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Can the word "program" be used to refer to the whole package of courses, facilities, people, funds, etc., in a certain discipline at a certain place?

English Language & Usage Asked by Salvo Tringali on September 1, 2021

Is there a simple way (ideally, one or two words) to refer to each of the following items as elements of the same whole? Here are the items:

  1. the courses for undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students in a certain discipline (say, mathematics) at a certain university;
  2. the people teaching these courses or doing research in the same discipline at the same university;
  3. the facilities (classrooms, labs, etc.) where these activities of teaching and research take place;
  4. the funds (salaries, scholarships, etc.) that teachers, researchers, and students receive to support their activities.

I thought that "mathematics program" would have been fine for my purposes, but I’m no longer so sure.

One Answer

This is an appropriate use of the word. The word program is quite general, meaning simply "a set of related measures or activities with a particular long-term aim". In this context, it could refer to any or all of the aspects mentioned in the question, but wouldn't necessarily refer to any one specifically without more context. A university that has an excellent mathematics program would be understood to have a high-quality course of study overall. That could include the instructors, the facilities, the curriculum, the funding, the alumni network, the job placement rate, or any other measure of quality.

Correct answer by Nuclear Hoagie on September 1, 2021

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