Regular readers may know that I'm fond of the odd acronym or two ;-)

I was at the annual Strathclyde University Academic Selectors meeting earlier today. One of the projects discussed was the initiative by the West of Scotland universities to encourage pupils from schools in disadvantaged areas to apply to university. For example, less than 18% of pupils from Glasgow city schools go on to higher education. In some areas of the west of Scotland the application rate is less than 4%.

The acronym for the initiative is GOALS - which IIRC stands for Greater Opportunities for Access to Learning in Scotland.

I joked with the GOALS coordinator from the University of Strathclyde at the end of the meeting and suggested that if the University set up it's own initiative it could be known as Greater Access to Lifelong Learning at the University of Strathclyde - GALLUS. In case there are some non-Glaswegians reading here's the definition of gallus from Eejit's Glasgow Patter:

Gallus: In Glasgow this is a general term of approval for anything considered excellent: 'Gallus waistcoat, wee man!' When applied to people it's more about attitude and includes elements of toughness, cheek, self-assurance and boldness: He jist stoats right inty the place as gallus as anything. Ye'd never get me gaun oot wi wan a these wee guys that think they're gallus'

Seems like the perfect acronym to me ;-)