This article is about a form of educational institution. For a list of specific institutions that take this name, see University college (disambiguation).
In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies from country to country.
In Australia, the term university college was used to refer to educational institutions that were like universities, but lacked full autonomy. The La Trobe University College of Northern Victoria was one such college. University colleges existing today generally cater for specific subjects (such as theology or the arts). UNSW@ADFA was previously known as the University College, ADFA, and it provides the tertiary education component of officer cadet training at the Australian Defence Force Academy . It is a branch of the University of New South Wales.
Additionally, some residential colleges associated with universities are named "University College". These halls of residence are common in Australian universities and primarily provide accommodation to students. They may also provide academic support (such as tutorials) and social activities for residents. University College, Melbourne, formerly University Women's College, is one such residential college. It is affiliated with the University of Melbourne. In December 2023, SAE Institute became designated as a university college.
In Belgium, the term university college is used to refer to state-funded institutions of higher education belonging to one of the three communities of Belgium, that are specifically not universities. They can issue academic or non-academic bachelor's degrees or academic master's degrees, and they are performing practice-oriented and artistic research. Even if they are at the same level, academic degrees issued from university colleges are different from university degrees.
In the Dutch-speaking Flemish community, university colleges are called Hogescholen, while in the French community they are called Hautes écoles. However, the French community makes a difference between Hautes écoles and Écoles supérieures des arts, which are specialised art schools authorized to select incoming students. Both count as university colleges.[1]
Canada
In Canada, university college has three meanings: a degree-granting institution; an institution that offers university-level coursework; or a constituent organization (college) of a university, such as University College at the University of Toronto or University College Residences at Laurentian University.
The title "University College" is extensively used by institutions that do not have full university status, but which do extensive teaching at degree level. The title "university" is protected by regulations of the Canada Corporations Act, but the title "college" is only regulated in some Canadian provinces.[2] Some Canadian university colleges are public institutions, some are private; some are regulated by government agencies, others are not. The Council of Ministers of Education maintains a list of accredited institutions through the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC). Institutions that are members of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada are full universities.
"University College" is also the name of a Canadian educational institution. University College is the name of a constituent college of the University of Toronto.
The Ontario College of Art & Design University is sometimes referred to as a university college due to its history as a college prior to 2002 when it was designated as a university under the Ontario College of Art and Design University Act.
A classical university with several colleges is called yliopisto in Finnish. However, some specialized universities are called korkeakoulu, because unlike classical universities, they focus only on one discipline, even though they have the same status as an yliopisto; for example, Teatterikorkeakoulu, a theatre school, can be considered a single "theater college". The vocational universities, however, are called ammattikorkeakoulu. The potential for confusion has led some korkeakoulus to change their name to yliopisto, abandoning the distinction between the terms yliopisto and korkeakoulu. Additionally three Greater Helsinki-based korkeakoulus, Helsinki University of Technology, University of Art and Design Helsinki and Helsinki School of Economics, have opted to merge to form the Aalto University, Aalto-yliopisto.
The National University of Ireland and Queen's University Belfast were based on the UK university college system, and were both set up in 1908 before the establishment of the Republic of Ireland and having roots in the earlier Queen's University of Ireland which was also a university college-type system. The university colleges of the National University have since been raised to the status of universities—as they were considered for many years before statute recognition—but the system still maintains its overall federal status. Queen's University Belfast initially had no university colleges and the first university college was created in 1985 (St Mary's) and second in 1999 (Stranmillis), these two institutions previously were associated with the university, offering its degrees since 1968.
The term university college in Malaysia denotes institutions that are granted the authority to issue degrees in their own names within specialised fields and disciplines. In contrast, an institution granted the status of "university" provides courses of training in multiple disciplines. The empowering legislations governing the establishment and governance of university colleges in Malaysia include the University and University Colleges Act 1971, Universiti Teknologi MARA Act 1976, the Education Act 1995, and the Private Higher Education Act 1996, the National Council of Higher Education Act 1996.[10]
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the term university college refers to special programmes at several universities which are similar to United States liberal arts colleges in providing a broad tertiary education; students at Dutch universities normally study one subject only. The first university college to be founded was University College Utrecht at the University of Utrecht (1998); later, the universities of Amsterdam, Leiden (in the Hague), Middelburg (Roosevelt), Maastricht, Rotterdam, Enschede (Twente), Groningen University of Groningen, and Tilburg followed. University colleges are different from what is called a Hogeschool. While university colleges provide a broad liberal arts, often interdisciplinary education, similar to American small liberal arts colleges, a hogeschool is higher education context that focuses on vocational or applied training.
