I can't say for sure what the difference is, because in the US most four-year colleges tend to perform research as well as teach and most universities seem to focus more on research than teaching. I do remember when when the California State College system became the California State University, they had to do lots of work ... including having a certain number of PhD faculty.

I do know that one company brought in interns from both my CSU campus and its nearby UC (University of California) campus. Originally, the UC student interns were placed in supervisory positions ... the thought being they knew more about business and marketing than the CSU students. After a semester, the roles were switched because the UC students were more focused on research than on practice.

(It was a matter for bragging rights that the business school on our CSU campus was AACSB accredited before the business school on the nearby UC campus, back when it was capped at the top 15% of business schools in the country.)