Chapter I Introduction 1. Summary ORE THAN 1,600 different academic degrees are currently MORE conferred by colleges and universities in the United States, according to information recently furnished by more than 2,000 of these institutions. In addition, more than 800 other academic degrees have been recognized in past years but, as far as can be determined, these are no longer in current use. Almost 2,600 different abbreviations are used for the 1,600 current degrees. It is the purpose of this monograph to report in detail concerning various aspects of this total number of degrees, 2,400, which are or have been used to mark the successful completion of the wide variety of courses of study offered by American institutions of higher education. 2. Usefulness The need for a "dictionary of degrees" was expressed by a writer almost three-quarters of a century ago, as indicated by the quotation facing the table of contents (see p. i). Since that early date the need for such a publication has been magnified more than forty-fold, inasmuch as that writer referred to 60 degrees then current as contrasted with the more than 2,400 now found in current or past use. A new and up-to-date catalog or dictionary of this wide variety of academic degrees should be of distinct value to professional educators as well as to the general public. It should be particularly useful (1) to deans and registrars contemplating suitable degrees for new courses of study that may be established and appropriate abbreviations to use for them; (2) to regional or national organizations of higher educational institutions which may wish to work toward the simplification and standardization of degrees and degree nomenclature in particular fields; and (3) as a reference work for librarians, personnel officers, and the general public needing to interpret some of the numerous and sometimes obscure or conflicting abbreviations that have developed in past years to designate such degrees. The proliferation of academic degrees has been great, especially during the past century. Some of the new degrees that have been established, such as those in electronics or aeronautics, represent newly developed fields of collegiate instruction. Many degrees, however, are characterized by unnecessary duplication, due in part to lack of familiarity with practice in other institutions offering similar if not identical curriculums in specialized fields. The present monograph, therefore, should afford information which will facilitate reduction in the number of such degrees currently offered and in greater uniformity in the use of standard abbreviations to represent them. 3. Methods of Compilation Two different methods have been used for compiling the lists of academic degrees contained in this monograph, one for those reported as in current use, the other for those reported as not in current use. A. Degrees Reported in Current Use To secure reliable information on current practice with reference to academic degrees, principal reliance was placed on an inquiry addressed directly to the registrars of more than 2,000 recognized institutions of higher education in the country. On October 7, 1959, an oversize return postcard was sent to each of the 2,035 institutions of higher education recognized as such by the U.S. Office of Education,1 with the following explanation and request: To the Registrar: The Office of Education receives frequent requests for information regarding types and abbreviations of various academic degrees, both earned and honorary, conferred by American colleges and universities. No comprehensive or reliable data in the field have been compiled recently. Therefore, we are asking your cooperation in furnishing information regarding current or recent practice in your institution. On the attached card, please do four things: 1. Check each of the listed earned degrees conferred or offered by your institution within the past year. 1 Education Directory, 1959-1960-Part 3-Higher Education (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1959, 205 p.) contains 2,011 names of institutions of higher education. The mailing list used included branches of some of these institutions existing on different campuses, and a few other minor variations from the current published list. 2. Give the abbreviation you use for each such degree, if different from the one listed; or check the one you use, when two are listed. 3. Add in full all other earned degrees, with abbreviations, conferred or offered by your institution within the past year. 4. Do the same thing for honorary degrees, but include all honorary degrees conferred by your institution within recent years. If more space is needed, you may use the other side of the card in addition, or mail a separate supplementary page. Please detach the card, which requires no postage, and mail it as soon as possible, but not later than November 7, 1959. A national summary of the results of this inquiry will be sent to your institution. HAROLD A. HASWELL, Director, Higher Education Programs Branch, Division of Higher Education. The portion of the card to be detached and returned contained the form reproduced on the two following pages. Second requests were sent in mid-November to about 500 institutions which had not replied to the original request or which had returned cards with the names of their institutions missing so that identification was not possible. By the middle of December replies had been received from all except 93 institutions 2-a response of more than 95 percent. For these 93 a study was made of their catalogs, supplemented by various other current reference works. Some of the missing junior colleges and 2-year teachers colleges (in Wisconsin) were found to confer no degrees. For all the others, sufficient information was secured for the purposes of this study. In a few cases, suplementary information was obtained from individual institutional reports to the American Council on Education for inclusion in the revised (1960) editions of American Universities and Colleges and American Junior Colleges. Thus the investigation of current practice with reference to the awarding of academic degrees may be accepted as essentially complete for all institutions of higher education recognized as such by the U.S. Office of Education in 1959.* Comprising 35 junior colleges, 22 liberal arts colleges, and 36 other institutions of various types. Made available to the authors, in advance of publication, by the editors of these volumes. • Conferences with present or former faculty members of certain institutions have shown that the reports given by registrars sometimes are lacking in completeness or accuracy. But this monograph, as a rule, has not been able to go back of the reports as submitted by the registrars of the institutions concerned. To secure information on degrees no longer reported as currently in use, a wide variety of sources was consulted. Primary reliance was placed upon the Annual Reports of the U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1872 to 1915 and the subsequent Biennial Surveys of Education from 1916-18 to 1928–30. During these years these publications gave extensive reports of degrees and their abbreviations as used by American colleges and universities with the number of each type of degree conferred. Official alumni catalogs of various institutions were examined, especially those of the early colonial collegesHarvard, William and Mary, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Pennsylvania. These sources were supplemented by various reference works and specialized studies, especially Webster's New International Dictionary, different editions of American Universities and Colleges, Bartholomew's Epithetology, and Thomas' University Degrees.5 A special study was made of "spurious" degrees conferred by questionable institutions often characterized as "diploma mills," as reported more fully in chapter VI. Most of these degrees are probably not currently offered, although unfortunately this cannot be safely assumed concerning all of them. None of these, however, have been listed among degrees currently conferred by recognized Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language. Second Edition. Unabridged. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1950. "Abbreviations" pp. 29893000. American Universities and Colleges. Washington; American Council on Education. Fourth Edition (D. A. Robertson, editor) 1928. pp. 865-868. Seventh Edition (Mary Irwin, ed.), 1956. pp. 1153-1156. 207 p. C. A. Bartholomew, Epithetology. Red Bank, N.J.: Commercial Press, 1948. F. S. Thomas, University Degrees: What They Mean, What They Indicate, How To Use Them. Syracuse, N.Y.: C. W. Bardeen, 1887. 87 p. |