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

20-10-2004 02:51PM

#1

milltown

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

Does anybody know? The question was asked at lunch today and nobody knew the answer.

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#2 20-10-2004 02:53PM

SoupyNorman

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higher accreditation i think...

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#3 20-10-2004 03:03PM

A Dub in Glasgo

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Have a read here

I don't know if it answers your question

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#4 20-10-2004 03:06PM

CuLT

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u·ni·ver·si·ty Audio pronunciation of "university" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (yn-vûrs-t)
n. pl. u·ni·ver·si·ties

1. 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.
2. The buildings and grounds of such an institution.
3. The body of students and faculty of such an institution.

col·lege Audio pronunciation of "college" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (klj)
n.

1.
1. An institution of higher learning that grants the bachelor's degree in liberal arts or science or both.
2. An undergraduate division or school of a university offering courses and granting degrees in a particular field.
3. A school, sometimes but not always a university, offering special instruction in professional or technical subjects.
4. The students, faculty, and administration of such a school or institution.
5. The building or buildings occupied by such a school or institution.
6. Chiefly British. A self-governing society of scholars for study or instruction, incorporated within a university.
7. An institution in France for secondary education that is not supported by the state.
2.
1. A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties: a college of surgeons.
2. An electoral college.
3. A body of clerics living together on an endowment.

Looks like a University caters for research, and a college doesn't.
And a college can't grant a masters.

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#5 20-10-2004 03:24PM

Draupnir

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Colleges cant give out their own Degrees and that kind of thing, DIT for example give out UCD approved degrees I believe and thats the way it works for every college in the business, its DCU, UCD, TCD and the many other universities around Ireland that provide the actual pieces of paper.

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#6 20-10-2004 03:55PM

skywalker

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CuLT wrote:

Looks like a University caters for research, and a college doesn't.
And a college can't grant a masters.

thats definitely not it. i think draupnir hit the nail on the head though.

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#7 20-10-2004 03:57PM

pickarooney

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Oxford and Cambridge Universities are made up of individual colleges - Balliol, Jesus, etc.
UCD stands for University College Dublin - so which is it?

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#8 20-10-2004 04:11PM

Draupnir

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UCD is both a college and a university since it provides both degree and diploma courses.

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#9 20-10-2004 04:16PM

roar_ie

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Draupnir wrote:

Colleges cant give out their own Degrees and that kind of thing, DIT for example give out UCD approved degrees I believe and thats the way it works for every college in the business, its DCU, UCD, TCD and the many other universities around Ireland that provide the actual pieces of paper.

ahem....
DIT give out their own degrees, otherwise the piece of paper i got on saturday is lying to me.

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#10 20-10-2004 04:24PM

simu

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pickarooney wrote:

Oxford and Cambridge Universities are made up of individual colleges - Balliol, Jesus, etc.
UCD stands for University College Dublin - so which is it?

UCD, UCC, NUIG etc are colleges of the NUI (National University of Ireland)?

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#11 20-10-2004 04:29PM

Draupnir

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roar_ie wrote:

ahem....
DIT give out their own degrees, otherwise the piece of paper i got on saturday is lying to me.

yes they do, might point was simply that you piece of paper (congrats by the way) was accredited by one of the Dublin universities, either DCU, TCD or UCD, and I believe its UCD who do the DIT ones, since DIT dont have the power to accredit there own.

ps. accredit might be the wrong word but I cant think of the right one at the minute

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#12 20-10-2004 04:31PM

egan007

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CuLT wrote:

Looks like a University caters for research, and a college doesn't.
And a college can't grant a masters.

Colleges can grant masters

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#13 20-10-2004 04:37PM

damnyanks

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IT's are different to colleges though arent they?

Colleges can get their schemes approved by HETAC as well. Some of the private colleges in Dublin seem to get accrediation from UK Uni's

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#14 20-10-2004 04:40PM

humanji

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I think it also has to do with the size of the college itself, as in the amount of students and the facilities. I went to college in Carlow IT and they were building new sections onto it and mumbling something about planning on getting "university status".

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#15 20-10-2004 04:47PM

Draupnir

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A bit like Churches and Cathredals?? Oops, thats another hornets nest!!!

Maybe Carlow wanna start accrediting their own degrees or something, thats just a hunch about them wanting University status.

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#16 20-10-2004 04:56PM

tribble

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Draupnir wrote:

Colleges cant give out their own Degrees and that kind of thing, DIT for example give out UCD approved degrees I believe and thats the way it works for every college in the business, its DCU, UCD, TCD and the many other universities around Ireland that provide the actual pieces of paper.

Yawn, load of bollox...

In the past DIT handed out Dublin University degrees (bachelor's).
They were fully fleded TCD degrees 'cept for they didn't come with
a then standard doctorate of divinity.

10/15 years ago they were granted permission to hand out their own bachelors.

4/5 years ago they were granted permission to hand out Masters AND Doctorates.

They have since applied for University status.

