# מכללה‏ vs. אוניברסיטה



## sawyeric1

In the US, college and university are the same thing - 4-year schools to get a degree at after high school. "University" is just a more formal term used more in names of schools. And a community college is a two-year school. 

So how do מכללה‏ and אוניברסיטה differ in meaning in Hebrew? And assuming that Israel has community colleges, what are they called in Hebrew?

Thanks


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## shalom00

As one who lived in the USA and still gets his university alumni magazine, I would question the assumption that a college and a university are the same in general. Of course, there are cases where they are interchangeable, but overall, I think that universities are bigger, both in number of students and in the size, breadth and depth of their areas of study and research.


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## sawyeric1

College vs. university - Grammarist stresses that they are more interchangeable than different.


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## shalom00

The full entry there regarding US English use is:

In American English, *college *and *university *are generally used interchangeably, but there are some subtle differences between them. _University _usually denotes a school that offers full undergraduate and graduate programs, while colleges usually offer more narrow programs and may have no graduate studies at all. But there are no official designations for these terms, and colleges and universities can call themselves what they want.


In practical American usage, _university _has connotations of prestige that _college _doesn’t have, although there are some highly respected universities that call themselves colleges out of tradition (e.g., Dartmouth College). Still, no one talks about _going to university_ in the U.S. After high school, you go to college, even if the college you’re attending calls itself a university.

For example, these American publications use _college _as the generic term for higher education and higher-educational institutions:

Another way to keep colleges in decent financial shape during tough economic times, of course, is to raise tuition. [NY Times]

He was the first in his family to go to college. [Wall Street Journal]

Texas students were slightly behind their peers nationwide in performance on college-caliber Advanced Placement exams. [Houston Chronicle]

Some American universities refer to their undergraduate programs as _colleges_ (e.g., Harvard College at Harvard University), while others use _college _to denote units within the university organization. For example, the University of Michigan has the College of Literature, Science and Arts, the College of Engineering, and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, among others.


So it is not so simple to say that they are the same or that they are different.


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## sawyeric1

So, does anyone have an answer to the original question about Hebrew terms?


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## shalom00

In Israel, there is a real difference between the two.
There are a small number of universities: Hebrew U., Haifa U., Technion, Bar Ilan, Ben Gurion, Tel Aviv, and recently Ariel.
I might have forgotten one.
The rest are מכללות.


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## Drink

shalom00 said:


> In Israel, there is a real difference between the two.
> There are a small number of universities: Hebrew U., Haifa U., Technion, Bar Ilan, Ben Gurion, Tel Aviv, and recently Ariel.
> I might have forgotten one.
> The rest are מכללות.



But is there an actual difference other than having the right to use אוניברסיטה in the name?


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## shalom00

Yes, there are real differences, though I don't remember what they are at the moment.
Note that the right to grant degrees is under the authority of the Council of Higher Education, and they also decide which institutions are universities.


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## amikama

אוניברסיטה is bigger, more prestigious, and offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs, as well as research programs.

מכללה is small, less prestigious, and most of them offer only undergraduate programs in limited range of disciplines.


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## Drink

shalom00 mentioned that Ariel University recently became a University. What changed to enable it to have that status?


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## shalom00

They showed that they met the criteria for a university.
Universities are probably also funded better.


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## sawyeric1

My tutor also said that מכללות are almost always private, and are more job-oriented


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## shalom00

I don't know what makes one private and another public.
אוניברסיטת אריאל was a מכללה until one day it got accreditation as a university.


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## samuel12345

sawyeric1 said:


> My tutor also said that מכללות are almost always private, and are more job-oriented


Yes, most are private but there are also a few public funded.



shalom00 said:


> I don't know what makes one private and another public.
> אוניברסיטת אריאל was a מכללה until one day it got accreditation as a university.


Public=Tuition is a low price determined by gov't. Gets money from gov't.

Private=Opposite of public. Set their own price. 

As for Ariel, quality wise, it is still a מכללה. It got upgraded entirely for political reasons, because of its location.


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## shalom00

I don't want to get into a political debate.
This forum is not the appropriate place.
But many people claim the exact opposite, that the reason it took Ariel so long to be accredited as a university is "entirely for political reasons, because of its location".


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