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A related anecdote: Jönköping University is not allowed to call itself a university in Swedish (“universitet”), since that word is, by law, reserved for institu
by bjornsing 3y ago
A related anecdote: Jönköping University is not allowed to call itself a university in Swedish (“universitet”), since that word is, by law, reserved for institutions that meet certain requirements. To get around this it uses the English name “Jönköping University” in Swedish as well. But formally it’s a so called “högskola”, more often translated as ”college”.
- zdimension 3y agoIn France, "Licence" and "Master" (Bachelor's and Master's degree respectively) are protected diplomas that can only be delivered by universities (or by schools that depend on universities). To circumvent this, private non-state-certified schools deliver things called "Bachelor", "MSc", "MBA" or "Mastère" that walk and quack like regular diplomas but since they're using those specific names, they're not actually state-recognized diplomas. Which means that if a company is hiring "people with a Licence" they can reasonably deny someone with a "Bachelor" because even though it's also a 3-year degree, there is no guarantee whatsoever that it's actually worth anything. Anybody can create a company and hand out sheets of paper with "MSc in Psychoceramics" written on it. This is a big problem for high schoolers who usually don't know the difference and end up paying thousands of euros for private schools that deliver close-to-worthless degrees (not all are worthless, but their worth is mostly correlated to how well-known the school is, whereas if you get a real state-certified degree from a random university anywhere in France it'll be recognized by any company).
- wodenokoto 3y agoWouldn’t that also make the professor _not_ a professor?
- kgwgk 3y agoAre community college professors not professors? (Edit: I wrote “community college” because I though that was what the grand-parent had said - but it was just “college”.)
- bowsamic 3y agoIt depends on the country, but here in Germany no
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kgwgk 3y agoIs it so? https://www.academics.de/ratgeber/haw-professur https://www.academics.de/ratgeber/haw-professur https://www.academics.com/guide/haw-professorship https://www.academics.com/guide/haw-professorship https://haw-professur.de/en/ https://haw-professur.de/en/ https://www.thm.de/site/en/university/profile/job-and-career/per-thm/die-haw-professorship.html https://www.thm.de/site/en/university/profile/job-and-career...
- red_trumpet 3y agoI'm not exactly sure what a community college is, but in view of the discussion about "Fachhochschulen" above, I want to note that Fachhochschulen do indeed have professors.
- Zetobal 3y agoVolkshochschulen...
- kgwgk 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_colleges_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_colleges_in_the_Unit... In the United States, community colleges are primarily two-year public institutions of tertiary education. Community colleges offer undergraduate education in the form of an associate degree. [In addition community colleges also offer remedial education, GEDs, high school diplomas, technical diplomas and academic certificates, and in rare cases, a limited number of 4-year bachelor's degrees.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associate_degree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associate_degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree.
- jeltz 3y agoI wonder if that would really stand up in court. Here in Sweden our judges are not very impressed by clever technicalities.
- 7734128 3y agoChalmers on the other hand is technically a universitet, but maintains the högskola title in Swedish.
- peterpost2 3y agoSame for Kungliga Tekniska högskolan (KTH)
- em500 3y agoSimilar as the Netherlands: there 37 "hogescholen" marketing themselves as "University of Applied Sciences" in English that are not allowed to claim to be "universiteiten" in Dutch (a name is reserved for 14 more academically advanced institutions).
- ulfw 3y agoSame in Germany where Fachhoschulen (hogescholen) marketing themselves successfully to internationals as "University of Applied Sciences"
- distances 3y agoSame in Finland. "University of applies sciences" is not a real university but rather a lower level institution (ammattikorkeakoulu/yrkeshögskola/Fachhochschule). The difference is clear for locals but I bet many international students have been tricked by the English branding.
- tgv 3y agoYep. Pretty misleading. They can use it because the law doesn't mention that word, and their management likes to pretend they are running a university, and because they were so focused on attracting foreign students.
- jorams 3y ago> They can use it because the law doesn't mention that word This is not true. The law defines which schools are allowed to call themselves "hogeschool", and also that the English translation of that word is "university of applied sciences" or, if limited to a specific job profile, "university of <said profile>". See https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stb-2017-97.html https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stb-2017-97.html > Het voeren van de naam hogeschool is voorbehouden aan de instellingen voor hoger onderwijs die zijn opgenomen in de bijlage van deze wet onder g, en aan rechtspersonen voor hoger onderwijs. Onder het voeren van de naam hogeschool wordt tevens het voeren van deze naam in samenstellingen verstaan, alsmede het voeren van de naam hogeschool in vertalingen. In afwijking van artikel 1.22, eerste lid, wordt de naam hogeschool in het Engels aangeduid met «university of applied sciences» dan wel, bij hogescholen die opleiden tot een bepaald beroepsprofiel, «university» met daarachter het vakgebied.
- lancebeet 3y agoThis is a really unfortunate but also quite common pattern in Sweden, where there's a veneer of internationality which tricks foreigners instead of helping them. Swedes will generally understand that Jönköping university isn't formally a university and wouldn't compare it to the more prestigious schools, but for international students it's not at all obvious. They might pay a lot of money and discover too late that the education and/or credentials they get in return don't match at all what they paid for. As usual, the Swedish authorities seem unwilling or impotent to take action on this type of issue.
