Degrees

Bachelor Of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts (BA or AB, from the Latin baccalaureus artium or artium baccalaureus) is a bachelor’s degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, sciences, or both. Bachelor of Arts programs generally take three to four years depending on the country, institution, and specific specializations, majors, or minors. The word baccalaureus (from the Latin bacca, a berry, and laureus, “of the bay laurel”) should not be confused with baccalaureatus (translatable as “gold-plated scepter” by using the Latina bacum and aureatus), which refers to the one- to two-year postgraduate Bachelor of Arts with Honors degree (Baccalaureatus in Artibus Cum Honore) in some countries.

Diplomas generally give the name of the institution, signatures of officials of the institution (generally the president or rector of the university as well as the secretary or dean of the component college), type of degree conferred, conferring authority, and location at which the degree is conferred. Diplomas generally are printed on high-quality paper or parchment; individual institutions set the preferred abbreviation for their degrees.

The Bachelor of Arts is usually attained in four years in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Armenia, Kenya, Canada, Greece, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Nigeria, Serbia, Spain, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Russia, Ireland, South Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, Hong Kong, the United States, and most of the Americas.[2] Degree attainment generally takes three years in nearly all of the European Union and Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Israel, New Zealand, Iceland, Norway, Singapore, the Caribbean, South Africa, Switzerland and the Province of Quebec in Canada. In Pakistan, the Bachelor of Arts can also be attained within two years as an external degree. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Master Of Arts

A Master of Arts (Latin: Magister Artium; abbreviated MA; also Latin: Artium Magister, abbreviated AM) is a person who was admitted to a type of master’s degree awarded by universities in many countries, and the degree is also named Master of Arts in colloquial speech. The degree is usually contrasted with the Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree typically study linguistics, history, communication studies, diplomacy, public administration, political science, or other subjects within the scope of the humanities and social sciences; however, different universities have different conventions and may also offer the degree for fields typically considered within the natural sciences and mathematics. The degree can be conferred in respect of completing courses and passing examinations, research, or a combination of the two.

The Master of Arts traces its origin to the teaching license or Licentia docendi of the University of Paris. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy

A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD or Ph.D.; Latin Philosophiae doctor) is the highest academic degree awarded by universities in most countries. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. The completion of a PhD is often a requirement for employment as a university professor, researcher, or scientist in many fields. Individuals who have earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree may, in most jurisdictions, use the title Doctor(often abbreviated “Dr”) or, in non-English speaking countries, variants such as “Dr. Phil.” with their name, and may use post-nominal letters such as “Ph.D.”, “PhD” (depending on the awarding institute).

The requirements to earn a PhD degree vary considerably according to the country, institution, and time period, from entry-level research degrees to higher doctorates. During the studies that lead to the degree, the student is called a doctoral student or PhD student; a student who has completed all of their coursework and comprehensive examinations and is working on their thesis/dissertation is sometimes known as a doctoral candidate or PhD candidate(see: all but dissertation). A student attaining this level may be granted a Candidate of Philosophy degree at some institutions.

A PhD candidate must submit a project, thesis or dissertation often consisting of a body of original academic research, which is in principle worthy of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. In many countries, a candidate must defend this work before a panel of expert examiners appointed by the university. Universities sometimes award other types of doctorate besides the PhD, such as the Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) for music performers and the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) for professional educators. In 2005 the European Universities Association defined the Salzburg Principles, ten basic principles for third-cycle degrees (doctorates) within the Bologna Process. These were followed in 2016 by the Florence Principles, seven basic principles for doctorates in the arts laid out by the European League of Institutes of the Arts, which have been endorsed by the European Association of Conservatoires, the International Association of Film and Television Schools, the International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media, and the Society for Artistic Research.

In the context of the Doctor of Philosophy and other similarly titled degrees, the term “philosophy” does not refer to the field or academic discipline of philosophy, but is used in a broader sense in accordance with its original Greek meaning, which is “love of wisdom”. In most of Europe, all fields (history, philosophy, social sciences, mathematics, and natural philosophy/sciences) other than theology, law, and medicine (the so-called professional, vocational, or technical curriculum) were traditionally known as philosophy, and in Germany and elsewhere in Europe the basic faculty of liberal arts was known as the “faculty of philosophy”. (Source: Wikipedia)

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