Academic degree

This article is about academic degrees. For other degrees, see Degree (disambiguation)

History

The first universities were founded in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. As with other professions, teaching in universities was only carried out by people who were properly qualified. In the same way that a carpenter would attain the status of master carpenter when fully qualified by his guild, a teacher would become a master when he had been licensed by his profession, the teaching guild.

Related Topics:
Europe - 12th - 13th centuries - Carpenter - Guild

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Candidates who had completed three or four years of study in the prescribed texts of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic), and who had successfully passed examinations held by his masters, would be awarded a bachelor's degree. Thus a degree was only a step on the way to becoming a fully-qualified master — hence the English word graduate, which is based on the Latin gradus ("step").

Related Topics:
Trivium - Bachelor's degree - Latin

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Today the terms master, doctor and professor signify different levels of academic achievement, but initially they were equivalent terms. The University of Bologna in Italy, regarded as the oldest university in Europe, was the first institution to award the degree of Doctor in Civil Law in the late 12th century; it also awarded similar degrees in other subjects including medicine. Note that medicine is now the only field in which the term doctor is applied to students who have only obtained their first academic qualification.

Related Topics:
University of Bologna - Italy - Doctor in Civil Law - Medicine

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The University of Paris used the term master for its graduates, a practice adopted by the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Related Topics:
University of Paris - Oxford - Cambridge

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The naming of degrees eventually became linked with the subjects studied. Scholars in the faculties of arts or grammar became known as masters, but those in philosophy, medicine and law were known as doctor. As study in the arts or in grammar was a necessary prerequisite to study in subjects such as philosophy, medicine and law, the degree of doctor assumed a higher status than the master's degree. This led to the modern hierarchy in which the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) is a more advanced degree than the Master of Arts (M.A.). The practice of using the term doctor for all advanced degrees developed within German universities and spread across the academic world.

Related Topics:
Art - Grammar - Philosophy - Law - Master's degree - Doctor of Philosophy - Master of Arts

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The French terminology is tied closely to the original meanings of the terms. The baccalauréat (cf. bachelor) is conferred upon French students who have successfully completed their secondary education and admits the student to university. When students graduate from university, they are awarded licence, much as the medieval teaching guilds would have done, and they are qualified to teach in secondary schools or proceed to higher-level studies.

Related Topics:
Baccalauréat - Bachelor - Secondary education - Medieval

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In Europe, degrees are being harmonised through the Bologna process, which is based on the three-level hierarchy of degrees (Bachelor (Licence in France), Master, Doctor) currently used in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Canada. This system is gradually replacing the two-stage system now in use in some countries.

Related Topics:
Bologna process - United Kingdom - United States - Germany - Canada

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