What is the difference between a college and a university?

Answer 1

Colleges vs. Universities vs. Schools:

The difference between a college and a university is that a college just offers a collection of degrees in one specific area while a university is a collection of colleges. When you go to a university you are going to be graduating from one of their colleges, such as the business college. As to which is better, it depends on what you want. Single colleges tend to be smaller while universities are bigger, but universities are better known.

Explanations from other contributors:

• Be aware that there is a very distinct difference in terminology between the USA and the rest of the world. In the US, there is very little difference academically between a "college" and a "university." In the US, the terms are synonymous; other countries use "college" to refer to some secondary schools, but "university" is always used to mean an institution of tertiary education and higher learning. Universities are usually larger and often contain multiple "colleges" within them. However, some of the top-ranked schools in the US have a name including "college" (e.g., Dartmouth College). In other parts of the English-speaking world, the term "university" equates to the US use of "college" and the term "college" refers more to a trade or vocational school.
• Depends on the country you are in. Here in the UK, a university can award its own degrees and has a charter giving it various guarantees of independence. A college usually depends on a fully-fledged university to validate its degrees, or may even be part of a university, as in Oxford or Cambridge colleges. Or a college may be little to do with degree-level education at all, such as a Further Education college.
• Also don't forget Community Colleges. In that usage a college is very different than a University because a community college can't offer a 4-year degree (i.e., a B.A. or a B.S.). Community colleges can offer trade and technical certifications and training as well as the first 2 years of a 4-year program, but they are unable to grant Bachelor's degrees.
• In Canada, a University is an education institution that can grant degrees (BA, BSc, MA, PHd, etc). Colleges can grant certificates or diplomas, but not degrees.
• Maybe it is in Canada alone that universities are different than colleges. Most countries except Canada (developing or developed countries), colleges offers four (4) year course - Bachelor's Degree. Of course, universities are more prestigious and more expensive. Also, universities offers further studies after a Bachelor's degree like Master's degrees, Doctorate degree, and Post Doctorate degree - these degrees can be achieved if you have earned a Bachelor's degree first. Basically, colleges are small and faculties (such as lecturers) are more focused to students. They usually focus on a few courses (for a Bachelor's degree). In universities, a professor handles more students and they most likely can't place a focus on each individual student.
• Australia is in the same boat as Canada, then. Here, Universities offer degrees, but Colleges (also known as T.A.F.E.,) offer Diplomas and Certificates.
• In France, college Grande Ecole is highly reputing than University especially in Engineering. It is part of National Polytechnic Institute taking into account the selection criteria.
• A university confers degrees up to PhD. A 4-year college confers Bachelor's and Master's degrees (BA, BS & MA, MS). A 2-year or community college confers the associate degree (AA or AS).
• The main difference between a college and a university is that the university maintains research requirements for its instructors and that the university is, in essence, a more research-focused institution.
• A college can offer many majors with which to direct your studies. However, doctorate programs are more prone to be offered at universities where they have the money to support such programs.
• This is probably related to the fact that Universities conduct research, which in turn allows them a certain degree of recognition, attracts a larger student body and affords them the capacity to offer higher learning options than a college can offer.
• While the terms today are often used interchangeably, originally a college was a specific school teaching a specific subject, such as Education, Medicine, etc. and a University is a school made up of numerous colleges.
• In general the difference is the level of degree that they can award. Colleges typically award Bachelor's degrees and Universities can confer Master's and Doctorate degrees. The distinction has never been "enforced" by any organization.
• Sometimes a college could have called themselves a university, but chooses not to for historical reasons and/or continuity of its name. The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, founded in 1693, could have long ago called itself a university, with studies available in many areas, undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate. However, to maintain the historical title that dates back to colonial times, the college has never adopted the title of university.

  Those of us who work here commonly refer to it as "the university," and as a Virginia Charter University, which has allowed William & Mary a large degree of independence from the commonwealth, all new employees are now "university employees" vice "state employees" as the college now has its own human resources structure separate from (but similar to) the commonwealth's HR structure. Current "state employees" also have the option to convert to "university employees." Bottom line: While W&M operates at a level commonly equated to universities, it chooses to maintain the title of college for historical reasons. I suspect that Dartmouth College has the same or similar reasoning for not taking on the title of university, although it certainly would be justified in doing so.

• A few notes on some of these comments:

  1) Community colleges absolutely do now offer bachelor degrees and not always in conjunction with a 4-year college or university. This is a new trend in the US and many are fighting it, because that wasn't the purpose behind the community college concept when it was first developed.

  2) Universities are not more prestigious than colleges. I defy anyone to tell me that MIT, which isn't a university, isn't as prestigious as Harvard University.

