Degree (academic)

An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, normally at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels, typically including bachelor's, master’s and doctorates, often alongside other academic certificates, and professional degrees. The most common undergraduate degree is the bachelor's degree, although in some countries lower qualifications are titled degrees (e.g. associate degrees in the US or foundation degrees in the UK) while in others a higher-level first degree is more usual.

An early type of academic degree was the ijazah, issued at madrasahs in the medieval Islamic world since the 8th century. The modern system of academic degrees later evolved and expanded in the medieval university, spreading across the world as the institution did.

The origins of the doctorate ("licentia docendi") can be traced back to the ijāzah al-tadrīs wa al-iftā' ("license to teach and issue legal opinions") in the medieval Islamic madrasah education system. The ijazat was equivalent to the Doctor of Laws qualification and was developed during the 9th century after the formation of the Madh'hab legal schools. To obtain a doctorate, a student "had to study in a guild school of law, usually four years for the basic undergraduate course" and at least ten years for a post-graduate course. The "doctorate was obtained after an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses," and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose" which were scholarly exercises practiced throughout the student's "career as a graduate student of law." After students completed their post-graduate education, they were awarded doctorates giving them the status of faqih (meaning "master of law"), mufti (meaning "professor of legal opinions") and mudarris (meaning "teacher"), which were later translated into Latin as magister, professor and doctor respectively.

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