University system

A university system is a set of multiple, affiliated universities and colleges that are usually geographically distributed. Typically, all member universities in a university system share a common component among all of their various names. Usually, all member universities of a university system are governed by a system-wide governing body, such as a board of trustees or a board of regents. In fact, university systems are so common in post-World War II United States that most states have one or two state university systems under which many of their publicly funded universities are aligned, both in name and in governance. Additionally, for-profit universities, such as DeVry University, often have multiple campuses which share the same name; these may be, but are not always, described as a university system (not necessarily accurately, see below).

A university system should not be confused with a multiple-campus university. A university system contains several universities. A multiple-campus university is a single university that has more than one campus. In the United States, a common test of whether institutions comprise a system is whether they are separately accredited by a government-approved regional accreditor (this supersedes per-campus accreditation by national professional accreditors). University marketing departments may emphasize or deemphasize the independence of member institutions.

In Canada, university system usually refers to the collection of all universities within a jurisdiction, as distinguished from other post-secondary institutions. Used as a point of comparison, it may refer to the universities within a province or within a country. In the UK, university system has been used to refer to the policy and practise of integrated administration and infrastructure of the universities within the country.

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