Are College and university the same?

Question

What Age Do You Go To College And University? Also When Do you leave?are they the same in america and england?

Answer 1

A higher education school cannot be considered a university until it meets certain criteria, one being size of student body, another is diversity of programs offered.  You often hear of schools changing names from "College" to "University."  For example, St. Thomas College in St. Paul was changed to University of St. Thomas once it met the criteria to change to a university affiliation. Name changes need approval from their accrediting agency.  http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/  

Answer 2

In the US, people use the terms College and University interchangeably.  However, there is a difference.  A University is usually broken up into several colleges -- like the College of Arts and Sciences, The College of Business, The College of Engineering, etc.  In addition, universities usually grant advanced degrees (master's, PhD, JD, MD, etc).

Schools that only offer a bachelor's degree are usually called colleges while those that offer higher degrees are usually universities.

In the UK, college usually refers either to a school within a university or to a trade school.  In many countries (like France), college is equivalent to High School in the US.

Answer 3

A college can be an independent institution, but a university is considered to be made up of a group of colleges or other schools: Harvard University, for example, includes not only the four-year college, but the law and business schools, and a few others.

Answer 4

I think Crusader got it right.  There are two-year colleges.  There are no two-year universities!  (at least not in the US)  A university will have more than one college in it, for example the College of Business and Management or the College of Engineering.  Within colleges in a university, there are several degrees offered.  In the two examples I just gave, the College of Business and Management might offer a degree in accounting, another in management, and another in marketing.  The College of Engineering would offer degrees in different types of engineering and possibly other technical majors such as computer technology.

I am kind of surprised that the "Top Contributor"  Jaime didn´t seem to know this.

Answer 5

Not entirely. A college is usually a smaller school that may issue bachelors, masters or even doctoral degrees, specializing in one or two areas largely, like the arts and education for example, or psychology. A university generally has many departments with many different specialty areas (engineering, mathematics, science, philosophy, arts, theater, music, literature, sociology, etc) is much larger, has undergraduate (bachelors degrees) as well as graduate (masters and doctoral degrees) programs, and may have law and medical schools as well.

Answer 6

In the United States a college and university are usually the same thing. They are usually four years. We also have community colleges in the United States and they are 2 years only. Most students who go there transfer to a four year college/university. Its a cheap way to take care of some general classes like english, math, science.

The system in England is European and I don't know it, but usually in European nations they have a more rigorous college system.