AU terminology and spelling

University name

Full name

Athabasca University

Casual name

AU

Ensure to spell out Athabasca University (AU) when you first use it before proceeding with the common initialism.

First use

Athabasca University (AU)

Second use

AU

Never use periods when writing AU. Write it out as AU, not A.U.
See Periods

Do not refer to AU as a formal entity by the capitalized term University. Instead, use lower-case:

• Athabasca University's website provides information about the university and its programs and services.
• General Faculties Council (GFC), subject to the authority of the board, is responsible for the academic and student affairs of the university.
• My experience as associate dean provides me with a university-wide perspective of graduate issues as well as knowledge specific to a single faculty.

An exception to this rule is made for AU's tagline, "Canada’s Open University," which is always capitalized when used as our tagline.
See Capitalization

---

Faculties, centres, and departments

The university is composed of 5 faculties:

• Faculty of Business
• Faculty of Health Disciplines
• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Faculty of Science and Technology
• Faculty of Graduate Studies

The Centre for Humanities, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, Centre for Social Sciences, and Nukskahtowin Meeting Place fall under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Centre for Science, RAIC Centre for Architecture, and School of Computing and Information Systems fall under the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Other centres that do not fall under a particular faculty are the Centre for Learning Accreditation (PLAR) and Research Centre.

Learner Support Services is comprised of the following departments:

• Accessibility Services
• Advising Services
• Counselling Services
• Mental Health and Wellness

The use of ampersands in faculty and department names should be avoided:
See Ampersands

• The Faculty of Science and Technology
• Mental Health and Wellness

---

People

AU community

The AU community comprises learners, faculty, team members, alumni, and our partners. Please note, in internal communications (email, internal newsletters, intranet), we defer to the usage of learner rather than student and team member instead of staff member. For content written for an external audience (AU website, The Hub, news releases, sponsored content), the term student can be used for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.

Names and titles

In the first written reference, use the person’s full name. Generally, in later references, use only the person’s surname. This rule also applies to titles such as Dr., Ms., etc.:

• Dr. Matthew Prineas joined Athabasca University in early September 2017 and is in his first term as provost and vice-president academic. Before assuming his current role as provost at Athabasca University, Prineas served in a variety of influential leadership roles at the University of Maryland University College.
  • Not Dr. Prineas on second reference

Capitalize an academic or formal title, only when it directly precedes the person’s name:

• Provost and Vice-President Academic Dr. Matthew Prineas started at Athabasca University in September 2017.
• Faculty of Science and Technology Dean Dr. Shauna Reckseidler-Zenteno completed her PhD at the University of Calgary. 
• The dean would be able to assist you.
• Dr. Mahmoud Abaza is an associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems.

Lowercase occupational titles before and after a name:

• The director of communications is Angie Zander.
• Please talk to academic coordinator John Smith.

Capitalize the formal AU business unit name in someone’s title but otherwise use lowercase:

• Ray Welshman is AU’s vice-president of Information Technology and chief information officer.

Use the title Dr. in front of the names of any faculty, team member, or postdoctoral scholar who has been awarded a doctoral degree from a post-secondary institution. Please defer to the person’s preference if they would rather use their formal title at Athabasca University.

When used in lists, on business cards or stationery, professional titles may be capitalized even after the name:

• Dale Mountain, Vice-President Finance and Operations, and Chief Financial Officer

The title vice-president is always hyphenated and should also include the area of responsibility:

• Provost and Vice-President Academic
• Vice-President Information Technology
• Vice-President University Relations

Longer titles (more than two words) should be offset with commas.

For more examples, please check AU’s Our executive team page.

---

Certificates, diplomas, and degrees

Do not use periods or other punctuation when abbreviating academic credentials:
See Periods

• BSc
• MBA
• BMgmt

Please refer to the section on capitalization for information about when to capitalize names of credentials and programs.

Please refer to the following list of Athabasca University credentials along with their abbreviations:

Undergraduate

Graduate