I was idly musing this morning on Twitter about the correct pronunciation of ‘HEFCE’, having heard many people incorrectly pronounce it ‘hef-cee’. This caused a bit of a stir and even prompted THE to ring the HEFCE press office who said that both are permissible. Some use -kee as it is a Council, others use -cee adhering to ancient rule of Magic E…
So ‘cee’ might be permissible, but it sounds wrong, so Wonkhe is standing by HEF-KEE (both its name and its important role in the sector) and would urge all readers to fill out this THE Twitter poll to ensure the correct side wins.
Other (declared) high-profile backers of the acceptable pronunciation include the Equality Challenge Unit, the Research & Enterprise team at the University of Huddersfield, Million+, Registrarism, Nick Hillman and many more too.
As an ex-HEFCE bod, I adhere to the C-for-Council rule, but as a resident of somewhere that isn’t England, I usually have to say the name in full anyway so people have some idea of what I’m talking about 🙂
I’m interested to know what the currently 2 votes who went for ‘other’ pronounce it as!