![Australia study-abroad news hero: Sydney Opera House with national flag or map symbolism — An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree[1] awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent1.nexstudy.in%2Fnews-heroes%2F2026-07-23%2F53f3abd33cc34cfacd5570d5-ca1452.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree[1] awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree.
The first associate degrees were awarded in the UK (where they are no longer awarded) in 1873 before spreading to the US in 1898. In the United States, the associate degree may allow transfer into the third year of a bachelor's degree.[2] Associate degrees have since been introduced in a small number of other countries.
The title of Associate in Physical Science (Associate in Science (ASc) from 1879) was introduced in 1865 by the University of Durham College of Physical Sciences (now Newcastle University) and awarded from 1873.[3][4] It required (in 1884) passes in three of mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology, and allowed students to go on to take the examination for the Bachelor of Science.[5] As a university-level qualification lying below the bachelor's degree, this is considered to be the world's first associate degree in the modern sense, having been first awarded 25 years prior to the introduction of associate degrees into the US by the University of Chicago.[4][6] The ASc was withdrawn in 1904.[7] Durham also introduced an Associate in Theology (ATh) in 1901, which was only offered in 1901 and 1902.[8] Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds) offered Associate in Engineering and Associate in Coal Mining degrees from 1877 and there were thirteen different types of associate degrees offered in British universities in 1927.[4]
The title of Associate in Arts, introduced by the University of Oxford in 1857 and sometimes referred to as the degree of Associate in Arts, predated the Durham degree. However, it was an examination for "those who are not members of the university" and who were under the age of 18; as such it was at the level of a high school qualification rather than a modern associate degree. Examinations were held in English, languages, mathematics, science, drawing and music, with the title being conferred on those students who passed any two (as long as the two were not drawing and music).[9]
The qualification was introduced in the US in 1899, when the University of Chicago decided to replace its certificates with associate degrees, which were first awarded in 1900. American educationalist Walter Crosby Eells concluded that it is "not unlikely" that people at Chicago knew of the a
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associate_degree
- Official site not on record
