A university college (Swedish: ''högskola''; Norwegian: ''høyskole'', ''høgskole'' or ''høgskule''; Danish: ''professionshøjskole''; literally meaning "high school" and "professional high school") in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

is an independent institution that provides

tertiary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

(bachelor's and master's degrees) and

quaternary education Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and st ...

(PhD). Most of these institutions traditionally had an emphasis on less academic and more vocational programmes such as teacher or nursing education as well as shorter technical education; historically, these institutions were somewhat similar to a

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied art ...

in Germany and to a

Polytechnic Polytechnic is most commonly used to refer to schools, colleges, or universities that qualify as an institute of technology or vocational university also sometimes called universities of applied sciences. Polytechnic may also refer to: Educatio ...

in the United Kingdom. The term is also used for some specialized universities. Today, the distinction between university colleges and universities is of less importance in Sweden and Norway. In Denmark, university colleges grant non-academic degrees, but these may in some cases give access to further education at master level at a university.

Situation in Scandinavia

Sweden

The

Swedish government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden ( sv, Konungariket Sveriges regering) is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Ministerappointed and dismissed by the Speaker of th ...

is the only entity that can attribute university status. However, the exact situation of Swedish university colleges varies in that respect, i.e. many them may are engaged in substantial research and grant doctoral degrees in a number of fields. The main difference between an institution with full university status and a university college lies in the larger variety of academic subjects offered at a university, and the traditional right of the university to award doctoral degrees in any field.

Norway

In Norway three separate categories of university colleges exist: *University-level colleges (''vitenskapelig høgskole/høyskole''), which hold the same rights as the universities and are sometimes known as specialized universities in English *Institutionally accredited university colleges (''høgskole/høyskole'') *Educational institutions with accredited programs, which have the right to call themselves university colleges (''høgskole/høyskole'') The difference between a university and a university college is that a university has received the status of university from the Norwegian government. Only the government has the authority to grant university status. In the past years, any institution that offered at least four PhD programmes has been allowed to apply for university status, and in recent years several university colleges have received university status, becoming so-called ''new universities''. In 2014 the government announced that no institutions would become new universities in the near future. In 2015 the government announced new and more strict criteria. The practical distinction between universities and university colleges has been gradually reduced through legislative reforms in 1995 and 2005, and the two types of institutions are now governed by the same law, have the same basic structure and in principle the same obligation to provide research-based education.

Denmark

{{Main, University colleges in Denmark In Denmark, university colleges (professionshøjskoler) are similar to universities of applied sciences. Danish university colleges offer profession-specific tertiary education, also known as medium higher education (MVU) and diploma courses, but do not offer university education at the postgraduate level. The duration of bachelor's programmes is seven semesters and corresponds to 210 ECTS. Specific to university college programmes is that curricula always include internships and placements. This focus on professional practice, as opposed to academics, is what separates a bachelor's degree at university colleges from a bachelor's from a university. The difference between a university and university college degree is narrowing. Since 2012, university colleges have been awarded the right and governmental funding to carry out applied research. In addition, several bachelor's degrees are articulated with master's degrees at research universities in Denmark and abroad. Denmark has 7 university colleges, which all have a school of health and a school of education, pedagogy, and social studies. Some also have a school of technology, a school of business, and a school of design. In addition to higher educational programmes, university colleges are important suppliers of lifelong education for public and private industries.

Translation

University college is the most widely used official English translation in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, although some such institutions use the term

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

in English instead (for instance

Södertörn University Södertörn University ( sv, Södertörns högskola, abbreviated as SH) is a public university college ( sv, högskola) located in Flemingsberg in Huddinge Municipality, and the larger area called Södertörn, in Stockholm County, Sweden. In 2 ...

). The terminology may be confusing to foreigners as university colleges are not constituent ''colleges of another university'' as some may understand the word literally, but rather ''institutions in their own right and standing''. The Swedish term ''högskola'' and the Norwegian term ''høyskole'', ''høgskole'' or ''høgskule'' would mean "high school" in a word-by-word translation. This translation is also misleading, as these institutions provide tertiary level education, not secondary education as American

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s do. Some of these university colleges do aspire a lift to full university status by the Swedish or Norwegian government, and have therefore changed their translated English name to "university", although they are not a university by Swedish and Norwegian law. A full university in Sweden requires extensive own research, a breadth of academic disciplines and a licence to award doctor's degrees in all fields it teaches. In Norway, university status may be conferred to an institution offering at least four PhD programmes. The term ''högskola'', ''høyskole'', ''høgskole'' or ''høgskule'' is also used by a number of specialised universities, especially the technical universities. Some subunits of the universities in Sweden also use the term "högskola" to mark their status within the larger university or for traditional reasons. For instance, several engineering faculties call themselves "teknisk högskola" in Swedish, like Lunds Tekniska Högskola and Linköpings Tekniska Högskola, which both were originally established independently of their respective universities.

References