Academic degree
An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions often offer degrees at various levels, usually divided into undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The most common undergraduate degree is the bachelor's degree, although some educational systems offer lower-level undergraduate degrees such as associate and foundation degrees. Common postgraduate degrees include engineer's degrees, master's degrees and doctorates.
Not to be confused with Academic ranks.In the UK and countries whose educational systems are based on the British system, honours degrees are divided into classes: first, second (broken into upper second, or 2.1, and lower second, or 2.2) and third class.
Indicating earned degrees[edit]
Depending on the culture and the degree earned, degrees may be indicated by a pre-nominal title, post-nominal letters, a choice of either, or not indicated at all. In countries influenced by the UK, post-nominal letters are the norm, with only doctorates granting a title, while titles are the norm in many northern European countries.
Depending on the culture and the purpose of the listing, only the highest degree, a selection of degrees, or all degrees might be listed. The awarding institution may be shown and it might be specified if a degree was at honours level, particularly where the honours degree is a separate qualification from the ordinary bachelor's degree.[22]
For member institutions of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, there is a standard list of abbreviations for university names given in the Commonwealth Universities Yearbook. In practice, many variations are used and the Yearbook notes that the abbreviations used may not match those used by the universities concerned.[23] For some British universities it is traditional to use Latin abbreviations, notably 'Oxon' and 'Cantab' for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge respectively,[24][25] in spite of these having been superseded by English 'Oxf' and 'Camb' in official university usage,[26] particularly in order to distinguish the Oxbridge MA from an earned MA.[27] Other Latin abbreviations commonly used include 'Cantuar' for Lambeth degrees (awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury),[26] 'Dunelm' for Durham University,[28][29] 'Ebor' for the University of York[30] and 'Exon' for the University of Exeter.[31] The Ancient universities of Scotland and the University of London have abbreviations that are the same in English and Latin. (See Universities in the United Kingdom § Post-nominal abbreviations for a more complete list and discussion of abbreviations for British universities.)
Confusion can result from universities sharing similar names, e.g. the University of York in the UK and York University in Canada or Newcastle University in the UK and the University of Newcastle in Australia. In this case, the convention is to include a country abbreviation with the university's name. For example, 'York (Can.)' and 'York (UK)' or 'Newc (UK)' and 'Newc (Aus.) are commonly used to denote degrees conferred by these universities where the potential for confusion exists,[32] and institution names are given in this form in the Commonwealth Universities Yearbook.[23]
Abbreviations used for degrees vary between countries and institutions, e.g. MS indicates Master of Science in the US and places following American usage, but Master of Surgery in the UK and most Commonwealth countries, where the standard abbreviation for Master of Science is MSc. Common abbreviations include BA and MA for Bachelor and Master of Arts, BS/BSc and MS/MSc for Bachelor and Master of Science, MD for Doctor of Medicine and PhD for Doctor of Philosophy.[33][34]
Pontifical universities around the world—such as the Pontifical University, St Patrick's College, Maynooth, in Ireland; the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas in Manila;[152] Catholic University of America, the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, in Rome; the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Belgium, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru depend for their status as pontifical universities, and for the nature of their academic degrees, on the Pope, through the Congregation for Catholic Education. The nature of academic degrees from ecclesiastical institutions of education is outlined in the apostolic constitution Sapientia Christiana.[153]
In distinction to secular or Catholic universities, which are academic institutions for the study and teaching of a broad range of disciplines, ecclesiastical or pontifical universities "are usually composed of three principal ecclesiastical faculties: theology, philosophy, and canon law, as well as at least one other faculty. A pontifical university specifically addresses Christian revelation and disciplines correlative to the evangelical mission of the Church as set out in Sapientia christiana."[153][154]
The core of degrees granted by pontifical universities consists of three levels: the first is the baccalaureate; the second is the licentiate; the third is the doctorate. From this core pontifical universities confer specific degrees, including:
Theology
Philosophy
Canon Law