Colleges vs. Universities

To Art

I'm tired and have responsed to you via another posting! Sorry.

If you go to the main distance learning site I've posted a reply ro defii under his heading non-US research doctorates and there I've explained about the use of the title 'college'! Have been up since 4am (not a regular thing) but don't need to nore you with the details as to why. Apologies!

Telfax

 

Thanks, I'll go look for it.

 

While it is true that there are many "State Colleges" still around. I still think that your initial point was correct. The trend is to rename from College to University even though little or nothing may have changed.

For example I received my Masters from California State University, Stanislaus. My mother, some twenty years earlier, received her BA from Californa State College, Stanislaus. Very little has changed at this particular institution in those twenty or so years, other than the name.

From what I understand most of the institutions in the CSU system (around 29 as I recall) sometime back standardized on the CSU naming rather than CSC, with the exception of a couple of the more specialized school (Cal Poly, Maritime Academy...).

Other than having a uniformity to the naming of the various campuses I see very little point to the name change... Except perhaps the snob appeal of University as a title.

 

From Web U.S. Universities, by State (which does include some "less than wonderfulls") here is fairly complete list by stste:


Colorado

Adams State College
Mesa State College
Metropolitan State College of Denver
Western State College

Connecticut

Charter Oak State College

Georgia

Dalton State College
Macon State College
North Georgia College & State University


Idaho

Lewis-Clark State College


Maryland

Coppin State College

Massachusetts

Bridgewater State College
Fitchburg State College
Framingham State College
North Adams State College
Salem State College
Westfield State College
Worcester State College

Missouri

Harris-Stowe State College
Missouri Southern State College
Missouri Western State College

Nebraska

Chadron State College
Peru State College
Wayne State College


New Hampshire

Keene State College
Plymouth State College

New Jersey

Thomas Edison State College

New York

State University of New York System College at Buffalo (Buffalo State College)
Empire State College

Utah

Utah Valley State College

Vermont

Johnson State College
Lyndon State College

Washington

Evergreen State College

West Virginia

Bluefield State College
Fairmont State College
Glenville State College
West Liberty State College
West Virginia State College

 

North Adams State College in Massachusetts is now called the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts...still state-owned, same campus, many of the same programs.


Bruce

 

It's generally the law now-a-days

If you were to view state law regarding the use of the word institute, academy, college, or university in most states, you will find that the majority of states restrict the use of these words in one fashion or another. Approval from a state Ed agency or similar is required before an organization can use the word. Sometimes the Secretary of State will reject an application without the approval form attached.
For example, any 2 year school can call itself a tech school, institute, or community college. However a 2 year school would not be able to use just college (in most states these days) unless it offered at least a 4 year degree. As for university, I recall back in the 80s (85 or so) when there was a national push for state colleges that offered master's degrees and above to change their name to university. Generally, in the books these days a university offers graduate level education.

 

Just to clarify, it depends on each state's law. Some states delegate it to the Secretary of State, others to the Dept of Ed, and still others to the accrediting agency by default.

 

Associates at Universities & Masters at Colleges

It can be very confusing. For example, the Pennsylvania State University offers Associate degrees, while the Naples International College offers Masters degrees.

It lends itself to furthering the confusion. Eventually, maybe we will standardize it all (but not yet).

 

It makes you wonder how a technical institution like DeVry moved from Institute to University in such a relatively short period of time. Does anyone know how they're suddenly a University and if they're regionally accredited?

 

See http://www.devry.edu/advantage_history.html for some history. And from the Public Notice link on that page: "DeVry University was accredited on February 1, 2002, the result of a merger of DeVry Institutes, first accredited in 1981, and Keller Graduate School of Management, first accredited in 1977."

So, yes, DeVry is accredited, and the name change came from its merger with Keller.