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The first universities were founded in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. As with other professions, teaching in universities was only carried out by people who were properly qualified. In the same way that a carpenter would attain the status of master carpenter when fully qualified by his guild, a teacher would become a master when he had been licensed by his profession, the teaching guild.
Candidates who had completed three or four years of study in the prescribed texts of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic), and who had successfully passed examinations held by his masters, would be awarded a bachelor's degree. 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 and professor signify different levels of academic achievement, but initially they were equivalent terms. The University of Bologna in Italy, regarded as the oldest university in Europe, was the first institution to award the degree of Doctor in Civil Law in the late 12th century; it also awarded similar degrees in other subjects including medicine. Note that medicine is now the only field in which the term doctor is applied to students who have only obtained their first academic qualification.
The University of Paris used the term master for its graduates, a practice adopted by the English universities of Oxford and CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is the second-oldest academic institution in the English-speaking world (after Oxford). According to legend, the University was founded in 1209 by scholars escaping Oxford after a fight with locals. Cambridge and the University.
The naming of degrees eventually became linked with the subjects studied. Scholars in the faculties of art s or grammarThis article is about grammar from a linguistic perspective. For English grammar rules see English writing style According to the structuralist point of view, grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of a language. That set of rules is also cal became known as masters, but those in philosophyPhilosophy literally means 'love of wisdom' from the Greek 'philo' and 'sofia'. It is now widely used to designate the pursuit of knowledge or wisdom about fundamental matters concerning life, death, meaning, reality, being and truth. The term may also re, medicine and lawThis article is about law in society. For other possible meanings, see law (disambiguation). Law (a loanword from Danish-Norwegian lov , in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules of conduct which mandate or proscribe (or both) specified relationshi were known as doctor. As study in the arts or in grammar was a necessary prerequisite to study in subjects such as philosophy, medicine and law, the degree of doctor assumed a higher status than the master's degreeA master's degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. In the UK it is sometimes awarded for an undergraduate course whose final year consists of higher-level courses and a major re. This led to the modern hierarchy in which the Doctor of PhilosophyDoctor of Philosophy Ph. an abbreviation for the Latin Philosophiae Doctor , or in non-Anglo-Saxon (e. German and Scandinavian) usage Doctor philosophi Dr. was originally a degree granted by a university to a learned individual who had achieved the approv (Ph.D) is a more advanced degree than the Master of Arts (M.A.). The practice of using the term doctor for all advanced degrees developed within German universities and spread across the academic world.
The French terminology is tied closely to the original meanings of the terms. The baccalauréatThe Baccalaureat is a diploma which French students sit at the end of Lycee (secondary school). It allows them to go on to tertiary education. There are three main types of Baccalaureat General Baccalaureat Professional Baccalaureat Technological Baccalau (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.
In Germany, the doctorate is still the only higher degree granted; additions to the title specify the area of study, such as Dr.rer.nat. (Doktor rerum naturalium) in the natural sciences and Dr.Ing. (Doktor-Ingenieur) in engineering.
In Europe, degrees are being harmonised through the Bologna process, which is based on the three-level hierarchy of degrees (Bachelor, Master, Doctor) currently used in the United Kingdom and the United States. This system is gradually replacing the two-stage system now in use in some countries.