When it comes to higher education, the differences between a school and its faculty are numerous. While a school is a physical place where teachers and professors teach, a faculty includes administrative staff. A school employs faculty to teach students, and a faculty is made up of individuals with a diverse range of educational backgrounds. Schools also may have more than one department, such as a Department of Epidemiology at Harvard University.
The two words have different meanings. Faculty is a collective term for academic staff in a school. A faculty can be a single subject area or a collection of related subject areas. Schools and faculty divisions are generally used in American usage. Harvard University has a faculty of arts and sciences and a law school. A faculty can be a large or small group of people, and each of them may be devoted to a certain subject or a specific skill or power.
Schools are sometimes called departments within a university, but the term is often used interchangeably. A small “school” might not have separate departments, but a large department within a large school could be larger than a whole school elsewhere in the university. A school is often referred to by several different terms, so it’s best to learn about the differences between schools and faculties before deciding which is right for your academic goals.
