college, an institution that offers post-secondary education. The term is used without uniformity of meaning.
In Roman law a collegium was a body of persons associated for a common function. The name was used by many medieval institutions—from guilds to the body that elected the Holy Roman emperor.
Secondary schools are sometimes called colleges. England’s Winchester and Eton colleges—which date from the 14th century—are examples. From 1539 to 1773 the Jesuits built collegia in Catholic countries and colonies. In post-Napoleonic France municipalities founded collèges where the central government’s lycées were not available.
In medieval Bologna the body of instructors was called the collegium and the student body the universitas. But some students lived in collegia. In most universities of the later Middle Ages, collegium meant an endowed residence hall for students, usually candidates for both bachelor and advanced degrees. The colleges grew strongest at the University of Paris and at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Each had colleges in the 13th century, notably Paris’ Sorbonne, Oxford’s Merton, and Cambridge’s Peterhouse. By 1500 few students lived outside colleges. The colleges kept libraries and scientific instruments and offered regular salaries—occasionally chairs—to doctors and tutors who could prepare students to be examined for degrees. College teaching eclipsed university teaching. Eventually, the holder of a university chair had little to do besides examining students who had been prepared in the various colleges.
Colleges disappeared from Paris and the rest of continental Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. But colleges have retained their function at Oxford and Cambridge, although the trend has been to share instructors and resources among themselves and with the universities. The Swedish nation and the Spanish colegio are contemporary continental efforts to gain some of the advantages of the older system.
Dublin University and its first college—Trinity—were both founded in 1591; the college and the university became almost one because no other colleges were founded, although distant Magee College later affiliated.
The idea that a college trains for a degree and a university grants it was strong in the 19th-century British system. Two colleges were founded in London in the 1820s, but in 1836 the University of London was founded to grant degrees to their students. Many other colleges—most of them physically remote from each other—have affiliated with that university. The University of Durham was founded in 1837 as an Oxford-model campus with several colleges for residence and teaching; it later acquired affiliate colleges elsewhere—some in British colonies. University colleges were founded by Roman Catholics in Ireland in the 1850s; their students were usually examined for degrees at established universities until the National University of Ireland was founded in 1908. Other universities with colleges were founded. But English universities founded after 1879—commonly called “red brick” universities—have no colleges. The University of St. Andrews in Scotland is composed of two colleges.
The Maritime Provinces and Ontario in Canada have had colleges since the late 18th century, but most colleges in English-speaking Canada are affiliated with universities. Colleges were founded in the Cape Province in South Africa in the 19th century; most later became universities. In Australia universities without colleges were founded in the 19th century. But teachers’ colleges and “colleges of advanced education” exist—and grant bachelor’s degrees. New Zealand’s only college other than a teachers’ college is a campus affiliated with a university. British Africa had mostly colleges until independence, when national universities—often on the London model—were founded.
In the United States college may refer to a four-year institution of higher education offering only the bachelor’s degree, or it may refer to a junior or community college with a two-year program that leads to the associate degree. A four-year college usually emphasizes a liberal-arts or general education rather than specialized technical or vocational preparation. The four-year college may be an independent privately controlled liberal-arts college, or it may be the undergraduate division of a private or state university. A university division that offers a graduate or professional degree is usually called either a “college” or a “school” or “graduate school.” The term “college” also refers to separate degree-granting professional institutions such as state teachers’ colleges and agricultural colleges. “College” is also used in the names of institutions that teach office skills, automotive repair, hairdressing, and other trades.
In 1783 the United States had nine colleges that had earlier been chartered to grant bachelor’s degrees and were sometimes informally called universities. After independence, states established universities similar to those colleges, and teachers’ colleges and agricultural colleges were also founded. Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., opened in 1868 and was the first American university to be divided into colleges offering different degrees. When Johns Hopkins University opened in 1876, it was divided administratively into an undergraduate college and a graduate school. Many state universities quickly imitated this plan, and in the 1890s Yale, Harvard, and other private universities did likewise.
The Collège de France—with antecedents in France dating to 1518—offers postsecondary study but no degrees. In Quebec, collèges classiques offer secondary and baccalaureate studies and are affiliated with universities. In Germany Kollegien appears in the name of some institutions offering technical courses. See also higher education.