The UK has both colleges and universities. Colleges are usually seen as “lesser”, usually with vocational style courses rather than purely academic learning.
In England, college is free but university is not. In Scotland it’s all free up to a certain age. I’m not sure about Wales and Northern Ireland.
Colleges ARE lesser, are they not? They provide a lower level of qualification and are usually attended at a younger age. I’ve been out of education for a while so happy to be corrected.
In a lot of Europe, you graduate from high school, and you go either to college or university at the same age. Either or.
There are other differences as well, for example to get a PhD you have to get a masters first, but then PhDs are almost all paid. Usually not well paid, but paid nonetheless.
I find it hard to get the right word. I didn’t really like lesser because there’s a big implication in the UK that you’re a failure if you didn’t go to university and I think that’s total bullshit.
Although you obviously can’t get a doctorate or a masters at a college there’s loads of worth while courses that can arguably translate much easier to workplace positions.
There’s no point in getting a doctorate in english literature and then having to go work in Starbucks because there’s no jobs available in your field. Whereas you could study something like a national certificate in electrical engineering and have your pick of jobs/apprenticeships at the end of the course.
Yeah I get that. It’s kinda funny that they’re considered a lower tier because my A Levels were more stressful than ANYTHING in my bachelor’s or master’s, by far (and they’re both in what’s considered to be challenging subjects). The actual content of my Law A Level has been the most professionally and personally useful out of any other professional or academic qualification, and condensed into less time.
Australia could have been included here, the only missing one is free ‘college’ which is known as University here.
The UK has both colleges and universities. Colleges are usually seen as “lesser”, usually with vocational style courses rather than purely academic learning.
In England, college is free but university is not. In Scotland it’s all free up to a certain age. I’m not sure about Wales and Northern Ireland.
Colleges ARE lesser, are they not? They provide a lower level of qualification and are usually attended at a younger age. I’ve been out of education for a while so happy to be corrected.
In a lot of Europe, you graduate from high school, and you go either to college or university at the same age. Either or.
There are other differences as well, for example to get a PhD you have to get a masters first, but then PhDs are almost all paid. Usually not well paid, but paid nonetheless.
In the UK, college is for 16-19 year olds and university is for 18+.
I find it hard to get the right word. I didn’t really like lesser because there’s a big implication in the UK that you’re a failure if you didn’t go to university and I think that’s total bullshit.
Although you obviously can’t get a doctorate or a masters at a college there’s loads of worth while courses that can arguably translate much easier to workplace positions.
There’s no point in getting a doctorate in english literature and then having to go work in Starbucks because there’s no jobs available in your field. Whereas you could study something like a national certificate in electrical engineering and have your pick of jobs/apprenticeships at the end of the course.
Yeah I get that. It’s kinda funny that they’re considered a lower tier because my A Levels were more stressful than ANYTHING in my bachelor’s or master’s, by far (and they’re both in what’s considered to be challenging subjects). The actual content of my Law A Level has been the most professionally and personally useful out of any other professional or academic qualification, and condensed into less time.
So I take your point entirely.
Fair enough, in Australia we generally call those lesser institutions ‘TAFE’.
Though as a peculiarity the Australian Capital Territory calls year 11 and 12 education college, in a break from the rest of the country.