I wish they'd taught me this...

[nigidivitch]

Can anyone tell me the difference between a 'school', a 'department', and a 'faculty' within the university framework?

[Quizmonster]

It is difficult to make any hard and fast distinction between these in some instances. Generally-speaking, a faculty is a collection of departments/schools. Thus one speaks of 'The Arts Faculty', which covers all disciplines for which one might study for a BA/MA degree...French, English, History etc.

There is no great difference between departments and schools, since these both refer to a quite specific area of study, generally within a faculty. Thus, one speaks of 'The English Department' and 'The History Department'. In the same way, one may hear of 'The Medical School' or - especially in the USA - 'Law School'. It is really just a question of the 'range' of the subject(s) involved.

[nigidivitch]

Cheers Quizmonster! What about something like "The school of Modern Languages", in which you will find the French department? How does that work?

[Quizmonster]

As I said, N, it's not easy to be definitive here! For example, I just went to Chambers Dictionary and this time looked up 'faculty'. Guess what it said...a 'department' of learning at a university! (My italics) The same dictionary says a university 'department' is a 'section' responsible for a specific area of study. A 'school' is - again according to Chambers - a 'division' within an institution for education for the teaching of a specific subject. So faculty/department/school becomes department/section/division. As I suggested...trying to be firm about these is a no-hoper.