The difference between an institute and a university. The Difference Between Universities and Institutions: Structure. Differences in teaching staff between university and institute
The promotion of the benefits of higher education has led to the fact that 90% of graduates after leaving school go to universities. The illusion of guaranteed success in life after graduation makes teenagers intensely gnaw the granite of science. Everyone chooses educational institution to your liking or according to your capabilities, most often material ones. At the moment, three types of educational institutions can be distinguished: university, academy and institute. It is difficult to figure out at once what are the differences between them, since they all perform one main function.
What are the features of the university?
The university is the most prestigious educational institution in the hierarchical ladder. The status of "university" can only be earned by the largest institution of higher education. vocational education... Under its roof, the university unites a huge number of different areas and specialties. University education is highly regarded by employers.
A large number of faculties can be united under the vaults of universities. They are also often called "institutions" (for example, "Institute of Applied Mathematics"). By type, universities are subdivided into federal, regional, national; public and private. 
Universities of special status are also distinguished in Russia: and MSU.
On the basis of universities, immediately after receiving a diploma, graduates have the opportunity to engage in research activities without receiving additional education (magistracy). Also, universities differ in the percentage of teaching staff: more than 60 percent of teachers must have academic degrees not lower than the candidate of sciences.
As a rule, a university is a network of buildings within one geographic object (city), one of which is central (main). For the rest, the faculties are distributed so that it is more convenient for students to attend classes without changing premises during the day. The number of students at universities ranges from several thousand to tens of thousands, depending on the size of the university (taking into account the training of correspondence students).
As an example, consider Privolzhsky Federal University ... In 2012, about 37 thousand students studied there. K (P) FU has a large number of buildings located geographically mainly in the center of the city of Kazan, and also has several branches in other cities of Tatarstan.
What is an academy?
The Academy is a higher educational institution that trains specialists mainly in one direction of science. In terms of the number of students, academies are noticeably inferior to universities, since they usually graduate up to several thousand specialists a year. This is connected, of course, with the narrow focus of training. Academies can also engage in retraining of specialists, advanced training of specialists. For graduates of academies, additional education is not required to engage in scientific activities. Within the framework of the academy, scientific work is necessarily carried out. 
Requirements for the teaching staff - at least 40% of employees must have academic degrees. For example, the Russian Academy of Justice (now the Russian State University Justice) trained specialists in the judicial system with a degree in jurisprudence. In 2014, the Kazan branch of the Academy graduated about 2 thousand graduates.
As a rule, academies can have branches in other cities, while, due to the small number of students, they are located in the same building.
What is an Institute?
An institute is an educational institution of higher professional education that prepares specialists for a particular specialty. Requirements for the teaching staff are minimal. Graduates of institutes are not allowed to engage in scientific activities without receiving additional education. Scientific activities are not carried out on the basis of institutes. As a rule, institutes are deprived of the opportunity to retrain specialists and improve their qualifications.
An example is Kazan Law Institute... It annually prepares specialists in the specialty of jurisprudence, while it is aimed at training personnel specifically for the internal affairs bodies. Training is also provided for existing employees of the internal affairs bodies. 
What is the difference between a university and an academy and an institute
- Scope: the university is the largest educational institution in comparison with the institute and the academy
- Graduates of universities and academies have the right to engage in scientific activities, institutes - no.
- As a general rule, research activities are carried out within the framework of universities and academies, but not within the framework of institutes.
- Universities have the highest requirements for teaching staff.
- The university is universal, a very part of the university contains a huge number of faculties and specialties. There is usually only one faculty in academies, and one specialty in institutes.
- Universities, to a large extent, due to the large number of students, include several buildings; institutes and academies are most often located in one building.
- Universities have the largest number of students. Academies and institutes are inferior in scale to the number of graduates.
When an applicant faces the question of choosing an educational institution that can meet the educational needs of a future student, doubts often arise as to which university is better - an institute or a university. And is there a fundamental difference?
An institute is a specialized educational institution in which, just like at a university, one can study under higher education programs. Most often, institutions are narrow-profile, i.e. carry out professional training of specialists for a specific industry - economics, law, psychology, medicine, construction, culture, management, as well as in the specialties of related industries. This is the main and main difference between this type of university.
