Higher education is education provided by universities, vocational universities (community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and technical colleges, etc.) and other collegial institutions that award academic degrees, such as career colleges.
Higher general education and training generally takes place in a university and/or college. Such education is based on theoretical expertise. Higher general education might be contrasted with higher vocational education, which concentrate on both practice and theory. A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees; including Bachelor's degrees, Master's degrees and doctorates in a variety of subjects. However, most professional education is included within higher education, and many postgraduate qualifications are strongly vocationally or professionally oriented, for example in disciplines such as social work, law and medicine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education