University college (Scandinavia)

A university college (Swedish: högskola; Norwegian: høyskole, høgskole or høgskule; Danish: professionshøjskole; literally meaning "high school" and "professional high school") in Denmark, Norway and Sweden is an independent institution that provides tertiary education (bachelor and master's degrees) and quaternary education (PhD). These institutions traditionally had 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 in Germany and to a Polytechnic in the United Kingdom. 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.

The Swedish government 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.

In Norway 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 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.

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