Differences Between College & University in Canada & US

Giving an answer to the everlasting question: What is the difference between college and university in Canada and the USA?

The educational system in the UK is clear as water, the same as almost everything in Britain. Remember their famous ‘Fish and Chips’ and the fact that the UK doesn’t have a codified constitution which the majority of countries have.

On the other side, Americans tend to turn simple things into something complicated or with an abundance of information. Glasses become eyeglasses in the USA. Really mate? I would have never guessed it would have been for eyes. Horse riding becomes horseback riding! What? Yeah, funny right? Football becomes soccer… Queen Elizabeth once said that there’s nothing called as American English, there is English and then there are mistakes!

Okay that’s enough of tackling our dear American friends, they gave us Elvis, Hollywood, wonderful movies, they are “world’s first” in many areas and as we say, it’s the land of opportunities and you’re absolutely right.

Canada is the closest neighbor of America. They have the largest shared border between each other, which length is 6416 km, and if you consider the territory of Alaska – 8891 km. Canada and the USA have strong political, economic and cultural ties and since they are interconnected, Canadians are within a range of American media and broadcasting. So it isn’t surprising that American English and Canadian English have more in common than with British English, especially in converging vocabulary.

Closer ties between the USA and Canada can be found in another area in which we are interested: educational. Both in Canada and in the USA higher education institutions are divided into colleges and universities. One of the first confusions foreign students have about education in Canada/USA is the confusion with colleges and universities there. What is their difference?

In this article, we’ll make things clearer for you: what’s meant by a college in these countries and discuss the difference between college and university.

Oh, Canada!

Continuing to be under the formal patronage of the British monarch, Canada is a technologically and industrially developed multicultural country with two official languages. Healthcare in Canada is free, criminality is at the lowest level in the world, it’s considered as one of the best countries to live, number 1 in the educational system in 2018. But how does education work here?

Canada is divided by provinces, which means that rules each province somehow has its own rules that are different than the others. The taxes are different from one province to another, salary wages are different, product costs are different, lifestyle, rents, even school system has some differences from a province to another but once we reach the last educational years, it’s almost the same anywhere despite Quebec! That province is like the black sheep of the country. 😊

Québec

In Quebec, college doesn’t exist! “But we need an equivalent”. Okay, fellas, the equivalent would be called “Cégep” 🙃. It’s courses with 2-3 years duration. You need to get a degree from them to reach the possibility to enter the university in the province of Quebec and then, university time! Briefly, as I said, college doesn’t exist there. It’s a University.

The rest of the country…

For some provinces, such as Ontario and Alberta, and formerly in British Columbia, there are institutions that are designated as colleges, since they only grant undergraduate degrees.

In Canada college tends to be more directly career-oriented than universities, while universities are more focused on academic research.

In Canadian English, college is some sort of a technical school. It’s like the bastard brother of the university! 😅 More seriously, it tends to be more directly career-oriented than universities, while universities are more focused on academic research.

Which courses are taught in colleges? There are certificate programs which generally have a 1-year duration (or less), and 2-3 years diploma programs. Bachelor’s degrees also can be obtained in a college. Yes, a college doesn’t necessarily mean the place which teaches you everything that comes before a bachelor’s degree! Neither it means that entering college is easier than university.

We are living in America! 🎸

America is in many ways a unique country. Every American citizen is eager to realize his/her American dream and become the richest/coolest/most-most in everything. But not only Americans seek to realize their dreams in the USA. After all, the USA is the country with the largest number of foreign students. So, we’ll try to explain the difference between college and university in the USA.

First, it would be important to point out that some universities are called colleges, why? There are historical and traditional reasons for that. Institutions such as Boston College, College of Charleston, Dartmouth College are highly respected universities that prefer to call themselves a college.

What about the rest? Colleges in the USA might stand for a division at a university, also called residential colleges. They are divided by academic activity. Colleges have their own residences and meals. The colleges have some autonomy and a federated relationship with the university.

Also in the USA, you may hear about community colleges, which provide tertiary education such as high school diplomas, technical degrees, associated degrees, and certificates. After graduating from a community college, most students transfer to a university or liberal arts college to complete a bachelor’s degree.

And finally, the category of “college” refers to liberal arts colleges. These are institutions of higher education in the United States, for developing general intellectual capacities, which leads students to earn an undergraduate degree in the liberal arts and sciences.

Briefly: The major and common difference between colleges and universities is that universities have undergraduate and graduate degrees while colleges generally don’t have graduate ones. Colleges mainly focus on a career that prepares you for the future job, while universities also prepare for an academic career and are research centers.

Sometimes college refers to semi-autonomous units within the university and in the rest of the cases, the difference carries formal significance caused by historical and traditional reasons.

Regardless of educational institutions, you have chosen for your further studies, we are glad to tell you that on Aplic we have a great variety of both institutions from both countries: thousands of Canadian and American colleges and universities you could apply for. Driven by professionals’ desire to help students, Aplic will ensure that you enter the best institution!