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#17 20-10-2004 04:59PM

flogen

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Also, University graduates can vote for members of the Seánad, college graduates can't... but that's only a minor difference

flogen

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#18 20-10-2004 05:04PM

fintan

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DIT failed to win university status the last time they applied for it as they did not do enough research.

Sorry I cant find the where I read that, and there may have been other reasons.

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#19 20-10-2004 05:54PM

Draupnir

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tribble wrote:

Yawn, load of bollox...

Bit harsh that!!! Some neg rep is winging its way to you for that thanks very much.

If indeed you are correct, which Im not sure you are, as regards the awarding of degrees, then well done, but quite frankly, absolutely no need for the attitude.

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#20 20-10-2004 06:03PM

tribble

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Draupnir wrote:

Bit harsh that!!! Some neg rep is winging its way to you for that thanks very much.

If indeed you are correct, which Im not sure you are, as regards the awarding of degrees, then well done, but quite frankly, absolutely no need for the attitude.

piss off

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#21 20-10-2004 06:03PM

Raam

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flogen wrote:

Also, University graduates can vote for members of the Seánad, college graduates can't... but that's only a minor difference

flogen

I think DCU, UL and maybe some of the ITs only got this a while back, even though they should have it ages ago...

http://www.dcu.ie/news/press/2004/p0404c.shtml

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#22 20-10-2004 06:10PM

tribble

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Universities: The existing state-supported universities all award their own degrees and other awards.
Institutes of Technology: The Dublin Institute of Technology also makes its own awards. The other institutes of technology grant degrees, diplomas and certificates, which are validated by either the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) or the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC).

http://oasis.gov.ie/education/third_level_education/third_level_qualifications.html

DIT is a publicly funded institution of higher education and makes its own awards at Certificate, Diploma, Degree, Masters and PhD levels.

http://www.learn4good.com/great_technical_colleges/colleges_ireland.htm

An international panel rejected DIT's application for university status in 1999 due to the low quantity of research conducted. It is now upgrading its research and staff qualifications in another attempt at university status, and quality assurance has been introduced for each course.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3501-412661,00.html

tribble

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#23 20-10-2004 07:13PM

Sleepy

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So Draupnir is only talking a "load of bollox" when he states that the difference is the ability to acredit their courses but when you state it to be so and back yourself up with linkage it's not? That makes a lot of sense.

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#24 20-10-2004 08:07PM

Draupnir

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cheers for the back up Sleepy, I dont quite understand how my concise explanation of what Tribble just says was a boring load of bollox compared to his little encyclopedia entry, ah well!

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#25 20-10-2004 08:20PM

Capt'n Midnight

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By all accounts UCD where upset when NIHE became TWO universities while they remained only part of a university

Many universities have only one college - but in places like oxford there are lots of colleges (seperate campuses) in the university ...

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#26 20-10-2004 08:21PM

Sleepy

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What's NIHE stand for?

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#27 20-10-2004 08:31PM

Draupnir

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National Institute of Higher Education? Think its the old name for DCU

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#28 20-10-2004 09:28PM

In_Diana_Jones

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tribble wrote:

Universities: The existing state-supported universities all award their own degrees and other awards.
Institutes of Technology: The Dublin Institute of Technology also makes its own awards. The other institutes of technology grant degrees, diplomas and certificates, which are validated by either the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) or the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC).

http://oasis.gov.ie/education/third_level_education/third_level_qualifications.html

DIT is a publicly funded institution of higher education and makes its own awards at Certificate, Diploma, Degree, Masters and PhD levels.

http://www.learn4good.com/great_technical_colleges/colleges_ireland.htm

An international panel rejected DIT's application for university status in 1999 due to the low quantity of research conducted. It is now upgrading its research and staff qualifications in another attempt at university status, and quality assurance has been introduced for each course.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3501-412661,00.html

tribble

DKIT also grant their own degree's. Also, they can grant both Masters and PhD's

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#29 20-10-2004 09:50PM

Jivin Turkey

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I went to Bovine University. It can grant both degrees and masters.

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#30 20-10-2004 09:56PM

flogen

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King Raam wrote:

I think DCU, UL and maybe some of the ITs only got this a while back, even though they should have it ages ago...

http://www.dcu.ie/news/press/2004/p0404c.shtml

Yeah, I think DCU can elect 1 person or something, while UCD, UCC and UCG (I think) elect more.. I think Trinity might be able to elect one too... not sure about the IT's though.

there was also a bill a while ago that would allow Irish graduates of any university in the world to vote in the Seánad elections... not sure if it was passed though.

flogen

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#31 20-10-2004 10:36PM

Tom Dunne

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Universities are concerned with advancement of knowledge, colleges are primarily concerned with transferring that knowledge.

As many people have said, universities confer their own qualifications (up to PhD) whereas colleges confer qualifications accredited by bodies such as Hetac (Higher Education Training Awards Council) or other universities. Hetac, contrary to popular belief, can confer awards up to PhD also.

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