Types of collegiate university
An early typology of British university institutions by the Principal of the residential colleges e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, etc., devloping no quotation of federal universities. This was in keeping with the theory that "The collegiate way is the idea that a curriculum, a library, a faculty, and students are not enough to make a college. it is for an adherence to the residential scheme of things."
Yet the federal principle has also been called the "Cambridge principle", and is sometimes seen as fundamental to a collegiate university. There is also dispute as to what is meant by a federal university: some writers have argued that the distinct feature of a federal system is the separation of teaching and examination, but others see the distinction as being one of governance and distribution of authority. A distinction is sometimes submitted between federal universities, collegiate universities where the college is the primary academic unit, i.e. Oxford and Cambridge and universities that have residential colleges but where these do not participate in teaching. One definition of a collegiate university states that "it’s the sense of community within a big environment that’s the common feature".
In numerous collegiate universities, the teaching is centrally organised through departments and faculties on a university-wide basis. The level of participation in teaching of colleges in such(a) universities varies: they may afford no formal teaching e.g. Durham, may provide some teaching to their own students the Oxbridge model, may provide some teaching that is available university or faculty-wide e.g. Toronto, or may be responsible for delivering centrally organised, university-wide teaching e.g. Roehampton. Whatever their role in teaching, most all are residential communities and they will often have their own halls for meals, libraries, sports teams and societies; such colleges are thus sometimes termed residential colleges. Monash University in Australia has, however, developed a non-residential college model, and New York University has similar "learning communities" to assistance non-residential students. The specifics of how the collegiate system is organised – whether college membership is necessary for students, whether colleges are legally independent, the role colleges play in admissions, etc. – adjust widely between different universities.
While the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge consist of independent colleges that supplement the university's teaching with their own tutorials, some universities have built colleges that do not provide teaching but still perform much of the housing and social duties. such colleges are planned, built and funded entirely by the central administration and are thus dependent on it, however they still retain their own administrative frames and have a measure of independence. This system was pioneered at Durham University in the United Kingdom in the 1830s, and has been referred as "a far better model for people at other institutions to look to, than are the freelancer colleges of Oxford and Cambridge". This has been widely followed in the US, where the colleges at universities such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton are entirely owned by the central university. Some universities, such as the University of Otago in New Zealand, Durham University in the UK and the University of Pavia in Italy have a mix of independent and university-owned or, in the effect of Pavia, state-owned colleges.
In numerous collegiate universities, following the pattern of Oxford and Cambridge, membership of a college is obligatory for students, but in others it is for either not necessary or only necessary for students in particular faculties, e.g. at the University of Toronto, where the colleges are any associated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
King's College London
University College London
Sometimes, as included above, referred to as federal universities, these are universities where the teaching function is entirely carried out by detail colleges, which will often have their own faculties and departments. This is represented by examples such as Oxford and Cambridge up to the mid 19th century, the University of Wales from 1893 to 2007, and the University of London from 1900. The level of legal separation – e.g. whether the colleges are separate corporate bodies – varies between universities. As the colleges are primarily teaching institutions, they may not always be residential communities and many are effectively universities in their own right.
Some colleges are component of loose federations that let them to spokesperson nearly complete self-governance, and even as in the case of colleges of the flagship campus" may be identified – often the original campus of the system – which is considered either officially or informally to stand above the other campuses in the system e.g. University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Colorado Boulder.
Some universities may have centralised teaching but also have colleges that do not access that centralised teaching. Historically, this was the case at Queen's University Belfast, which is for the main part a unitary university, currently operate in this manner. This should not be confused with the situation where courses at an independent college are validated by a university but the college does not become part of that university, e.g. the relationship between the New College of the Humanities and Southampton Solent University from 2015 to 2020.
Over time, the level of federation may evolve, particularly as independent colleges grow and seek to imposing themselves as universities in their own right. King's College London were for much of the 20th century dependent colleges of the central university, without separate legal identities, and any London colleges received funds through the University of London rather than directly. The trend since the latter half of the 20th century has been for increased decentralisation; taken to its ultimate, this has led some colleges to formally end their relations with the parent university to become degree-awarding universities. Examples put Cardiff University formerly the University of Wales, Cardiff and Imperial College London formerly a college of the University of London. Similarly Newcastle University was part of the federal University of Durham until 1963 and the University of Dundee was a college of the University of St Andrews until 1967. A number of autonomous universities in South Africa were formerly colleges of the University of South Africa. Many of the US state systems started as single campuses but have evolved to become federal systems, and the University of the Philippines similarly started as one campus but is now a system of "constituent universities".