It's odd, because it's both...
Maybe it's an odd system where I am (where the colleges are the social/housing divisions and the uni is the educational authority.)
(Sivvus trolley collision in the fruit aisle led to a jam, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 23:38, 1 reply)

Yeah, I guess that creates more of a division between the two...
...I went to Oxford, so lived in college, had most tutorials in college, drank in college, etc.... it very much felt like being at college was more tangible than being at university - university was a bit of an abstract. Me and everyone I know from college instinctively refer to it as college as a result. So we're not being deliberately annoying, honest!

BTW, agree with you on the 'paper' thing - I think it must be an Americanism.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 0:01, closed)

Other Americanism... (we're so weird!)
What we call College, other Universities (internationally) tend to call Faculties or Schools. So within the University, there is a College of Medicine, College of Law, College of Social Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, College of Business, etc etc.

There's also just plain 'college' - which usually tend to be small, private, 4-year-degree liberal arts institutions. Usually only grant up to a Baccalaureate-level degree, Masters quite rare. PhD degrees at most colleges are relatively unheard of - you pretty much MUST go to Uni for that.

Let's not forget our dear friend 'junior college' a.k.a. 'community college' - funded by local taxpayers, provide the first 2 years worth of post-secondary education. Many students go here first after graduating high school - much cheaper than either college or uni.

Sorry I wrote so much - I've been working in the US university system for quite a long time and I've never really had a chance to get on a soapbox about it.
(ohnonotagain It's worse than you thought. I'm Canadian., Thu 15 Apr 2010, 6:13, closed)

I was raised to think that "college" referred primarily to what you call "junior college"
As in, a place where people do their A-levels. But then there was also the community college, where you could enrol on/pay to take a course regardless of your entry qualifications. (So, for example, where I learned to touch type aged seven.)

And I call faculties departments. :-)

TBH, it wouldn't be an educational facility if they didn't thoroughly piss off other educational facilities in some way. This wholesale confusion seems to work. ;)
(Sivvus trolley collision in the fruit aisle led to a jam, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 10:30, closed)