What is the difference between college and university?

The fact that some colleges have just been allowed to convert into universities makes many people wonder about the difference between the concepts of college and university.

Add college to university

The National Economics University has just been transformed into the National Economics University according to Decision No. 1386/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister.

According to the decision, the National Economics University is a public service unit, a public higher education institution under the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), with legal status, its own seal and account.

National Economics University officially becomes the 9th university in Vietnam. Photo: NEU.

The Government requests the National Economics University to reorganize its organizational structure and operations on the basis of the National Economics University in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Higher Education and relevant legal provisions.

Previously, the National Economics University Council passed a resolution to establish three schools including the School of Business, School of Technology, and School of Economics and Public Administration.

A few days ago, Duy Tan University was also transformed into Duy Tan University. This is the first private higher education institution to convert from a university to a university.

Thus, up to now, the whole country has 9 universities including: Hanoi National University, Ho Chi Minh City National University, Thai Nguyen University, Hue University, Da Nang University, Hanoi University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, Duy Tan University, National Economics University.

Change in depth

The fact that some universities have just been allowed to convert into universities has received great public attention. Remember when Hanoi University of Science and Technology was converted into Hanoi University of Science and Technology, public opinion also raised questions about the concept of university and university. Up to this point, many people still do not understand the difference between these two names.

Student of Hanoi University of Science and Technology.

The conversion from a college to a university is not simply a change of name, but essentially a formal change of governance model by which the higher education institution operates.

According to the Law on Higher Education 2018, university and college are two different concepts. A university is an institution that trains many majors but not many fields. While a college will train in many fields, each field has many majors. Therefore, a university will include universities.

In addition to the above schools, many universities are currently being planned in a multi-disciplinary and multi-professional direction to transition to a university model such as: Hanoi University of Industry, Hanoi Medical University, Can Tho University...

In fact, to meet the training scale from multi-disciplinary to multi-field, many universities have opened majors that are not the school's strengths.

According to experts, when converting and building projects to upgrade to university, if universities do not clarify their goals but only change their form and name, it will be like "old wine in new bottles".

In his speech at the announcement ceremony of the Prime Minister's Decision on converting Duy Tan University into Duy Tan University, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that changing from a university to a university is a choice of organizational and administrative model, and is also a development model that demonstrates maturity and the need for new development from within.

The Minister hopes that this change is not a change of name but a change towards depth, towards liberating creativity, towards modern and intelligent management.

Minister Nguyen Kim Son also emphasized that the change from the organizational model of a university to the organizational model of a college needs to create new motivations and new energies, liberate creativity and create new energies to create faster and stronger university development in the future.

Conditions for transferring from college to university

According to Decree 99/2019/ND-CP detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education, to be transferred from a university to a university, schools must meet the following conditions:

- The university has been recognized as meeting the quality standards of higher education institutions by a legitimate educational quality assessment organization.

- That higher education institution has at least three schools affiliated with the university established according to regulations; has at least 10 training majors up to doctoral level; has a regular training scale of over 15,000 people; has the approval of the direct management agency for public universities

- There is consensus from investors representing at least 75% of the total capital contribution for private universities and non-profit private universities.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/truong-dai-hoc-va-dai-hoc-co-gi-khac-nhau-10294777.html