Universities and colleges are institutions that offer education beyond the secondary (preparatory or high school) level. This broad category of institutions may include colleges offering only undergraduate preparation; universities offering undergraduate and graduate education; free-standing professional colleges offering degrees in law, medicine, engineering and  the like; and two-year community and junior colleges offering technical, vocational and liberal arts programs.

Terminology for institutions as well as types of programs vary greatly within a single country. In general, a college offers degree programs for undergraduate students, but it may have Master’s degree programs also. The universities are usually dedicated to three comprehensive activities: instruction for undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees; research geared to expanding the frontiers of knowledge; and outreach or dissemination of learning beyond the boundaries of the institution through the printed word, scholarly associations, formal and non-formal instruction, and worldwide telecommunications and computer linkages.

National systems of higher education in general are geared to serving youth between the ages of 17 and 25. The enrollment as a percentage of the country’s total population has been growing appreciably in many countries. Where once higher education was reserved for a small elite, today university education in many countries is a massive social enterprise.

Despite the ravages of two world wars and the damage and disruption of uncounted local military contests, many nations of the world have received increasing demands for higher education from their people and have responded by building more universities and other types of higher education institutions. The developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America have built new universities. Some universities have reached enormous size, such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which has over 300 000 students.