Higher education

Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree.

An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university.

Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completion of secondary education.

Secondary education typically takes place after six years of primary education and is followed by higher education, vocational education or employment.

Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completion of secondary education. Tertiary education at non-degree level is sometimes referred to as further education or continuing education as distinct from higher education.

Higher education is taken to include undergraduate and postgraduate education, while vocational education beyond secondary education is known as further education in the United Kingdom, or continuing education in the United States.

It is delivered at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, conservatories, and institutes of technology, and through certain college-level institutions, including vocational schools, trade schools, and other career colleges that award degrees. The general higher education and training that takes place in a university, college, or Institute of technology usually includes significant theoretical and abstract elements, as well as applied aspects (although limited offerings of internships or SURF programs attempt to provide practical applications).

A university (universitas, 'a whole') is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in various academic disciplines.

It is delivered at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, conservatories, and institutes of technology, and through certain college-level institutions, including vocational schools, trade schools, and other career colleges that award degrees.

An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, higher learning, research, or honorary membership.

In Europe, Article 2 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1950, obliges all signatory parties to guarantee the right to education

The right to education has been recognized as a human right in a number of international conventions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which recognizes a right to free, compulsory primary education for all, an obligation to develop secondary education accessible to all, on particular by the progressive introduction of free secondary education, as well as an obligation to develop equitable access to higher education, ideally by the progressive introduction of free higher education.

Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completion of secondary education.

Formal learning is education normally delivered by trained teachers in a systematic intentional way within a school, higher education or university.

Tertiary education at non-degree level is sometimes referred to as further education or continuing education as distinct from higher education.

Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions.

It is delivered at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, conservatories, and institutes of technology, and through certain college-level institutions, including vocational schools, trade schools, and other career colleges that award degrees. The general higher education and training that takes place in a university, college, or Institute of technology usually includes significant theoretical and abstract elements, as well as applied aspects (although limited offerings of internships or SURF programs attempt to provide practical applications).

In several countries, like Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Turkey, institutes of technology are institutions of higher education and have been accredited to award academic degrees and doctorates.

The UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 declares, in Article 13, that "higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education".

Article 13 of the Covenant recognises the right of everyone to free education (free for the primary level and "the progressive introduction of free education" for the secondary and higher levels).

Within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level, and beyond that, graduate-level (or postgraduate level). In addition, professional-level education is always included within Higher Education, and usually in graduate schools since many postgraduate academic disciplines are both vocationally, professionally, and theoretically/research oriented, such as in the law, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and veterinary medicine.

Postgraduate education, or graduate education in North America, involves learning and studying for academic or professional degrees, academic or professional certificates, academic or professional diplomas, or other qualifications for which a first or bachelor's degree generally is required, and it is normally considered to be part of higher education.

Within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level, and beyond that, graduate-level (or postgraduate level).

In some other educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a master's degree; this is the case for some science courses in Britain and some medicine courses in Europe.

The University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco is the oldest existing, continually operating higher educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records and is occasionally referred to as the oldest university by scholars.

It is the oldest existing, continually operating higher educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records and is occasionally referred to as the oldest university by scholars.

In contrast, the vocational higher education and training that takes place at vocational universities and schools usually concentrates on practical applications, with very little theory.

A vocational university, also known as university of applied sciences (UAS), polytechnic university, technological educational institute, applied technological 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.

Tertiary education at non-degree level is sometimes referred to as further education or continuing education as distinct from higher education.

In 1969, Empire State College, a unit of the State University of New York, was the first institution in the US to exclusively focus on providing higher education to adult learners.

In addition, professional-level education is always included within Higher Education, and usually in graduate schools since many postgraduate academic disciplines are both vocationally, professionally, and theoretically/research oriented, such as in the law, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and veterinary medicine.

An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge, taught and researched as part of higher education.

A basic requirement for entry into these graduate-level programs is almost always a bachelor's degree, although alternative means of obtaining entry into such programs may be available at some universities.

The traditional means of entry to tertiary education involves completing secondary school and obtaining the standard school leaving educational qualification offered in a particular region prior to progressing to university or other higher education study.

Academic areas that are included within the liberal arts include great books, history, languages including English, linguistics, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, science, environmental science, sociology and theater.

The view among them was that the emphasis on narrow specialization in American colleges had harmed the quality of higher education by failing to expose students to the important products of Western civilization and thought.

The general higher education and training that takes place in a university, college, or Institute of technology usually includes significant theoretical and abstract elements, as well as applied aspects (although limited offerings of internships or SURF programs attempt to provide practical applications).

Within higher-education, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) are a common summer immersion experience which supplement research activities that occur during the academic year.

It is delivered at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, conservatories, and institutes of technology, and through certain college-level institutions, including vocational schools, trade schools, and other career colleges that award degrees. Higher education differs from other forms of post-secondary education such as that offered by institutions of vocational education, which are more colloquially known as trade schools.

They are a part of Japan's higher education system.

Higher education differs from other forms of post-secondary education such as that offered by institutions of vocational education, which are more colloquially known as trade schools.

Vocational education can take place at the post-secondary, further education, or higher education level and can interact with the apprenticeship system.

Examples of providers of professional higher education may include graduate colleges of architecture, business, journalism, law, library science, optometry, pharmacy, public policy, human medicine, professional engineering, podiatric medicine, scientific dentistry, K-12 education, and veterinary medicine.

A library school is an institution of higher learning specializing in the professional training of librarians.

Governance in higher education is the means by which institutions for higher education (tertiary or post-secondary education) are formally organized and managed (though often there is a distinction between definitions of management and governance).

Hochschule (, plural: Hochschulen) is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to universities and colleges in English.

In some countries institutes can be part of a university or other institutions of higher education, either as a group of departments or an autonomous educational institution without a traditional university status such as a "university Institute".