At the institute, you can take a bachelor's program or enroll in a master's program, as well as become a graduate student. In addition, colleges, pre-university training centers, student centers can function at institutes. Institutions can exist both on their own and carry out their activities at universities, being its part of or subdivision.
University concept
In turn, a university is an earlier version of an educational institution: historically, universities have had a longer life span as organizations providing fundamental education. The first "universal" educational institutions appeared in the 9th century and were available only to a select few, but by now their number has grown many times over, making it possible to provide professional training for all applicants applying for university education.
A modern university is an educational institution of higher education that provides training for specialists in a variety of fundamental and applied sciences. The number of faculties in a university can usually be at least 7, and the specialties themselves can be many times more.
In an educational institution of this type, you can receive training in a list of a wide variety of areas, often in professional activity not related to each other, be it marketing, law, linguistics, design, psychology, banking, management, Information Technology... This is the universality of the educational institution called the "university".
The main points of difference between the institute and the university
Despite the fact that any educational institution must have its own charter, as well as a state license and accreditation confirming the right to conduct educational activities, the institute and the university have differences established at the legislative level. The main criteria, according to which the types of educational institutions differ - this is the number of departments and areas of training, the percentage of graduate students in relation to the number of students, the period of existence of the university, the range of training formats, the education of the teaching staff itself, the attitude of the educational institution to innovations, the amount of the amount allocated by the educational organization for research funding. There are more than a dozen such criteria in total, but the most important of them, which have a primary impact on the status of the university, are listed above.
At the same time, there are common points. Both the institute and the university:
Carry out training for students in undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate programs;
They are engaged in professional retraining of personnel;
They conduct refresher courses.
Structural educational differences
It is worth noting that the status of an educational institution is determined by law and is confirmed once every five years at a special certification commission of Rosobrnadzor. The lowest level in the hierarchy of educational institutions is occupied by the institute, while the university is the pinnacle of development of any higher educational institution. Educational organization higher education has the right to be called a university if:
For 4 of its graduate students, there are no more than a hundred students;
At least a quarter of postgraduate students completed their postgraduate studies with a PhD within a period of no later than one year from the date of graduation;
The university has a developed material and technical base for the implementation of both scientific research and scientific and practical activities in at least 5 professional branches and scientific areas, and also makes certain expenses to finance these studies;
The university is actively introducing the latest educational methods and innovative technologies, improves the educational process and modernizes educational programs;
The educational institution has at least 7 diverse areas of training.
In turn, an institution is an educational institution that:
Has at least 2 graduate students per 100 students receiving higher education at other levels;
Has at least 30 full-time teachers (for universities under 5 years old);
Carries out scientific activities within the framework of his specialization;
Uses innovative educational methods within the established scope.
Differences in teaching staff between university and institute
There is one more important criterion by which the belonging of an educational institution to one of the mentioned types is determined. This is the teaching staff, or rather, its quality and quantity. As for the institutes, the number of full-time teachers should be at least 30 - for educational institutions aged 3 to 5 years, and the number of candidates and doctors of science in percentage terms should be at least 55%. The requirements for universities are stricter: there should be at least 60% of teachers - holders of academic degrees - in an educational institution of this type, and the number of teachers on the staff itself increases significantly in comparison with institutes. This provides a more serious training in the disciplines of the taught specialties and a greater depth of research work of students. In addition, thanks to more significant financial support at universities, it becomes possible to attract third-party experts to scientific developments and projects.
Thus, the characteristics of the educational institution from the point of view of the teaching staff are as follows:
Institute - provided 55% of teachers with advanced degrees;
University - subject to 60% or more of teachers who have defended their candidate and / or doctoral dissertation.
Hiring a university or institute diploma
There are two fundamentally different opinions as to whether the status of the training institution influences employment prospects. Some are convinced that there is no difference between an institute diploma and a university diploma, because the future employer is primarily interested in the potential employee's work experience. However, this belief is more often adhered to by applicants and graduates who do not aim to achieve special career heights. Indeed, the institute, just like the university, provides basic vocational training, training in both educational institutions guarantees a diploma. At the same time, in a number of narrow areas of activity, the education received in a specific institute specializing in professional training of workers for this area can be valued. These can be institutes of culture, medical institutes, institutes of transport, technical institutes.
