An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily finished a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavor deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree. The most common degrees awarded today are Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral degrees.
The contemporary academic system of academic degrees changed and expanded in the medieval university, spreading everywhere across the globe as the institution did:
No other European institution has spread over the entire world in the way in which the traditional form of the European university has done. The degrees awarded by European universities – the bachelor’s degree, the licentiate, the master degree, and the doctorate – have been adopted in the most diverse societies throughout the world.
How it started
The doctorate emerged in medieval Europe as a license to teach (Latin: licentia docendi) at a medieval university. Its origin can be traced to the early church when the term “doctor” referred to the Apostles, church fathers and other Christian authorities who taught and interpreted the Bible. The right to grant a licentia docendi was originally reserved to the church which required the applicant to pass a test, to take oath of allegiance and pay a fee. The Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access – now largely free of charge – of all able applicants, who were, however, still assessed for aptitude by the ecclesiastic scholastic. This right remained a bone of contention between the church authorities and the slowly emancipating universities, but was granted by the pope to the University of Paris in 1231 where it became a universal license to teach (licentia ubique docendi). However, while the licentia continued to hold a higher prestige than the bachelor’s degree (Baccalaureus), it was ultimately reduced to an intermediate step to the Magister and doctorate, both of which now became the exclusive qualification for teaching.
At the university, doctoral training was a form of apprenticeship to a guild. The traditional term of study before new teachers were admitted to the guild of “Master of Arts”, seven years, was the same as the term of apprenticeship for other occupations. Originally the terms “master” and “doctor” were synonymous, but over time the doctorate came to be regarded as a higher qualification than the master degree.
In the medieval European universities, candidates who had finished three or four years of study in the prescribed texts of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic), and the quadrivium (mathematics, geometry, astronomy and music), together known as the Liberal Arts, and who had successfully passed examinations held by their master, would be admitted to the degree of bachelor of arts, from the Latin baccalaureus, a term previously usually used of a squire (i.e., apprentice) to a knight. Further study, and in particular successful participation in and then moderating of disputations would earn one the Master of Arts degree, from the Latin magister, teacher, entitling one to teach these subjects. Master of Arts was eligible to enter study under the “higher faculties” of Law, Medicine or Theology, and earn first a bachelor’s and then master or doctor’s degrees in these subjects. 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”).
Today, the terms “master”, “doctor” (from the Latin – meaning literally: “teacher”) and “professor” indicate different levels of academic achievement, but in the Medieval university they were equivalent terms, the use of them in the degree name being a matter of custom at a university. (Most universities conferred the Master of Arts but, for instance, the highest degree was variously termed Master of Theology/ Divinity or Doctor of Theology/ Divinity depending on the place).
The earliest doctoral degrees (theology – Divinitatis Doctor (D.D.), philosophy – Doctor of philosophy (D.Phil., Ph.D.) and medicine – Medicinæ Doctor (M.D., D.M.)) showed the historical separation of all University study into these three fields. Over time the D.D. has gradually become less common and studies outside theology and medicine have become more common (such studies were then called “philosophy”, but are now classified as sciences and humanities – however this usage survives in the degree of Doctor of Philosophy).
The University of Bologna in Italy, considered as the oldest university in Europe, was the first institution to confer the degree of Doctor in Civil Law in the late 12th century; it also conferred similar degrees in other subjects, including medicine. The University of Paris used the term master for its graduates, a practice adopted by the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the ancient Scottish universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh.
The naming of degrees ultimately became linked with the subjects studied. Scholars in the faculties of arts or grammar became known as “master”, but those in theology, medicine, and law were known as “doctor”. As study in the arts or in grammar was an essential prerequisite to study in subjects such as theology, medicine and law, the degree of doctor assumed a higher status than the master degree. This led to the modern hierarchy in which the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), which in its present form as a degree based on research and dissertation is a development from 18th and 19th Century German universities, is a more advanced degree than the Master of Arts (M.A.). The practice of using the term doctor for Ph.Ds developed within German universities and spread across the academic world.
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. Spain had Added when referring to a system or service same structure: the term “Bachiller” was used for those who finished the secondary or high-school level education, known as “Bachillerato”. The standard Spanish university 5-years degree was “Licenciado”, (although there were a few 3-years associate degrees called “diplomaturas”, from where the “diplomados” could move to study a related licenciatura). The highest level was “Doctor”.
In the past, degrees have also been directly issued by authority of the monarch or by a bishop, instead of any educational institution. This practice has mostly died out. In Britain, Lambeth Degrees are still awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In most countries, gaining an academic degree entitles the holder to assume distinctive academic dress particular to the awarding institution. Academic dress is like a uniform or insignia identifying the status of the individual wearing them.