In the US, they're the same. In most countries, a university is a collection of colleges (although most people don't know that).

In countries where universities and colleges are considered separate entities (i.e. most countries), universities are still considered more prestigious, although it's much easier to get a BS/no job degree from an university than a college

From what I understand, colleges focus mainly on undergraduates, while universities provide undergraduate and graduate programs. It doesn't necessarily mean that colleges are always smaller or have less resources than universities though.

In Canada, the difference is generally that universities offer degrees while colleges offer diplomas and certificates. Degrees generally take longer to earn that diplomas or certificates and would include things like bachelors degrees, masters degrees, PhDs, etc.

In New Zealand a university is a form of higher/tertiary education institution.

A college is a high school that's trying to sound fancy.

The kind of place that the US calls "community college" would be called a "polytech" here.

In the US, universities have a significant number of graduate degrees along with undergraduate degrees while colleges offer (almost) exclusively undergraduate degrees. My alma mater became a university shortly before I started because they started offering enough graduate degrees.

A university is a typically a collection of colleges (or schools).

For example: Harvard University is made up of Harvard College, Harvard Business School, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, etc.

For all intents and purposes - we use the word “college” and “university” interchangeably because they’re the same level of education. Either can do associates through doctoral.

Community colleges, however, only focus on 2 year degrees and certain certifications.

It’s contextual. My understanding is that in British English, “going to uni” is equivalent to the American English “going to college”. At least in the US, the word college colloquially refers to undergrad, though a lot of colleges do offer postgraduate programs.

In Canada a college is what the US would call a Community College, while more academic institutions are all called universities here.

I'm the US there are 3 that I can think of:

1. They are synonymous in the general sense. "Yeah, I graduated from college."

2. Specifically a 2-year school, but usually this will be community College or something similar.

3. Sub organizations in a large university

In the US, we colloquially 'go to college'. College refers to higher education in general.

Then, in more academic terms, A university is a larger place of higher ed made up of schools and colleges. You also have liberal arts colleges that do not have these colleges/schools. We also have two-year community colleges that may be more similar to vocational schools or FE colleges in the UK.

Then we get to the level of fun: Boston College is actually a university. :-)

Source: I lived overseas and told people I attended _____ College, which caused them to cross-examine me about whether I have a 4-year degree because in their country people go to university/uni and college is something else. Different places, different terminology.

In the UK college generally means the period between 16-18 where you do your final university entrance qualifications (A levels). People also do those at sixth forms but those tend to be attached to secondary schools, whereas colleges are separate institutions. Universities are where you get a degree.

Some universities here have colleges (in the sense that it's a small community within the university) but it's not hugely common outside of Oxford and Cambridge.

You also used to have the word 'college' attached to schools as a branding thing (to make them seem more academically rigorous) but the ones I know that have had that became academies

The answer varies inside and outside the US.

In most countries, Universities offer 4+ year programs and offer accredited degrees. These undergraduate degrees prepare you for even more advanced agrees like Masters or Doctorate ( PhD ). Universities offer medical and law degrees. Universities are the elite schools and are generally only found in larger centres. Colleges on the other hand tend to be vocational and more simply adult study. A college issues a diploma, not a degree and is typically not accredited in the same way. Colleges can be very regional.

You would go to university to get a law degree and collage to get a diploma in criminology. You would go to university to become an engineer and college to become a technician.

In the US, the term college is often used to refer to universities as well and universities sometimes offer a mix of degree and diploma programs. Somebody that went to a state university might refer to it as college. The term Ivy League identifies schools that other countries would identify as universities. In the US, the term community college is more representative of what other countries call colleges. That said, community colleges in the US can be of lower quality than most countries would tolerate ( in my view ).

In Canada, the system is slowly moving towards the US standard. Many colleges or technical institutes are trying to position themselves as universities. There is a rapid increase in the number of colleges, especially those catering to international students.

The relationship that I see most often is that universities are made up of colleges. As in, a college usually addresses a (reasonably) related topic and only grants degrees on that topic/area. A college has a dean that heads it. Once a college grows large enough to split into two colleges (two deans), then you get a chancellor who oversees both colleges and now you've got a university. You can then add more colleges as you see fit, and it's still a university just with more colleges and deans.

The term "community college" is a US term that speaks to an educational institution that usually focuses mostly on associates (2 year) degrees as a post K-12 school. Community colleges can do four year degrees, but if they get too much of them, they will change their name to just be a college or university at that point.

Yes, there are schools that call themselves universities in US even though they only have what amounts to a single area of degrees and should be called a college just because the title "university" is more prestigious. No, there's really no governing bodies that determine what can be called a college or university, so it's really just the name of the corporation. All of this is more like guidelines ala the Pirate Code.

In Thailand, a university provides a four-year standard higher education. A college is either:

1. a specific school for a specific profession such as the Irrigation College, now partially absorbed into Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University; or the Teaching Colleges, nowadays restructured into the Rajabhat University System. There are some technical colleges still standing, but many are already absorbed or restructured because our academic system does not really favor single-discipline schools standing around
2. a single school in a university or a specific organizational unit (such as the Mahidol University International College)
3. a two-year college (community college system)
4. it's also just how some secondary schools are named, such as Bangkok Christian College (which is a higher secondary school for boys)

In our language, if you are going to take a four-year higher ed program, you always say university not college.

Not sure where you live, but here in Costa Rica, college is the equivalent to High School.

Source: I am from Costa Rica and I'm on my 10th year (4th year on high school)

I think it depends on your country. Here in the UK, for example, a college is usually an alternative to a school for GCSEs or A-levels. It can also be for specific vocational training - e.g. art college.

As far as I can tell - in the US college & university are synonymous. They also often use school to refer to the same place.

In the UK, if someone asked you where you went to school, you would assume they wanted to know what secondary (high) school you went to. It would never occur to you that they meant uni!

Depends on your country. Generally, college is more practical, whereas university is more theory. An example of this would be learning different programming languages and web development in a hands-on manner versus learning general computer science topics like algorithms, datastructures, compiler theory, etc.

In Ireland they mean the same thing. i.e. third level education, the place where undergraduates get a bachelors degree.

In Australia - nothing. We generally call them universities, but some call themselves colleges.

In the US, a university offers at least 1 Master or higher degree in some field. A college's highest degree is an Associate (community college) or Bachelor.

A university will refer to it's smaller degree areas as College such as College of Educational, College of Business. This is to differentiate them from administrative departments. In the same vain, college's will have schools of education or business, ect.

In the UK (by what my Brit friends have taught me) college is more like US high school, and university is the education after that (the post secondary education). My friend's child would be in US high school, but is attending college in England.

In Brazil they're pretty much the same although technically a university offers more courses and colleges are more specific, like for example an engineering/technology focused college.