Jana: OK, I see

So  colleges are part of the "vocational education system." There are similar institutions in China as well (We adopted it from the Soviet Union I guess.) But we name those institutions with a french name, "normal colleges." My mom actually graduated from one of those. The difference between the ones in your country and those in my country is that the applicants in China must finish high school to be granted enrollment.

If you don't mind, I got another boring question to bother you with. I have also heard a term called вуз. I know it's rather colloquial. So according to what you wrote here, I guess the term refers to both университет/институт. Or only университет?