Bejan

{{other uses|Bejan (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

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Bejan (French {{lang|fr|bejaune}}, from {{lang|fr|bec jaune}}, 'yellow beak', in allusion to unfledged birds, and the equivalent to German {{lang|de|Gelbschnabel}}) was a term for freshmen, or undergraduates of the first year, in the Scottish universities.{{EB1911|wstitle=Bejan|volume=3|page=659}} The term is rarely used today except at the University of Aberdeen; at the University of St Andrews the word has mutated to Bejant (female: Bejantine).{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

The phrase was introduced from the French universities, where the levying of {{lang|la|bejaunium}} ('footing-money') had been prohibited by the statutes of the university of Orleans in 1365 and by those of Toulouse in 1401. In 1493 the election of an {{lang|la|Abbas Bejanorum}} ('Abbot of the Freshmen') was forbidden in the University of Paris.