- geon 3y agoIt doesn’t help that the terms don’t translate 1:1.
- marginalia_nu 3y agoSweden was a real pioneer with progressive social change and looking out for the little guy, but as with most of these things, the institutions set up to drive this change ossified, and are today more like a ceremonial roleplay of a process that concluded half a century ago. These are the checks and balances that are in place, and unfortunately looking up from the faded old daguerreotypes of Ådalen 1931 and addressing issues from this century does not seem to be at all a priority. You can get some action if you manage to dress the problem up as as a J.P. Morgan type industrialist opressing the workers (as happened with the Tesla blockade), but if it doesn't fit that narrative you're generally SOL.
- nsajko 3y agoFor comparison, would Harvard or Stanford be allowed to call themselves an universitet?
- pineaux 3y agoNo, they would be considered institutions with too low of a standing.
- StackRanker3000 3y agoThis may be helpful: https://www.studera.nu/startpage/higher-education/universities-university-colleges/difference/ https://www.studera.nu/startpage/higher-education/universiti... > To put it very simply, the difference between universities (universitet) and university colleges (högskolor) is that universities can award degrees at the doctoral (third cycle) level because they have general permission to do so.
- fl7305 3y ago> the difference between universities (universitet) and university colleges (högskolor) is that universities can award degrees at the doctoral (third cycle) level because they have general permission to do so. The text wrongly implies that "högskolor" cannot award doctoral degrees. This is not true. It's just that they don't have a built-in general permission to do so. In practice, KTH/CTH etc have a large number of doctoral students and award many doctoral degrees every year.
- pelorat 3y agoTo be honest the difference is minimal. I studied CS at Mitthögskolan in Östersund, but didn't complete all points before graduation (still had a paper to write and hand in for one of the courses). A year after graduation, Mitthögskolan became a real university (Mittuniversitetet). I emailed the professor in charge of the course I had not yet completed, wrote my paper and handed it in, then received a university diploma in computer science, even though i technically never studied at a "real" university.
- occz 3y agoIs there even a difference at that level of study, which I infer from your post is undergraduate/master?
- close04 3y agoUsually such a promotion between levels for an institution implies they observed for several years the higher standards needed for the higher level. So you studied according to the higher standard but the classification isn’t changed retroactively.
- boxed 3y agoThe difference for an institution that was just at the edge was minimal yes. But that's a special case.
- raid2000 3y agoSometimes, procrastination pays off!
- fullspectrumdev 3y agoUntil recently in Ireland, third level education places were largely divided into “universities” and “institutes of technology” (previously “regional technical colleges”). The institutes of technology have been reorganised lately and are now called “technical universities”. The degree you get is generally much the same from any of them - but for some insane reason graduates of the institutes of technology/technical universities don’t get to vote in the national elections for the upper house (senate). Only graduates of the more prestigious ones get that right.
- disgruntledphd2 3y agoThe Seanad thing is just absurd, given that the Constitution was changed by referendum in 1979! It's also worth noting that four universities get three seats, while another has three to itself. The whole bloody upper house is insane in Ireland, but it's convenient for the legislators so it doesn't get reformed.
- BobaFloutist 3y agoStill not as bad as the English upper house!
- fullspectrumdev 3y agoI remember while studying at an IT they had a debate there about the potential dissolution or reform of the Seanad, with some senators taking part. It was deeply funny listening to the sitting senators tell us how important the Seanad is, because for all of us - the Seanad was some useless shit we couldn’t vote for or influence in any real way.
- jowea 3y ago> some useless shit we couldn’t vote for or influence in any real way. I have no idea if it's useless shit and I admit to learning about the Seanad 15 minutes ago from Wikipedia but it seems to me that it's supposed to be a weak technocratic advisory chamber insulated from popular will. At least it seems to make more sense than the House of Lords.
- apt-get 3y agoSimilar thing in France, however related to degrees: a Master's Degree fits within the common framework of European tertiary studies, AKA your 2-year graduate cycle that ends up totalling 5 years if you include a standard undergrad cycle (Licence). However, a "mastère spécialisé" (which is an actual trademark) is not an officially recognized diploma at all, but a label used by schools to denote (usually paid and expensive) "specialization paths". They provide no academic credits, and you can't move forward to a PhD with one. Many prestigious schools (grandes écoles) provide those kind of certifications to clueless foreign students who end up paying huge sums of money for something that holds no formal weight in any academic framework.
- rcbdev 3y agoSomething very similar in Austria - you can get a free Master's degree (1-2 years) by doing a study programme ("Studiengang") at a university, that will also qualify you for a PhD. Or you can pay for a Master's course programme ("Lehrgang") that costs ~15k€, is usually a lot easier and does not qualify you for a PhD. The difference here is that you are allowed to wear the title of MSc either way and both programmes do confer ECTS points - only the latter does not qualify you for a PhD.
- oohffyvfg 3y agoin most countries the term university is reserved for institutions which provide graduate (undergrad optional) degrees in four (three in some places) major fields (sciences, humanities, medicine, etc) nothing else. usually just adding a business major to a place with medicine, engineering and law is enough to cross the threshold and jump from college to uni.