Ad eundem degree
Encyclopedia
- For other degrees, see Academic degreeAcademic degreeAn academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
An ad eundem degree is a courtesy degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
awarded by one university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
or college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
to an alumnus
Alumnus
An alumnus , according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a graduate of a school, college, or university." An alumnus can also be a former member, employee, contributor or inmate as well as a former student. In addition, an alumna is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college,...
of another. The recipient of the ad eundem degree is often a faculty member at the institution where he or she is receiving the honor.
Before the advent of modern means of transportation had shrunk the world, it was common, when a graduate from one American college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
moved into the neighborhood of another, for his new college to admit him as a courtesy, "at the same degree" (in Latin, ad eundem gradum). Thus if he was a bachelor of arts in the college he had attended, he was likewise a bachelor of arts in the eyes of his new local college. (Not every college extended this courtesy to all other colleges, however.)
The practice generally died out in the early 19th century. However, it continues at the Royal College of Surgeons of England , University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
where the process is known as "incorporation". At several Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
universities, including Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Brown
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
and Penn
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, faculty appointed or promoted to the rank of associate professor or professor are awarded a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's 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...
(an AM at Harvard and Brown; an MA at Yale) if they do not already hold a degree from the respective university.
At Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
a similar custom is followed, with the granting of a master of Arts degree by the college to its faculty even though the college grants only a bachelor's degree (AB) to its own matriculated students. Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
confers an MA degree on faculty members promoted to full professor.
It is an earned degree, not honorary
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
, because it recognises formal learning. It is acceptable to list both the original degree(s) and the incorporated ("ad eundem") degree when listing post-nominals.
N.B.: this article uses "college" in its American sense. See college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
, §2, for details.
External links
- "Profs' degrees are relics of old University tradition. Full professors are still required to have a Yale degree." — Yale Daily News, Thursday, March 23, 2006