Q:

Difference between университет and институт

What's the difference between a университет and a институт? The former is translated as "university" and the latter as "institute" in both my textbook and on Wiktionary, but there's no explanation of the difference, and the two bring up similar images on Google image search.
If the answer is specific to educational systems in Russophone countries, that's not a problem.

A:

In the Soviet Union "Институт" was a single-profile higher education institution. So, for example, if they had all the stuff like math, physics, law, philology, economics etc. they were called "a university" but if only, say, medicine, they were "an institute".
In the first years of modern Russia many former "institutes" chose "to upgrade" themselves and became "universities" (or "academies"), sometimes really getting many new profiles, sometimes not. So there are not too many of them left now. Therefore the term "Институт" (except if not related to a higher education at all) is used in two different meanings: (a) a real single-profile higher education institution as in Soviet times, which is mostly dead now, and (b) any modern university which was "институт" about 20-30 years ago.

A:

Институт, академия и университет are different official levels of certification of a higher educational establishment nowadays. First comes институт, then академия and the highest level is университет.
Universities are supposed to provide better quality of education and additional educational services and they have more support from the state. They also do more research work. 

