When I google "study in a programme" on UK pages I only get one single hit, whereas when I google "study on a programme" I get almost 50 hits. However, when I check the same phrases on NGrams, the version with "in" is clearly more frequent. This may be because there are no hits on NGrams for BrE, but still – I'm still wondering which version is actually the preferred one in "proper" (i.e. not colloquial) BrE.
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1What is the full sentence you want to say. Normally you would just say "I study maths" and not "I study on a programme of maths"– James KCommented Apr 8, 2023 at 21:46
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e.g., "If you study on/in a teacher training programme..."; "Those studying on/in one of the music programmes..."; "Students on/in this programme..." and so on.– GerdaCommented Apr 8, 2023 at 22:23
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2Neither. Usually in the UK we'd say we are studying a subject, such as maths, computing, English or whatever.– Billy KerrCommented Apr 8, 2023 at 22:40
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2Indeed "If you are training to be a teacher..." "Those studying music..." "Students on this course"... I'm not saying that "programme" is never used, but it isn't the first word I'd use in those contexts.– James KCommented Apr 8, 2023 at 22:55
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1@JamesK - actually there are zero hits in google ngram viewer in British English for either of these examples. So for these particular examples "never" is a distinct possibility.– Billy KerrCommented Apr 9, 2023 at 0:49
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1 Answer
We would normally say someone is 'in a programme', for example:
He is in a rehabilitation programme.
However, it isn't usual to refer to education that way. A 'programme of study' in British English means the curriculum - the planned topics and material that a student would cover. These can frequently change. As a British English speaker, if someone were to say to me "I'm in a study programme" it would sound so unidiomatic that I would imagine they meant some special kind of programme outside of standard education.
In British English we normally refer to being in the various stages of education this way:
- I'm at school ('in' is more American)
- I'm in college ('at' is common too, though)
- I'm on a course (either a college course or any other kind of study, such as a vocational study or a training programme)
- I'm at university
