What is the Difference Between a College and a University

University is defined by the dictionary as “a high-level educational institution in which students study for degrees and academic research is done”. College has different meanings for European and American continents. In Europe college is defined as “any of the independent institutions into which certain universities are separated, each having its own teaching staff, students, and buildings”. While in US its defined as “a university offering a limited curriculum or teaching only to a bachelor’s degree”.

What we understand from the meanings is that the primary difference between a college and a university is that a college offers only a graduate program that may or may not be limited to a particular stream. While university offers both a graduate and a post graduate program, which includes, further research in the respective fields. The university also has all or most of the streams of education in its curriculum.

They can include Master's programs and Ph.D. programs along with the regular graduate schools, like law engineering and medical schools. The university offers both the graduate and the post graduate degree.

Size of the college is much smaller compared to the university and thus the students tend to get more attention from the faculty. The younger age group attends the college and hence needs more guidance from the faculty while in the university a more mature and higher age bracket of students are rolled who need less supervision. Typically people at the age of 18 enter the college but to get into the university the age bracket of the students go upwards from 21. The universities programs tend do to be more or less self study oriented, though the faculty is always there for guidance.

A degree from the university is always of more repute compared to the college. The college needs to be affiliated to a University while the university is an independent entity. A college cannot exist without the university and as such a college would be considered the subset of a university. Sometimes colleges are also referred to as undergraduate schools.

You can earn a bachelor’s degree at a college or a university. Students in the many countries prefer to use the word “college” rather than the word “university” while referring to four-year undergraduate programs and the bachelor’s degree. Terms like “going to college” and “a college degree,” are mostly used for undergraduate programs at either a college or a university.

Thus we can say that, he primary difference between a college and a university is that a college just offers undergraduate degrees in specific areas, while a university is a collection of colleges offering graduate and post graduate degrees. Universities are more known than the college.