At the same time, the university has great opportunities for high-quality education, among which, as mentioned above, there is a more modern material and technical base, and a stronger teaching staff, and opportunities to improve the educational level. That is why future students aiming at serious career growth, planning to achieve special achievements in the career field, should strive to enter an educational institution with the status of a university. This is not only a question of prestige and reputation, but also the prospects for deeper training and the possibility of obtaining more versatile and practically applicable knowledge from experts in the taught sciences.
Polina's answer describes the realities of the Russian bureaucracy to a greater extent than the historically established rules for assigning names to scientific organizations. It's simple.
Institute (lat. institutum- establishment, custom, institution) - any organization engaged in any activity. The President of Russia is an institution. The press is an institution. State Astronomical Institute named after Sternberg (scientific organization) is also an institute. And even the Moscow Aviation Institute ( training organization) is a real institution. Almost all educational institutions in Russia are subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science and are directly controlled by it.
University (lat. universitas- totality, community) - a complex that unites philosophers, scientists of various specialties and their students. Universities are usually independent and self-governing, often closed to police and government officials. Often universities not located in big cities, become "city-forming enterprises". In the city of Heidelberg, in which I now live, there are 30 thousand university students per 150 thousand population. Usually, it is universities that confer doctoral degrees (in Russia, until recently, this was done by a special body of the Ministry of Education), while institutes can be the bases for the direct work of scientists, for example, a university graduate student is also an employee of the institute.
Therefore, students of real, historically established universities often do not like to be asked how things are at the "institute". A university is more than an institution. But the bureaucratic nature of Russian education and its accountability to the Ministry of Education instead of university independence deprives universities of the status that universities usually have in other countries. For example, Academician Sadovnichy sold the university’s independence to Putin in order to be a rector of the university for a longer time - now the president appoints the rector of Moscow State University, not the academic council.
Academy (from the Greek Ἀκαδήμεια) - a scientific community, a club. Usually associated with a group of scientific institutions, the best scientists of which are accepted into the academy and receive the corresponding academician status from other academicians. Academies often publish scientific journals and can be an expert community. Some academies also run educational activities... In this case, the academy, in principle, can be founded by anyone, but such academics will be ridiculed (see RANS). Until recently, the Russian Academy of Sciences directly ruled over most scientific organizations in Russia, but after the 2013 reform it lost such an opportunity, and the institutions began to be managed by FANO officials.
Today, the choice of universities is very diverse from higher schools, institutes to academies and universities. There is a difference between all higher educational institutions, which for many applicants does not play any role. And, nevertheless, the differences, for example, between the university and the institute are quite significant.
Distinctive features of the university.
The University is an educational institution of the highest category that trains highly specialized researchers in various fields of knowledge, and also provides a mandatory service for the retraining of scientific, pedagogical and scientific personnel in a wide range of knowledge. At the university, in addition to special subjects, general education is also studied. Also, the university conducts research work covering a wide range of sciences. Universities can be state or national. To obtain university status, an educational institution must meet certain criteria:
should be both a leading research and methodological center in the areas of its extensive activities;
for every hundred full-time students there must be at least four graduate students;
ongoing Scientific research must cover at least five different areas sciences, and the cost of financing these tests for one five-year period should be at least 10 million rubles;
the majority (over 60%) of teaching professors must have titles or an academic degree;
higher institution in the status of a university, it should apply only modern innovative technologies and teaching methods in its activities.
Distinctive features of the institute.
The institute carries out training in a certain area of knowledge, and also can undergo advanced training of employees in a particular field of activity, but this service is not mandatory. In addition, the institute, as well as the university, conducts applied and fundamental scientific research, but in some one area of knowledge. Institutes, as a rule, have a certain specialization: medicine, Agriculture other. To obtain the status of an institute, an educational institution must:
for one hundred full-time students to have at least two graduate students;
the cost of financing research activities in one five-year period should not exceed 5 million rubles;
about 50% of the teaching staff must have titles or academic degrees;
usage modern technologies and innovative methods in the training or retraining of specialists.
And if during the year after graduating from graduate school at the institute at least 25% of graduate students were able to defend themselves, then he can already apply for a higher title - the academy.
Any educational institution that has its own state status must necessarily confirm it every five years. Confirmation of the status takes place at the accreditation board of the FS for supervision in the field of education and science. A comprehensive assessment of the activities of an educational institution is carried out. The main indicators that affect the determination of the status of the university:
composition of teachers,
number of graduate students,
research activities,
specialized education.