New Zealand
Nearly all New Zealand universities were originally described as university colleges and were constituent parts of a federal body, the University of New Zealand. All of these are now fully independent; for example, the former Canterbury University College is now the University of Canterbury.
There is a specific university hall of residence named "University College" at the Otago University.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, the term "University College" is infamous. Rather, the term "Constituent College" is widely used, which is quite similar to the "University College". Just like many universities throughout Pakistan has constituent colleges. University of the Punjab has many constituent colleges like
College of Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES)
University Oriental College lahore (PUOC)
Philippines
In the 1950s, new academic units and degree programs were established at the University of the Philippines; the General Education (GE) Program, a series of core courses prescribed for all students at the undergraduate level were being taught at the then-College of Liberal Arts (now the College of Arts and Letters ), was introduced in 1959. As a result, University President Vicente Sinco saw fit to reorganize the college into a university college, which would offer the core subjects to be taken during the first two years of the undergraduate program.
In 2000, retired educators from the University of the Philippines, led by Dr. José Abueva (president of the university from 1987 to 1993), sought to provide the quality of education offered by UP's University College to individuals who could not get into the UP System due to its limited quotas. Together with similarly minded individuals, all former UP educators and administrators, Dr. Abueva formed Kalayaan College. Under a memorandum of agreement between KC and UP, 'UP-quality education' is made possible by active members of the UP academic community being given teaching stints in KC,[11] as well as the adoption of the same GE Program and grading system offered in UP. The college aims to develop the critical and creative faculties of its students in the basic fields of knowledge; particularly in the natural and physical sciences, the social sciences and the humanities to help them compete in a fast-changing environment.[12]
In Spain, a escuela universitaria is the name given to some higher education teaching centers where both undergraduate and postgraduate studies are taught. Together with the faculties, they are the centers in charge of organizing the teachings and academic, administrative and management processes of the universities.[13] They can receive different denominations, such as escuela técnica, escuela técnica superior, escuela universitaria politécnica, escuela politécnica superior or escuela universitaria, depending on the nature of the university studies taught and the university to which they belong.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the use of the word university (including university college) in the name of an institution is protected by law and must be authorised by an act of parliament, a royal charter, or by the privy council.[14] Regulations governing the award of the title are drawn up by the government or devolved administration, and specify (in England) that an institution must hold taught degree awarding powers.[15] However, it is permissible for an institute to be described as a university college without such permission as long as it does not use the term in its name.[16]
As university college is a less prestigious title than university, institutes that meet the (stricter) criteria for university title normally apply for the latter. In 2005 a number of large university colleges became universities after the requirement to hold research-degree awarding powers was dropped, the only remaining difference between the criteria for university and university college title being the requirement for a university to have 4,000 students.[17][18] From 2012 the requirement on the number of students needed for university title reduced to 1,000, allowing ten more university colleges to become universities.[19]As of 2015[update] a further review of the criteria was under way.[20]
Historically, the term university college denoted colleges (as opposed to universities) that delivered university-level teaching – particularly those in receipt of the parliamentary grants to universities and university colleges from 1889 until the formation of the University Grants Committee in 1919[21] – but, unlike in the modern usage of the term, did not hold their own degree-awarding powers. Instead, university colleges were associated with universities and thus formed a larger institutional unit while being physically independent. In most cases students at university colleges took the external exams of the University of London, but the colleges of the University of Wales and the Victoria University took degrees of those institutes while the university colleges in Newcastle and Dundee were associated with the universities of Durham and St Andrews respectively. Not all of these university colleges used university college in their name.
With the exception of colleges in London that remain part of the University of London, all have gone on to become independent civic universities. Examples include the University of Nottingham (which was University College Nottingham when D. H. Lawrence attended), the University of Southampton (associated with the University of London until 1952), and the University of Exeter, which until 1955 was the University College of the South West of England; Keele University was founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire until it was granted its royal charter in 1962 and transformed into a university. This was the recognised route for establishing new universities in the United Kingdom during the first half of the 20th century, prior to the founding of the plate-glass universities.
A related, but slightly different, use of the term existed in the federal University of Wales in the late 20th century; some of its constituent colleges took titles such as "University College Aberystwyth". These colleges were to all intents and purposes independent universities (the University of Wales' powers being largely restricted to the formal awarding of degrees). In 1996 the University of Wales was reorganised to admit two former higher-education institutions and the older members became "Constituent Institutions" rather than colleges, being renamed along the lines of University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
University College London (often known as UCL) is one of the original constituent colleges of the federal University of London. While remaining part of the University of London, it has awarded its own degrees since 2008 and is, like other large London colleges, effectively an independent university.
