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

Answer 1

COLLEGE :

College (Latin collegium) is a term most often used today to denote an educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues (see for example electoral college, College of Arms). Originally it meant a group of people living together under a common set of rules (con-, "together" + leg-, "law"); indeed, some colleges call their members "fellows". The precise usage of the term varies among English-speaking countries.

The term university is more common than college in India. Generally, colleges are located in different parts of a state and all of them are affiliated to a regional university. The colleges offer programmes under that university. Examinations are conducted by the university at the same time for all colleges under its affiliation. There are several hundred universities and each university has affiliated colleges.

The first liberal arts and sciences college in India was the Presidency College, Kolkata (estd. 1817) (initially known as Hindu College). The first Missionary institution to impart Western style education in India was the Scottish Church College, Calcutta (estd. 1830). The first modern university in India was the University of Calcutta (estd. January 1857). The first research institution for the study of the social sciences and ushering the spirit of Oriental research was the Asiatic Society, (estd. 1784). The first college for the study of Christian theology and ecumenical enquiry has been the Serampore College (estd. 1818).

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are specialized institutions that award their own degrees. They are premier institutes in India. There are only seven of them at present.

Of late the government has been establishing Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) as specialized centres of excellence in the rapidly emerging field of Information Technology. They have been setup to educate professionals for the booming technology oriented market.


UNIVERSITY

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. A university provides both tertiary and quaternary education. The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of masters and scholars".

Answer 2

The term college, as typically used in the U.S., can have slightly different meanings.

A college is typically a two or four year undergraduate degree granting institution, although some may also offer master's degrees. They can actually be relatively broad in the scope of degrees and programs that they offer. But many do not offer the Ph.D degree, and most do not have professional schools (law, medicine, business) associated with them.

A university will generally have a greater variety of programs and offerings than a college, and often will have Ph.D programs and professional schools.

A part of a university can be called a "college", and here the terminology can get confusing. You could have a university with a "college of arts, "college of sciences" and so on. These "colleges" are really just parts of the university, rather than separate degree granting institutions. But then you could have a university like the City University of New York, with colleges like Brooklyn College and Queens College, which are separate degree granting institutions, all under the umbrella of a university.

Answer 3

In very general terms, a university is usually bigger and has mini-colleges within it, like a college of arts & humanities, college of science & mathematics, etc. I think one of the main requirements is that to be considered a university it has to offer at least one masters' degree program. However, sometimes it really is just a different word.

I attended a private university that went by "Whatever College" even though it was actually a university, because they thought it sounded better and didn't want to have to change all their signage, stationery, logos, etc. They are just going to change the name next year and it's been a university for a very long time. (It's a smaller college with a few masters' programs but no doctoral programs at this time. It does offer all of the most common majors and a few uncommon ones, but not as many as a state school would.)

Answer 4

College is an institution for higher learning after high school with specialty of courses offered. University has more complex or almost completer curriculum to offer, all the degrees, post grad, medicine, engineering, etc.

Answer 5

A college is supposed to be focused on primarily one field of study why an university is made up of many fields of study (many colleges) and usually have a graduate program in most of those studies as well.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 6

A University can comprise of several colleges but a college can never comprise any Universities.

Answer 7

A university has colleges within it.
"College of _____"

But a lot of the time, they're just used interchangeably to talk about the same thing.

Answer 8

www.harvard.edu/siteguide/faqs/faq22.html -
www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2006-09-20-voa2.cfm -
sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070206184613AAAzJ5i
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070131140839AA1QpRk
answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=761724 -
wiki.answers.com/wiki.phtml?title=Special:FAQ&tid=1766 -
voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-4-1.cfm
www.harvard.edu/help/faq_index.html -
tribes.tribe.net/americanenglish/thread/b7d6cc67-2187-4aa4-ae64-e06...
apps.carleton.edu/intl/looking/collegevsuniv -

Answer 9

they are spelt different.