A collegiate university is a university whose functions are divided between the central administration of the university and a number of constituent colleges.

A collegiate university differs from a centralized university in that its colleges are not just halls of residence; rather, they have a substantial amount of responsibility and autonomy in the running of the university. The actual level of self-governance exercised by the colleges varies greatly among institutions, ranging from nearly autonomous colleges in federated institutions to dependent colleges that are integrated with the central administration itself. Often, but not always, colleges within universities will have their own specific students' unions.

Loose federations

Also known as federated schools, some colleges are part of loose federations that allow them to exercise nearly complete self-governance. In the United Kingdom, the colleges of the University of London and the University of Wales perform almost all the duties of a university with the exception of the awarding of degrees (although some of the larger colleges of the University of London, such as University College London, King's College London and the London School of Economics, have recently begun to award their own degrees). In the United States, many state university systems consist of campuses that are almost independent, spread out across different parts of the state. Examples of such institutions include the University of California and the University of Texas.

Over time, some federated schools may formally end their relations with the parent university to become degree-awarding universities. Examples include Cardiff University (formerly named the University of Wales, Cardiff) and Imperial College London. University of Wales, Lampeter (formerly St David's College, Lampeter), ceased to confer its own degrees when it joined the University of Wales, but retains the right to confer degrees and other qualifications, and still awards the Licence in Theology (LTh) in its own right. The National University of Ireland was a federation of three constituent colleges and other recognised colleges until 1997 when the colleges, along with Maynooth, a recognised college, became constituent universities.

Historically, the University of Dundee and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne were colleges of the University of St Andrews and the University of Durham, respectively, before they became independent.

Independent colleges

Independent colleges vary in the level of teaching that they provide, but they may create positions independently from the university and may provide their own funding for research. They also tend to play a large role in deciding admissions. Students become members of the University through membership in their particular college, and matriculation is often done through, or at the behest of, the colleges.

At the undergraduate level, independent colleges usually provide most, if not all accommodation and bursaries. They often have their own halls for meals, libraries, sports teams and societies. This fosters loyalty to the college among its students—an undergraduate might state the name of his or her college before the name of the university when asked where he or she studied. This spirit is often maintained through college-based alumni organizations.

Examples include all the colleges at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge and two colleges at the University of Durham.

Dependent colleges

Some universities have built colleges that do not provide teaching but still perform much of the housing and social duties, allowing students to develop loyalty towards their college. However, such colleges are planned, built and funded entirely by the central administration and are thus dependent on it.

Examples include the colleges of Harvard University, Yale University, University of Toronto, Rice University, Princeton University, the University of York, the University of Lancaster, the University of Kent and the University of Durham (at Durham, most of the colleges are not independent of the parent university, as many of them were established later in the 20th century, without the endowment funds needed to be independent).

At Uppsala University and Lund University, students are organised into nations, historically determined by the region of origin in Sweden. The Chinese University of Hong Kong was founded as a loose federation of three colleges, but the founding colleges had later become dependent on the central administration, and new colleges were established as dependent colleges.

Former collegiate universities

Some universities that once featured collegiate systems had gradually lost them to mergers and amalgamation, due to financial, political or other reasons. Examples include the following:

• At the University of St. Andrews, the colleges joined together to become St Mary's College, St Andrews for Divinity and the United College of St Salvator and St Leonard and are now purely administrative.
• The colleges of the former University of Paris were suppressed after the French Revolution. In the twentieth century, the university was split into 13 institutions (Paris I - Paris XIII). Some of these universities are presently (2008) forming new collegiate systems, such as Paris Universitas, Paris Centre Universités and UniverSud Paris.
• The University of Aberdeen consisted of King's College and Marischal College until 1860.
• The University of Dublin was originally intended to follow the pattern of Oxford and Cambridge. However, the initial college, Trinity College, Dublin, was the only one ever established, so all members of the university are members of the college.