Wolfson College, Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge which was named University College from its foundation in 1965 until its endowment by the Wolfson Foundation in 1972.
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary school.
A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enrollment policy for students who have graduated from high school, also known as senior secondary school or upper secondary school. The term usually refers to a higher educational institution that provides workforce education and college transfer academic programs. Some institutions maintain athletic teams and dormitories similar to their university counterparts.
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional or vocational curriculum. Students in a liberal arts college generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including general sciences as well as the traditional humanities subjects taught as liberal arts. Although it draws on European antecedents, the liberal arts college is strongly associated with American higher education, and most liberal arts colleges around the world draw explicitly on the American model.
Liberal arts education is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. Liberal arts takes the term art in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. Liberal arts education can refer to studies in a liberal arts degree course or to a university education more generally. Such a course of study contrasts with those that are principally vocational, professional, or technical, as well as religiously based courses.
York University, also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and over 370,000 alumni worldwide. It has 11 faculties, including the Lassonde School of Engineering, Schulich School of Business, Osgoode Hall Law School, Glendon College, and 28 research centres.
Universities in the United Kingdom have generally been instituted by royal charter, papal bull, Act of Parliament, or an instrument of government under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Degree awarding powers and the 'university' title are protected by law, although the precise arrangements for gaining these vary between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
A Bachelor of Arts is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years, depending on the country and institution.
The University of the Philippines is a state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by Republic Act No. 9500, giving it institutional autonomy.
The University of Tampere (UTA) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019.
Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT, better known by the abbreviation LUT University is a Finnish public research university which was established in 1969. The university's Lappeenranta campus is situated on the shore of lake Saimaa – the 4th largest lake in Europe. LUT University's second campus is in the Finnish city of Lahti. The university also has research units in the Finnish cities of Mikkeli and Kouvola, as well as a regional office in Brussels, Belgium.
A Technische Hochschule is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Finland. In the 1970s and the 1980s, the Technische Hochschule emerged into the Technische Universität (German) or Technische Universiteit (Dutch). Since 2009, several German universities of applied sciences were renamed as Technische Hochschulen.
The University of Vaasa is a multidisciplinary, business-oriented university in Vaasa, Finland. The campus of the university is situated by the Gulf of Bothnia adjacent to downtown Vaasa. The university has evolved from a school of economics founded in 1968 to a university consisting of four different schools: The School of Accounting and Finance, The School of Management, The School of Marketing and Communications and the School of Technology and Innovations. University of Vaasa is one of the largest business universities in Finland. The university has personnel of around 500 which includes a teaching staff of 180 and 54 professors. Around 5000 students are currently studying in various degree programs at the university.
A collegiate university is a university in which functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the Collège des Dix-Huit. The two principal forms are residential college universities, where the central university is responsible for teaching and colleges may deliver some teaching but are primarily residential communities, and federal universities where the central university has an administrative role and the colleges may be residential but are primarily teaching institutions. The larger colleges or campuses of federal universities, such as University College London and University of California, Berkeley, may be effectively universities in their own right and often have their own student unions.
The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) formerly known as North Adams State College (NASC) is a public liberal arts college in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is part of the state university system of Massachusetts. It is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Originally established as part of the state's normal school system for training teachers, it now offers programs leading to Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees, as well as a Master of Education track.
A public university or public college is a university or college that is owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from one country to another, largely depending on the specific education landscape. In contrast a private university is usually owned and operated by a private corporation. Both types are often regulated, but to varying degrees, by the government.
Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they often receive tax breaks, public student loans, and government grants. Depending on the country, private universities may be subject to government regulations. Private universities may be contrasted with public universities and national universities which are either operated, owned and or institutionally funded by governments. Additionally, many private universities operate as nonprofit organizations.
Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018–19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students.
A vocational university or university of applied sciences (UAS), less commonly called a polytechnic university is an institution of higher education and increasingly research that provides applied professional education and grants academic degrees. It should not be confused with vocational schools or technical schools that do not meet the strict standards of higher education nor have the ability to grant officially accredited academic degrees.
Tampere University is a multidisclipinary public university located in the city of Tampere, Finland. It is the second largest university in the country by student enrollment.
The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education is the agency of the government of Oklahoma that serves as the governing body of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, which is the largest provider of higher education in the state of Oklahoma. The State System consists of all institutions of higher education in Oklahoma that are supported by direct legislative appropriations from the Oklahoma Legislature.
↑ "Malaysia Higher Education System". Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation – Regional Institute of Higher Education and Development. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
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