Question: What is the difference between pamantasan and universi

According to my phil friends, they dont use "pamantasan" .... they use the English term "university" ... "antas" is a noun, which corresponds in English to "degree" ... so "pamantasan" is the place where you go to, to get a degree ... hence a university. This is the usual way of using affixes in Tagalog to change the meaning of a noun. So I suppose that pamantasan is a very formal expression, that young urban people will normally not use. By the way "universidad" is not Tagalog, it is the Spanish word for "university" ... but as Tagalog has incorporated a lot of Spanish words due to the long conquest, maybe universidad is now a borrrowed word and could be used as well. But as I said, all my friends seem to use "university" exclusively ... but I am not a native Tagalog speaker (I am just learning the language) and so maybe some native speakers may have much better and more appropriate information.

@harr96 University is “pamantasan” in Tagalog. As Jimmy329 mentioned, “universidad” is Spanish but adapted into Tagalog as “unibersidád”.We practically don’t use “pamantasan” in conversation unless we are referring to a school, e.g., Pamantasan ng Lungsód ng Maynilà (University of the City of Manila), that uses it as part of its official name. Most schools in the Philippines have English names and should there be a need to translate them into Filipino, either “Unibersidad” or “Pamantasan” is used. We generally use “koléhiyo” as the common noun for both college and university. Although it sounds like an adaptation of the Spanish “colegio”, its meaning is that of “college” in English.Ex.
estudyante sa koléhiyo = college/university student
ikaapat na antás sa/ng koléhiyo = fourth year at/of college
ikaapat na antás sa/ng unibersidád = fourth year at/of university

@Jimmy329 It makes sense to think of “antás” (degree, level) as the root word, but the prefix “pang” does not usually change to “pam” when the root starts with “a”.Ex.
pang-angkóp
pang-apat
pang-amóyConsidering that pattern, “antas” would more likely come out as “pang-antasan” I am therefore more inclined to think that “pantás” is the root word. “Pantás” is an old Tagalog word that means a wise or learned person. The word transformation pattern seems to be consistent too. Ex.
pang-palít > pamalít
pang-Paskó > pamaskó
pang+pa+lamíg > pámpalamíg
pang-punas > pamunas > pámunasán
pang+pa+aral+an > pampáaralán
pang+pantas+an > pamantasan (a place for becoming a learned person)