  3) In answer to this post: "A university confers degrees up to PhD. A 4-year college confers Bachelors and Masters degrees. (BA,BS & MA, MS) A 2-year or community college confers the associate degree. (AA or AS)": There are many colleges that offer doctoral degrees. In the US, a "4-year college" does not offer a masters. That goes beyond the 4 years. As I wrote before, many community and 2-year colleges offer bachelor degrees.

  4) Last point, in answer to "The difference between a college and a university is that a college just offers a collection of degrees in one specific area, while a university is a collection of colleges": Universities contain colleges and universities offer the degree. For example, my degree is from the University of Illinois, not from the College of Education. I earned the degree through the COE, but UI granted the degree.

Answer 2

The term University has the same meaning in all your examples. And let me add Northern Arizona University (NAU in Flagstaff). The way it is used in the name is just that, the way it is used to differentiate the schools that are all part of the State of Arizaona's system, by name. State universities receive funds from state government to help offset operational expenses. State universities are less costly to attend but there are fewer scholarships available and those are based on financial need only. Private universities are more expensive as they do not receive government assistance, but offset expenses by accepting donations from alumni, philanthropic organizations, and so forth and have more scholarship opportunities available, especially for students who excel in academics and/or athletics.

Answer 3

Moving from college to university can be a daunting prospect. The university student life is different. For some it will be the first time you've really experienced independent living, whether that means you're living away from home or not. With this in mind we thought it would be helpful if we gave you some guidance about making the transition from FE and sixth form to university. The major difference between college and university is that you will be expected to rely less on the teaching staff and more on yourself. This means you must take full responsibility for your study.Although tutors and lecturers are there to help you, the emphasis is on them getting you to understand a subject for yourself. This means that you'll have to become very good at managing your time. While it's likely that you will have fewer classes and lectures to attend than you do at FE or sixth form, this does NOT mean you'll have less work. There is an expectation at university that you will be undertaking a lot of individual study and background reading in the time when you are not in classes or lectures, and it's important that you take this on board from the start. At university you'll often be given long periods of time to complete assignments, sometimes as much as 12 weeks. Try not to fall into the trap of leaving assignments to the last minute or simply forgetting about them until the week before they're due to be handed in. The idea behind being given this amount of time is to enable you to read up on the subject, research and then have plenty of time to draft and redraft the assignment until you're happy with it. Last minute panics are never fun, so try and avoid them! When the responsibility for managing your time falls to you, you need to find the right balance between work, study and socialising. This can be difficult but it's important. While you should be studying hard, you'll need to take a break from time to time. Socialising is an important part of student life - meeting new people and making new friends will help you settle in to your new student life, so make some time for it! Source: http://www.solent.ac.uk/students/undergraduate/college_students/what_is_the_difference_between_college_a.aspx

Answer 4

The US government defines college: An institution of

higher learning that offers undergraduate programs, usually of a

four-year duration, that lead to The Bachelor's degree in the arts or

sciences (B.A. or B.S.). The term "college" is also used in a general

sense to refer to a postsecondary institution. A college may also be a

part of the organizational structure of a university."

University is defined as: "University: An educational institution that

usually maintains one or more four-year undergraduate colleges (or

schools) with programs leading to a bachelor's degree, a graduate

school of arts and sciences awarding master's degrees and doctorates

(Ph.D.s), and graduate professional schools."

http://educationusa.state.gov/graduate/glossary.htm

Answer 5

"College" and "university" usually mean the same thing; that is, post-secondary education, or education after high school.

However, there can also be the distinction that a college only offers undergraduate degrees (e.g. bachelors), whereas a university offers graduate degrees (e.g. Masters, PhD).

A single university can be divided into "colleges" or "schools", which means they are all a part of the university but focus on a specific subject. They can be considered as departments of a university. For example, the University of Southern California has the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences; the Viterbi School of Engineering; the Thorton School of Music, the Roski School of Fine Arts; etc. Each has its specific emphasis but they are all on the same campus and all of the students will graduate with a degree from USC.

I hope this helps answer your question!

Answer 6

A college/school that is not a university that grants a 2-year degree such as an Associate's degree. An example of a college that's not a university is a Community College or Junior College such as Southwestern Community College. At a community college you cannot obtain a bachelor's or master's degree.

A university is an institution for higher learning with teaching and research facilities constituting a graduate school and professional schools that award master's degrees and doctorates and an undergraduate division that awards bachelor's degrees.

Depending on which one you attend, you will either be a college student or a university student.

Answer 7

Colleges are smaller and offer fewer degrees. It is believed that when you go to an university that you will get a better job, but that is not necessarily true.