What's the difference between a college and a university?

Question

Just curious.

Answer 1

This question gets asked all the time on this site, and hardly any answerers ever get it right. That drives me nuts.

PLEASE, trust me on this one.

In the US, people use the term "college" to refer to both, but there is actually a difference.

A college is an institution that has a "college of arts and sciences," in which there are departments of study like English, Philosophy, Political Science, History, Biology, Chemistry, etc.

A university is a larger institution which is made up of several colleges, including the college of arts and sciences, but also including (for example) a college of business, a college of education, a college of fine arts, a college of engineering, etc.

In addition, while some (but not all) colleges have graduate programs in a certain few fields, universities usually have graduate programs in many fields, and may (but not necessarily) have a medical school and/or a law school.

Answer 2

I sure hope that someone has a better answer than I do. I was professoring at Ohio Dominican College when it changed its name to Ohio Dominican University a few years ago, and we never got a coherent answer when we asked why. About the best they could come up with was that everyone else was doing it, which wasn't very satisfying, because the difference between 'college' and 'university' in the US is insignificant; having to do with the titles of the administrators than anything else.

Apparently this is not the case in Europe: colleges are something less than universities, there, and American colleges like the aforementioned ODC are equal to European universities. So we had to change the name; and I might add that nobody was all that thrilled with having to do so.

Answer 3

Depends if you're in England or USA. College & Uni mean the same thing in the US -in addition to the word 'School.' Only with the exception of Community College (usually 2 years -not a uni)
In England and AU a College teaches a trade, like a tech school. Uni is unfortunately thought of as higher & 'smarter' than college. Also, the word school refers to high school only.
Cheers

Answer 4

In the US, all universities offer graduate programs in addition to undergraduate. Colleges might offer some graduate programs, but typically don't offer any.

The school where I teach is still called a college, but we offer several master's degree programs. We are looking into changing our name to university right now.

Answer 5

This might help you.

http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_a_college_and_a_university

Answer 6

nothing..-.