 80s but they do say phone and TV etc.

Soup - I know it doesn't make me right

and she still calls a radio 'the wireless' too! I love the word wireless for radio - always conjures up an image like this

Great picture RedEllen - that's how I see a wireless in my head.

In fact my parents had an amazing wooden wireless set when I was very young - I used to peer into it through the grill to see the valves which fascinated me

'Tell my, young lady, what do you intend to read at University?'

Viz was a popular choice in the 80's.

Yeah, my gran had one like that. I was not allowed to touch it.

YANBU. I'm a student at the moment. I hate the word uni. But now, because of the abbreviation, 'university' sounds ridiculously long and makes you sound like a dick too! I have tried saying 'college', but when I explain I'm doing an MA at UCL that's not what people expect! It's a minefield. When I talk to dd about it, I just call it school

I went to a Poly but everyone I knew said 'college' whether they were going to university or polytechnic. Early 80's. You 'went away to college'.

No one went to the local university either in those days. I suppose it was the grants.

I'm sure I called it Uni when I went, in Scotland, before the days of Neighbours etc.

But since it's over 30 years since I graduated, maybe my memory is going

That's interesting because I have a postcard dm received saying "good luck at uni", I think she matriculated in 1964.

Could it be a West of Scotland thing Prettybird? We definitely called it Uni when I went, pre Neighbours.

I think it is a West of Scotland thing but it doesn't stop my West of Scotland teeth itching.

It was known as Uni back in the sixties and seventies.

I definately went to College or even (medical) school in the '90's and some friends "read" history at Manchester or PPE at Oxford.

Don't know if it's a West of Scotland thing - I went to St Andrews Uni and read French/Economics - although initially I went up to do French/Russian.

Dh always reminds me that he didn't go to Glasgow University - he went to *The University, comma, Glasgow"