Recently I received a friend request on Facebook from a person who was in the same batch as me in the 1980s when I was a student at St Joseph’s College, Tiruchy. I don’t remember having interacted with him but I added him as a friend. A few days ago, seeing me online he started chatting:
X: Albert, your face is familiar to me. Did you study at St Joseph’s College, Tiruchy?
Me: Yes, I did.
X:In which year did you pass out?
Me: Pass out? I never passed out.
X: I passed out in 1987. You must have passed out in the same year.
Me: Sorry, I have no experience of passing out.
X: Are you kidding? Do you belong to 1984-87 batch?
Me: Yes, you are right.
We come across the phrase ‘pass out’ in news reports, annual reports of schools and colleges in different parts of the country. We often hear people working in the education sector using the term ‘pass out’. They use the phrase ‘passed out students’ to refer to ‘students who have completed their courses or graduated’. What does the phrasal verb ‘to pass out’ mean? It means ‘to faint’ or ‘to lose consciousness’ for a short time as in these examples:
■ The painter was so drunk that he passed out.
■ He had an accident this morning and passed out.
■ My grandma passes out when she sees blood.
■ She has passed out many times in the past six months and her doctors are not able to diagnose the cause…
In British English the phrase ‘pass out’ means ‘to complete one’s initial training in the armed forces’ (Oxford dictionary) or ‘to officially complete a course at a military or police college’ (Macmillan dictionary). In American English the term doesn’t mean completing a course or a programme in a school or college. In Indian English the phrase is used for the completion of any course. Look at the following headlines and news reports:
■ College that has never seen a student pass out (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-03/bhubaneswar/39713376_1_college-authorities-science-college-plus-ii). Here the reference is to a college where no student has passed since its inception. According to the report, no student of the college has passed in the last five years since its first batch sat for the examination in 2009.
■ Distinguished pass out students (http://www.kvrkl.com/pass_students.html). The website www.kvrkl.com lists “distinguished pass outs who got admission in reputed educational institutions (IITs, NITs, medical colleges etc.) during the current academic session”.
■ SRM University organised farewell for passed out students 2013 (http://www.htcampus.com/article/srm-university-organized-farewell-for-passed-out-students-2013-3303/
Here is a query from a reader: This is Dr M Ravi Kumar, a professor in pharmacy. I want to know the appropriate phrase for passed out batch or student because the dictionary meaning of ‘passed out’ is fainting.
Assume Y was a student of an institute between 2008 and 2012. If he completed his course and passed all the exams successfully, then we say that he graduated in 2012. We can use the word ‘alumnus’ to mean that he is an old student. There are other ways of conveying the same idea:
■ Students who completed their course in 2013
■ Students who graduated in 2013
■ Students of the 2008-2012 batch
■ Alumni of the 2008-2012 batch
