Academic organization
From NKM WIKIDOC
Definition
Academic organization is An educational institution dedicated to education and research, which grants academic degrees ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_institution Wikipedia)
Description
In Nuclear Knowledge Management the term academic organization (or academic institution) is used only for educational organizations beyond the secondary school level. Although some sources consider primary and secondary schools as academic organizations, the use of this term in the nuclear field is limited to educational organizations beyond the secondary school level. They can be categorized according to the education they provide:
- College - The precise usage of this term varies among English-speaking countries. Colleges provide only undergraduate education in a specific area with a usual duration of 3 - 3,5 years. Upon completion of a college the student gets his/her first higher educational grade/diploma. In many countries this first grade is called Bachelor’s degree. Colleges usually do not issue higher academic degrees.
- University - A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars".
- Technical schools - Technical school is a general term used for two-year colleges which provide mostly employment-preparation skills for trained labor, such as welding, office management etc. They are better considered to be a training organization, not an academic organization in the strict sense.
- Vocational schools - A vocational school is operated for the expressed purpose of giving its students the skills needed to perform a certain job or jobs. As such they are better considered to be institutions devoted to training, not to education.