In the UK a university student is said to "study", to "read" or, informally, simply to "do" a subject. In the recent past the expression 'to read a subject' was more common at the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US a student "studies" or "majors in" a subject (although a student's "major", "concentration" or, less commonly, "emphasis" is also used in US colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study). "To major in" something refers to the student's principal course of study; "to study" may refer to any class being taken.