If during the check the educational institution was downgraded in status, then the management of this university must submit all Required documents for registration and obtaining a downgraded status. It will be possible to raise the statute only after a year.
According to the Minister of Education A. Fursenko: out of 1000 universities existing on the territory of Russia, there should be only about 50 universities and up to 200 academies or institutes. (social)
Faced with the problem of choosing a university, applicants and their parents are confused. The name of the profession you receive will be the same in all universities, but the semantic content and skills will differ.
What is a university
All universities, institutes, academies are called this abbreviation. At the end of the training, a document is issued on obtaining a bachelor's, specialist's or master's degree. For those who wish, universities provide an opportunity to continue their studies and scientific activities. Higher education institutions differ in the level of accreditation (it should be IV) and the percentage of teachers with scientific degrees. They are also distinguished by the presence of graduate students and a high level of qualifications.
What is the Institute
To understand what is the difference between an institute and a university, you need to take a closer look at what these universities are.
An institute is an institution for higher education, advanced training or research in a specific field.
Most often, institutes conduct training in narrow-profile specialties. There are a great many institutions: legal, medical, etc. All specialties relate to the main field and serve one specificity of the activity. An institute can be a separate and separate institution, or it can be a part of one university. The legislative framework clearly states what is the difference between an institute and a university:
What is a university
This type of educational institution is more voluminous and represents many different specialties, sometimes not even related to each other by one specific activity.
Differences between university and institute in the services provided. The university has postgraduate studies, doctoral studies and more opportunities for self-realization in the scientific field. The university is chosen by people who want to continue to research an issue of interest for a long time, to create scientific discoveries and receive academic degrees. Most universities provide such opportunities, which is the difference between an institute and a university. Also a distinctive feature is the high quality of teaching and a large list of famous former students who have achieved success in the field in which they received their education.
To obtain this status, the university must meet the requirements prescribed in the legislation, and they determine what is the difference between an institute and a university:
Institute or University? Main similarities
In addition to differences, there are also similar points, due to which these educational institutions are often confused:
- Both the university and the institute provide education of the IV level of accreditation, which is a higher education - they train bachelors and masters.
- They have postgraduate and doctoral studies, as well as the opportunity to improve their qualifications.
- There are opportunities for research and scientific work.
Major differences
Universities, on the other hand, need more students, learning opportunities, faculties and majors. To obtain the status of an institute, you only need to train specialists of one direction, one specialization. This is the main difference between the institute and the university, because the university provides training in more than seven specializations. You can get any profession at the university, they are often not connected in any way, be it design, law or information technology.
The institute provides a narrow profile of knowledge, and the university, with its activities, provides a wider coverage of the skills of the future profession and spheres of life in general. But at the same time, training at the institute helps to learn one profession from all sides, which is useful for such a specialty as medicine. Knowing what is the difference between an institute and a university, you can safely choose a university depending on your goals in life.
It is typical for universities to have every opportunity for students to obtain the necessary scientific information: large libraries along with electronic ones, courses at the choice of the student and electives. In institutes, the material and technical base is weaker.
From all of the above, it follows that the institute is weaker in its capabilities and professional significance, but this can all be changed by applying for accreditation, fulfilling all the requirements and becoming a university.
Requirements for obtaining university status
University status is not granted once and for all. To maintain it, the university needs to undergo accreditation, improve the qualifications of teachers and follow the rules. An institute can become a university and vice versa.
According to the law, there are General requirements for university status:
What is the best choice?
Many applicants think that any higher education is valued equally, while employers only pay attention to work experience. But this is not the case. You need to understand well what is the difference between an institute and a university. In many areas, education received in specific universities is valued. This applies primarily to medical institutions, transport and cultural organizations. These areas require a high-quality narrow-focus professional training, which can only be provided by specialized institutions.
If the profession requires open-mindedness, the development of a large number of skills and abilities, then you should choose a university. Many specialties allow you to find an ideal profession for yourself, so that in the future work will bring joy. A large selection of electives will make learning more interesting and help you learn something new.
Most of the applicants are not interested in advance what is the difference between the institute and the university, and at the end of their studies they regret the time and money spent. To begin with, you should choose the desired profession, and only then select a higher educational institution for the goals and objectives.
