Postgraduate education

Lore & Background

The concept of postgraduate education depends upon the system of awarding degrees at different levels of study and can be traced to the workings of European medieval universities, mostly Italian. University studies took six years for a bachelor's degree and up to twelve additional years for a master's degree or doctorate. The first six years taught the faculty of the arts, which was the study of the seven liberal arts: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric, with the main emphasis on logic. Once a Bachelor of Arts degree had been obtained, the student could choose one of three faculties—law, medicine, or theology—in which to pursue master's or doctor's degrees.

Reader's Guide

Postgraduate education is significant because it provides advanced training and credentials beyond the undergraduate level, enabling specialization in academic or professional fields. Graduate degrees can include master's and doctoral degrees, as well as other qualifications such as graduate diplomas, certificates, and professional degrees. A distinction is typically made between graduate schools, which vary in the degree to which they provide training for a particular profession, and professional schools, such as medical school, law school, and business school. Producing original research is a significant component of graduate studies in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, often leading to the writing and defense of a thesis or dissertation. In profession-oriented graduate programs, degrees may consist solely of coursework. The hierarchy of postgraduate degrees generally includes master's degrees and doctorates, with doctorates often divided into academic and professional types. In some countries, such as Finland and Sweden, there is the degree of Licentiate, which is more advanced than a master's degree but less so than a doctorate. Most universities also award honorary degrees at the postgraduate level to recognize achievements in various fields.

Did You Know?

• The term 'degree' in this context means moving from one stage or level to another, from French degré, from Latin dē- + gradus, and first appeared in the 13th century.
• The degrees of master (from Latin magister) and doctor (from Latin doctor) were for some time equivalent, with the former being more in favour at Paris and the latter at Bologna.
• The main significance of higher postgraduate degrees was that they licensed the holder to teach, as 'doctor' comes from Latin docere, 'to teach'.
• In the second half of the 19th century, American universities began to follow the European model by awarding doctorates, and this practice spread to the UK.