A university college (Swedish: "högskola"; Norwegian: "høyskole", "høgskole" or "høgskule"; Danish: "professionshøjskole"; literally meaning "high school" and "professional high school") in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland is an independent institution that provides tertiary education (bachelor's and master's degrees) and quaternary education (PhD). Most of these institutions traditionally had emphasis on less academic and more vocational programmes such as teacher or nursing education as well as shorter technical education; historically, these institutions were somewhat similar to a Fachhochschule in Germany and to a Polytechnic in the United Kingdom. The term is also used for some specialized universities.