A student is a learner or someone who attends an educational institution. In the United Kingdom, those attending university are termed "students" while " pupil " refers to an attendee of a lower educational institute; the same was typically true in the United States previously where student was considered a more lofty and ambitious title, one who was actively seeking knowledge, not just learning it because they were required to. In the United States, and more recently also in the UK, the term "student" is applied to both categories: school and university students. In its widest use, student is used for anyone who is learning, including mid-career adults who are taking vocational education or returning to university. When speaking about learning outside an institution, "student" is also used to refer to someone who is learning a topic or who is "a student of" a certain topic or person. In the widest sense of the word, a student is anyone seeking to learn or to grow by experience, such as a student of the School of Hard Knocks.
