Vocational university

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A vocational university (professional university, or college of higher vocational studies) is an institution of higher education and sometimes research, which provides both tertiary and sometimes quaternary education and grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and sometimes doctorate) in a variety of subjects. (More precisely a vocational university grants Professional degrees like Professional Bachelor's degree, Professional Master's degree and Professional doctorates).

Education

The education which takes place at vocational universities combines teaching of both practical skills and theoretical expertise. Higher vocational education might be contrasted with education in a usually broader scientific field, which might concentrate on theory and abstract conceptual knowledge. This has to do with the fact that, in the Middle Ages, an educational institution was called a university only if a certain classical canon of subjects was taught (including, philosophy, medicine and theology). In modern times, other subjects, namely natural and engineering sciences, became more important — but still, institutions of tertiary education focusing on these and not offering the classical canon were denied the prestigious denomination "university", so they had to use the general word (High School in English) Hochschule in German, Haute Ecole in French (Belgium and Switzerland), Hogeschool in Dutch, Högskola in Swedish, etc.

There exist vocational universities of applied sciences (also named polytechnics or institutes of technology), vocational universities of liberal arts, etc. In recent years, many vocational universities have received full university status, such as the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, formerly Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien), or the Örebro University, Sweden (formerly Örebro Högskola). There are also some establishments which now have full university status, but continue to use their former names, such as the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Vocational universities by country

China

• Vocational Academy of Art (Zhejiang)
• Fashion Institute (Ningbo)
• Guangsha Architecture Technology College (Zhejiang)
• Economic and Trade Polytechnic (Zhejiang)
• Yuying College of Vocational Technology (Zhejiang)

Finland

• Ammattikorkeakoulu (translated University of Applied Sciences)

Despite the popular confusion, the term korkeakoulu refers to a University (by the Finnish definition, yliopisto) that has only one college. The term ammattikorkeakoulu is deliberately similar to this term. However, the academic universities that have been calling themselves korkeakoulus, such as the Universities of Technology at Tampere and Lappeenranta have changed their names to yliopisto, i.e. Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto, to avoid being confused with the vocational schools. Helsinki University of Technology, Teknillinen korkeakoulu, however, has no plans to change its name.

France

See Vocational universities in France

Germany

See Vocational universities in Germany

Hong Kong

• College of Higher Vocational Studies of the City University of Hong Kong

Netherlands

See Vocational universities in The Netherlands

Sweden

See Vocational universities in Sweden

See also

• Ammattikorkeakoulu
• University
• Higher education
• Dual education system
• Vocational education
• Institute of technology

External links

• List of vocational universities PDF
• Higher Vocational Education in Switzerland
• Higher Vocational Education in China
• Higher Vocational Education in China
• Higher Vocational Education in Czech Republic
• Higher Vocational Education in Russia
• The Copenhagen Process
• Vocational Schools in the United States