Until recently I assume they were synonymous 😅, Here you go to Uni immediatly after finishing HS.
In the US, they’re the same. In most countries, a university is a collection of colleges (although most people don’t know that).
In countries where universities and colleges are considered separate entities (i.e. most countries), universities are still considered more prestigious, although it’s much easier to get a BS/no job degree from an university than a college
Sort of. There are colleges within university in the US too, we just don’t usually talk about it
Yep. I was apart of my uni’s stem college. I want to say there were probably 5 or 6 colleges in my uni
In the US, a University is usually a collection of colleges. Each college has a somewhat independent structure from other colleges within the University, and each is led by its own Dean. Each college has different requirements of entry and provide rules for what it takes to get a degree from that college. But ultimately, you get a degree from something like “The University of Whatever, College of Engineering”. All the colleges have some certain amount of oversight and guidelines set up by the overall institution.
It can get confusing though because a lot of places that are universities still call themselves “____ College” due to tradition
In Australia “college” can mean two different things.
It can be another word for high school, especially for exclusive, elite private schools. (For example: Brisbane Boys’ College.)
It can be a term for a particular type of residence within a university, especially one that provides more than just a room, but also meals and social activities. (For example, Emmanuel College UQ.)
Historically, it also had at least one other meaning. Among boomer teachers I know, I’ve heard talk of having gone to “teacher’s college”. So I think it used to be a sort of more specialised educational institution with a narrower focus than a university. But these don’t exist anymore, to my knowledge.
In the US, they’re the same.
Are you sure?
I’ve always thought of universities as educational institutions funded (in part) by the state. So, tuition for “The University of Colorado” is partially subsided by the taxes people pay to the state of Colorado.
Colleges are not funded by the state, therefore have a higher tuition than universities.
At least that’s the theory. However, both universities and colleges have become so profit focused, I don’t know how much cheaper universities are now-a-days.
I’d also argue that a university in the U.S. is more prestigious than many colleges (the exception being Ivy league schools), because universities being cheaper means a high demand for being accepted, which means applicant need “be better” to gain admittance.
In the job market, however, you are absolutely right: college VS university - it doesn’t matter.
Universities can be public or private. They are simply a collection of colleges. An example of a single college that is not part of a university would be a community college.
As for which is more prestigious, most colleges not part of a university generally only offer Associate’s degrees with some offering Bachelor’s degrees. Universities offer those along with graduate level degrees. You are correct that universities tend to be tougher to get into.
Past your first job, nobody really gives a shit where you went.
In the US there’s really no set differentiation. There’s no rules that colleges have to be private or universities have to be public. Harvard is a college (undergrad) and a university, neither are funded by the state.
The general way it works is, universities are large, colleges are small… however, there’s even exceptions to that, if I remember right there’s a university in Alaska that only enrolls like 300 people. A lot of colleges in my state are state funded because they are 2 year community colleges. A lot of our universities have 4 year liberal arts colleges at them.
As someone who lives in the US, that is not true. All universities are colleges, but not all colleges are universities. A community college is not a university.
In most countries, a university is a collection of colleges (although most people don’t know that).
That is not true at all.
It is true in my country (India), and, considering that we borrowed this system from the British, true in many other countries as well.
For example, University College London and King’s College London are part of the University of London.
The autonomy enjoyed by the colleges within a university would vary from uni to uni, and sometimes even from college to college within the same university. Generally, at least the ‘higher’ degrees are given in the name of the University.
Some universities have centrally run departments, and these are usually more prestigious than the constituent colleges. Others are purely affiliating unis and only perform administrative duties.
From what I understand, colleges focus mainly on undergraduates, while universities provide undergraduate and graduate programs. It doesn’t necessarily mean that colleges are always smaller or have less resources than universities though.
In the UK, yes (mostly). In our system, we’ve got further education (sixth form or college) which sits between high school and higher education (university). As well as providing A-level courses, colleges often provide more vocational courses that don’t necessarily lead into higher education. For example, my local college has hairdressing and bricklaying courses.
Confusingly, some universities are also made up of colleges. I think this is a minority of universities, though, and anecdotally, seems to be the older ones (Oxford, Cambridge, etc)
In Canada, the difference is generally that universities offer degrees while colleges offer diplomas and certificates. Degrees generally take longer to earn that diplomas or certificates and would include things like bachelors degrees, masters degrees, PhDs, etc.
But also every university is a collection of colleges. For instance, there will be a college of arts and sciences, a college of engineering, a college of medicine, etc all at a single university
In New Zealand a university is a form of higher/tertiary education institution.
A college is a high school that’s trying to sound fancy.
The kind of place that the US calls “community college” would be called a “polytech” here.
A college is a high school that’s trying to sound fancy.
Te awamutu college would like to have a word here
Apparently French works the same way (“university” = tertiary, “college” = high school), at least if Duolingo is to be believed.
The kind of place that the US calls “community college” would be called a “polytech” here.
I’m not necessarily doubting you, but I would’ve guessed “polytech” would be more like a “trade school” (where you go to learn skills for blue-collar jobs, like welding, plumbing, auto repair, etc.) than a “community college” (where you go for two years to earn an associates’ degree in stuff like liberal arts or business or nursing, possibly before transferring somewhere else to continue towards your bachelors’).
(That’s despite the fact that “polytech” around here can also refer to four-year engineering schools, although ones that are lower-tier than research universities. For example, the former “Southern Polytechnic State University” (“Southern Poly”) vs. “Georgia Institute of Technology” (“Georgia Tech”) here in GA. Ironically, the latter is self-deprecatingly nicknamed “North Avenue Trade School,” LOL!)
I’m not necessarily doubting you, but I would’ve guessed “polytech” would be more like a “trade school”
That’s how they started out. But in New Zealand there are only 8 universities.
Polytechs nowadays still offer trades vocational but they also offer other qualifications in things like nursing or business management. Here is the wikipedia for one of the biggest ones, you can get an idea of the scope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitec_Institute_of_Technology
(Fun fact: there used to be 7 universities but one tech managed to transform itself so now the city of Auckland has University of Auckland and also “Auckland University of Technology”)
There’s a mistake : in France, college is before high school Maternelle, primaire, collège, lycée, université = kindergarten, primary school, ?, highschool, university.
In the US, universities have a significant number of graduate degrees along with undergraduate degrees while colleges offer (almost) exclusively undergraduate degrees. My alma mater became a university shortly before I started because they started offering enough graduate degrees.
