If $k$ is a positive integer, a group $G$ is said to have the $FE_{k}$-property if for each element $g$ of $G$ there exists a normal subgroup of finite index $X(g)$ such that the subgroup $\langle g,x\rangle$ is nilpotent of class at most $k$ for all $x\in X(g)$. Thus, $FE_{1}$-groups are precisely those groups with finite conjugacy classes ($FC$-groups) and the aim of this paper is to extend properties of $FC$-groups to the case of groups with the $FE_{k}$-property for $k>1$. The class of $FE_{k}$-groups contains the relevant subclass $FE_{k}^{\ast }$, consisting of all groups $G$ for which to every element $g$ there corresponds a normal subgroup of finite index $Y(g)$ such that $\langle g,U\rangle$ is nilpotent of class at most $k$, whenever $U$ is a nilpotent subgroup of class at most $k$ of $Y(g)$.

We extend to soluble $\text{FC}^{\ast }$-groups, the class of generalised FC-groups introduced in de Giovanni et al. [‘Groups with restricted conjugacy classes’, Serdica Math. J. 28(3) (2002), 241–254], the characterisation of finite soluble T-groups obtained recently in Kaplan [‘On T-groups, supersolvable groups, and maximal subgroups’, Arch. Math. (Basel) 96(1) (2011), 19–25].

If $X$ is a subgroup of a group $G$, the cardinal number $\min \{ \vert X: X_{G}\vert , \vert {X}^{G} : X\vert \} $ is called the normal oscillation of $X$ in $G$. It is proved that if all subgroups of a locally finite group $G$ have finite normal oscillation, then $G$ contains a nilpotent subgroup of finite index.

In this note, we give a homology-free proof that the non-abelian tensor product of two finite groups is finite. In addition, we provide an explicit proof that the non-abelian tensor product of two finite p-groups is a finite p-group.