A college is an institution that offers an opportunity to attain higher education to the students in the courses of their choice.
A college is an institution that offers an opportunity to
attain higher education to the students in the courses of their choice.
Different meaning is assigned to colleges in different countries. It can be a
tertiary educational institution that awards degree, a vocational education
offering institution, an institution within a federal university, or a
secondary school.
A College is a place where a student
experiences the turning point in his life. He chooses the subject of his choice
and specializes in it. The atmosphere is much more informal than a school. Here
the onus lies on the students themselves to study and build their career.
Discipline is maintained here but it is still less as compared to schools. A
new world opens in front of the students and they become more aware of the
various opportunities that come across them.
There are a variety of colleges that offer specialized
courses to the students. Some of them are-Liberal Arts Colleges, which offer a
wide gamut of liberal art courses like history, literature, languages,
philosophy, mathematics, social sciences and humanities. They are mostly
privately owned and they often target undergraduate students mainly. The
duration of the courses offered by them is generally four years. After
completion of this course the students receive a bachelor’s degree. Generally,
during first two years, students take courses in a number of subjects and later
choose a major.
The Colleges mainly aim to prepare students for a variety
of courses. As far as Universities are
concerned, they have a number of colleges affiliated to them. They offer more
options in reference to majors and degree in comparison to other types of
colleges. They also offer architecture, medical, engineering, health and other
programs besides liberal arts majors. Here, a student has an opportunity to
gain bachelors, masters as well as doctoral degrees. One can prepare for a
range of careers at a university.
Community Colleges are the most common type of colleges
and they offer a two-year course. Here, the students have the liberty to decide
whether they would like to continue with their education or join a job
directly. They generally offer an associate degree that prepares a student to
move to a four-year college and complete studies to earn a bachelor’s degree.
There is a focus on career readiness in case of other types of associate
degrees. The education here can be afforded easily as they charge low tuition
fee.
Vocational Colleges, as the name implies, offer an
opportunity to provide specialized training to students in the fields of their
choice. In institutes like these, the students do not have to study all
subjects and they can concentrate only on those that are going to benefit them
in building their career in a specific field. One can choose areas like dental
hygiene, culinary arts, firefighting or medical-records technology. After the
completion of these courses, the students are awarded an associate degree.
The Special Interests Colleges are meant to offer
education to a particular student population of particular area of interest.
Arts Colleges, as the name suggests, focus mainly on a variety of subjects
related to arts. The college offers training in subjects like music,
photography, theatre, fashion designing and many more besides regular course
work. Associate or bachelor’s degree is offered by most of these colleges on
successful completion of the courses.
Public Colleges are
basically funded by state governments and are considered to be owned by the
public sector. Such colleges usually charge lower tuition fees and offer good
standard of education. As a social policy, the government offers funds to these
colleges to disseminate proper education to the slightly under privileged of
the society. On the other hand, there
are several private colleges as well which receive a part of government funds
but for their working and operations they mainly rely on fees, tuition,
development fees, endowments, etc.
| Additional articles about Colleges |
|
|
| About the author |
Sonali Dheri writes on behalf of Shiksha.com. Shiksha is a portal that connects education seeker with education provider. Shiksha provides information about Executive MBA and College. |
| Please Rate This Article |
Number of ratings: 0
Rating: 0