[Magdalen] Tightrope?

[Charles Wohlers]

No. The traditional difference here in the US is that universities grant 
both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and colleges undergraduate only. 
Very, very few universities in the US are made up of individual residential 
colleges in the way that Oxford and Cambridge are. Yale comes to mind, and 
there may be a few others. The distinction of graduate vs. undergraduate is 
likely not too valid anymore, so a university these days is pretty much a 
4-year or 4-year plus institution which feels like calling itself that. 
There are lots of free-standing colleges in the US, many of them well-known 
and of high academic standards - like Middlebury here in Vermont, which my 
wife attended.

When Bridgewater State moved from College to University, the School of (for 
example) Science and Mathematics was renamed the College of Science and 
Mathematics. It didn't function any differently and is still simply a 
collection of similar academic departments, namely Chemistry, Physics, 
Biology, Geography/Geology and Mathematics.

Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com



-----Original Message----- 
From: Roger Stokes
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 5:26 PM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Tightrope?

On 18/11/2015 21:11, Charles Wohlers wrote:
> In Massachusetts, the Commonwealth "upgraded" the State Colleges (formerly 
> State Teachers Colleges) to Universities just a few years ago, long after 
> most other states had done the same. They're not part of the U. Mass. 
> system, which has four campuses (main one in Amherst, plus Lowell, Boston 
> & Dartmouth). I was working at Bridgewater State when it went from a 
> college to a university. Only thing which actually changed was the name - 
> everything else was exactly the same as before, but "University" does 
> sound oh so much more impressive, doesn't it?

Does it also mean the same in the USA as it does here - that a
university can award its own degrees rather than having tham accredited
by some other organization?

Roger