An
undergraduate degree (also called
first degree or simply
degree) is a colloquial term for an
academic degreeA degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study.- History :...
taken by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. It is usually offered at an institution of
higher educationHigher education refers to a level of education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, institutes of technology and other collegiate level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools and career colleges, that award academic...
, such as a
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. The most common type of this degree is the
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for four years, but can range from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
, which typically takes three or four years to complete.
In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, the degree of bachelor is the most common type of "undergraduate degree," though, confusingly, there are also some
master's degreeA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
s.
An
undergraduate degree (also called
first degree or simply
degree) is a colloquial term for an
academic degreeA degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study.- History :...
taken by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. It is usually offered at an institution of
higher educationHigher education refers to a level of education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, institutes of technology and other collegiate level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools and career colleges, that award academic...
, such as a
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. The most common type of this degree is the
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for four years, but can range from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
, which typically takes three or four years to complete.
United Kingdom
In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, the degree of bachelor is the most common type of "undergraduate degree," though, confusingly, there are also some
master's degreeA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
s. A masters first degree is usually an extended version of a bachelors degree equivalent, usually taking a further year to complete.
North America
First professional degreeA first professional degree is an academic degree that prepares the holder for a particular profession by emphasizing competency skills along with theory and analysis. These professions are typically licensed or otherwise regulated by a governmental or government-approved body...
s sometimes contain the word 'Doctor', but are still considered to be "undergraduate degrees" in most countries, including
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. For example, the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program in Canada is considered an "undergraduate degree." However, in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, most first professional degrees are considered graduate programs by the
U.S. Department of EducationThe United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
and require students to already possess an "undergraduate degree" before admission. These degrees are not research doctorates and not equivalent to the
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
Many countries offer bachelors degrees that are equivalent to American graduate degrees, for example the M.D. degree offered in the U.S. is equivalent to the
MBBS or MBChBBachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or in Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae , are the two first professional degrees awarded upon graduation from medical school in medicine and surgery by universities in various countries that follow the...
degree.
In the United States and rarely in Canada, an
Associate's DegreeAn associate degree is an academic degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges, four-year universities, business colleges and some bachelor's degree-granting colleges/universities upon completion of a course of study usually lasting two years....
is a two-year degree. It is occasionally undertaken as the beginning of a four-year degree. When doing so, a student transferring to a four-year institution can have difficulty in convincing the receiving institution to acknowledge his previous coursework so that he does not need to repeat a course. Problems are not limited to specific class requirements, but also to requisites for graduation and pre-requisites of the new institution. Such a situation can cause the transferring student to remain in the larger institution longer than originally intended. Some two-year institutions have transfer agreements with four-year institutions, which specify which courses will transfer without problems. but there is a chance that you can become successful as an undergraduate.