17 replies to this topic

[nirmaldaniel]

college includes any kind of school after high school (including community). University is usually a 4 year school.

In the US it's the size of the school. Smaller schools in the US are called colleges while larger ones are Universities. I think they are all called universities in some other countries.In the US-- nothing.Typically colleges are a little smaller than universities, but not always.


we can also look like a university is the big house, while college is its branches

But in the united states, there is a difference. the university where my friend went to recently upgraded from a college to a university before i started attending. as someone stated before me, it relies on the school size, which then partially determines funding from the government. (4 year vs 2 year programs dont matter as many colleges have 4 year programs)

its similar to a high school going from an AA (two a) school to an AAA (three a) school. basically means the school outgrew its size and needed to upgrade.

in other countries, university and college are synomns. the words are interchangable. to a degree they are here too, such as "i'm going to college" or "i'm a college student" could mean going to either a large university or a community college. its all in context.

several people added information that is incorrect. not all universities can give PHDs (mine couldnt). and having a research team has nothing to do with its classification. when my "college" upgraded to a university, it already had the separate schools for art, science, and so on set up.

but in the pure form; Universities grant PhDs while colleges grant as high as a Masters; however there is some cross over.

[nirmaldaniel]

IN SPECIFIC a College is an institution of higher education that grants degrees and certificates. The term is also used to designate the organizational units of a university such as the College of Education or the College of Engineering. An institution of higher learning that offers undergraduate programs , usually of a four year duration , which lead to the bachelor's degree in the arts or sciences (BA or BS). The term "college" is also used in a general sense to refer to a post-secondary institution.

A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. A university provides both tertiary and quaternary education. University is derived from the Latin universitas, meaning corporation (since the first medieval European universities were often groups of scholars-for-hire).

Basically, a college can be stand alone and just offer BA and BS degrees or a college can be a division within a university (ie. College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Science which would offer BA, BS, MS, and PhD degrees.

[Unstoppable]

Here in Belgium it's either University or High School (= about the same as college i think)

The borders between those 2 are fading away. It used to be so that a University degree was more 'powerful' than 1 from High School.
Now it's divided in Bachelors: Academic Bachelor and Professional Bachelor. A few years ago, you could only do academic bachelors at university (academic is the 'better' one).
But now it's all mixed up, which is good. Because if you want to do something very difficult, and you only get a professional bachelor (which is sometimes seen as common, non spectacular) it's rather disappointing and people will hire probably the one with the academy bachelor.

I hope there is a ressemblence in these 2 school systems.

[lloydg]

Uni is after high school collage is a name for any school, highschool or uni or primary school can have collage in its name it normaly just means its more ritch or special or something

[FLaKes]

Here in Mexico they just call it University, even if its a big institution or small. Maybe the only difference is that in some of those "universities" they have technician degree's, where they finish and get a degree, dont think they are bachelors degree though.

[the-artistic-bunch]

While the terms today are often used interchangeably, originally a college was a specific school teaching a specific subject, such as Education, Medicine, etc.

A University is a school made up of numerous colleges.

In general, now a days, the difference is the level of degree that they can award. Colleges typically award Bachelor's degrees and Universities can offer Master's and Doctorate Degrees. The distinction has never been 'enforced' by any organization.

College is also used to refer to a specific group within a University.

Does this answer your question?

[xenador]

difference between a college and a university...well everywhere that is a university is also a collection of colleges. Put simply a university is made up of multiple colleges for example the university of texas is made up of the college of natural science, the liberal arts school, mcombs business school, etc...

how can anyone stand going to them...that is an interesting question, generally you will have picked something that you have an interest in for me computer science. So to have this natural inclination makes it easier to go to school and learn about it, but there might be some classes in your major that you dont like. For me classes like calculus and chemistry, so how can I stand going to them? well it is definitely an effort, but I found that studying and going to class is easier if you have friends in that class that is not just any friends but friends who have a passion for the class. How do you find these people...well there are no seating charts and most of the time the professor lectures and no one in the classes of 400 really talk so it makes it hard at time to find them. Study groups can be good but generally the people who dont know how to study go to them....so in short it is luck if you find someone to help you in the course. It is my opinion that every course I take at college is for me (no matter how much I despise it) and so I will struggle to understand it better and to pass it, but also to broaden my views on that subject. An experience of some impossible coorespondence in the class also helps, but as the word implies the impossibility of the thing is often quite daunting.

[y4nzi]

My impression was that College = undegraduate department whilst University referred to an instution that gives you higher qualitifications like graduate studies, masters and phD's. Of course some institutions incorporate both.