College or University? Understand the differences between the two before going study abroad.
Not all higher education institutions in English-speaking countries are called “universities”. Some (including the most prestigious) bear this name: Harvard University, Cambridge University, and so on. But others, like Imperial College London or Trinity College Dublin, call themselves “College”.
Below, we explain the differences between college and university:
in direct translation
One way to begin to understand the differences is through translation. University , as you can imagine, can be translated to “University” in our Hindi. College , contrary to what one might think, does not mean “college”; the word has a meaning closer to our “faculty”.
In other words: university is university,” college is college. And just as there is no totally clear distinction between “college” and “university” in Hindi, in English-speaking countries the situation is similar. Although universities and colleges are different institutions, these differences are not black or white.
Understanding what the differences between college and university are , therefore, begins with understanding that they are not completely closed categories. It is possible for an institution that has all the characteristics of a university to be called a college , and vice versa. However, there are characteristics that are more common to universities and others that are more common to colleges , and we are going to talk about them now.
What is the difference between College and University?
Regarding the size
In general, universities tend to be larger than colleges . In other words: universities tend to have more options for courses and subjects, larger classes, more student organizations on campus (such as interest clubs, sports teams, study groups, etc.) and sometimes even more facilities and space.
On the other hand, colleges in general are a little smaller, with fewer people in each classroom, more focus on a few areas of study, and more selected student clubs and organizations. It is possible to think of the university as a metropolis as opposed to the college , which would be comparable to a smaller city. It may even have fewer options, but it generally provides greater and closer contact between community members.
Regarding the areas of study
It is relatively common for colleges to focus on certain areas of study. This, on the one hand, means that colleges tend to offer fewer options. On the other hand, it also allows them to offer a greater variety of focuses within the undergraduate areas they offer.
Universities , on the other hand , tend to have a greater number of areas of study for students. A student who has an interest in radically different disciplines would, as a rule, have a better chance of accommodating those interests within the larger structure that the university provides.
Regarding the level of studies
Colleges , in general, have a greater focus on graduation . This does not mean, at the same time, that they cannot offer graduate or even undergraduate research opportunities . According to USNews, 65% of students at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania graduate with some form of research experience.
Universities , in turn, often place research in an even more central position to their activities than teaching . Because of this, they have a greater focus on postgraduate studies and offer more opportunities to engage in innovative research. On the other hand, it is possible that undergraduate teaching is somewhat impaired by this focus.
Other differences between college and university
As already mentioned, these general differences between colleges and universities are not a rule: there are universities with few students and colleges with many, for example. But it is important to keep in mind that the word “college” in the US can also refer to other educational institutions.
Various meanings for college
When someone says “college”, they could also mean a community college . These are US educational institutions for which there is no direct equivalent in India. They offer courses called associate degrees that can be used as a tool to enter American higher education. They are, therefore, between secondary and higher education, but are not equivalent to Indian technical education.
The word college can also refer to a liberal arts college , an institution of higher learning that offers degrees in the liberal arts modality . And if the name makes you think that it is a fine arts college, know that this is not the case. It is a teaching modality that focuses on interdisciplinarity and on allowing students to get involved with different areas of study that interest them. Check out more about this modality here.
Finally, it is possible that the word college refers to a school or division with a specific academic focus within a university. For example: undergraduate students who enter Harvard will study at Harvard College, the school at Harvard University dedicated to undergraduate classes for example.
Public and private university
In the United States, it is also important to remember that there are both public and private universities. Private universities , like Harvard, Stanford , and the universities that make up the Ivy League , tend to be a little more like colleges in some ways. For example, they are often smaller and have fewer students (not least because they are more expensive).
Public universities are often named after states, such as the University of Michigan and the University of California, Los Angeles . They are usually larger, having more than 65,000 students, such as Ohio State University and Texas A&M University. It’s easy to imagine that studying in one of them is a very different experience than studying at, for example, Bryn Mawr College, which has less than 2,000 students.
In other countries
These differences between college and university apply primarily to the United States. Other English-speaking countries also have the two words and use them somewhat interchangeably, but not exactly the same.
In Australia and New Zealand , for example, the word college is often used for non-tertiary level schools. When the idea is to refer to a specific academic institution within a university, the word faculty is generally used . The University of Sydney, for example, is divided into several faculties , such as the Faculty of Business and the Faculty of Engineering .
In Canada , the word college can also refer to career colleges , which are similar to community colleges in the United States. They are not higher education institutions, but vocational schools, often with a vocational focus on specific areas of expertise.
Similarly, in the United Kingdom , the word college does not refer to institutions of higher education, but to colleges themselves, or even to vocational schools. However, some universities call themselves a college (such as Imperial College London itself). This has historical reasons: Imperial College, for example, was long associated with the University of London. However, in 2007, he permanently separated from the university, but kept the name so as not to cause confusion.