Academic majors

An academic major is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits. A student who successfully completes all courses required for the major qualifies for an undergraduate degree. The word "major" is also sometimes used administratively to refer to the academic discipline pursued by a graduate student or postgraduate student in a master's or doctoral program.

An academic major typically requires completion of a combination of prescribed and elective courses in the chosen discipline. In addition, most colleges and universities require that all students take a general core curriculum in the liberal arts. The latitude a student has in choosing courses varies from program to program. An academic major is administered by select faculty in an academic department. A major administered by more than one academic department is called an interdisciplinary major. In some settings, students may be permitted to design their own major, subject to faculty approval.

In the US, students are usually not required to choose their major discipline when first enrolling as an undergraduate. Normally students are required to commit by the end of their second academic year at latest, and some schools even disallow students from declaring a major until this time.

A student who declares two academic majors is said to have a double major. A coordinate major is an ancillary major designed to complement the primary one. A coordinate major requires fewer course credits to complete.

US universities began to encourage concentrated foci at the undergraduate level in the second half of the 19th century. The term "major" first appeared in the 1877 Johns Hopkins University course catalogue. At that time,he major generally required two years of study, while a minor concentration required only one.Abbott Lawrence Lowell introduced the academic major system to Harvard University in 1910, during his presidency there. It required students to complete courses not only in a specialized discipline, but also in other subjects. Variations of this system are now definitive among the great majority of tertiary education institutions in the United States and Canada.

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