Undergraduate degree


An undergraduate degree is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher education, such as a college or university. The most common type of these undergraduate degrees are associate's degree and bachelor's degree. Bachelor's degree typically takes at least three or four years to complete. In some other educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a master's degree; this is the case for some science courses in Britain and some long-cycle medicine courses in Europe. These degrees can be categorised as basic or first professional degrees.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a bachelor's degree is the most common type of "undergraduate degree". Some master's degrees can be undertaken immediately after finishing secondary education; however, these courses are usually extended versions of bachelor's degree programs, taking an additional year to complete. Most bachelor's degrees take three years to complete, with some notable exceptions, such as Medicine taking five years. Often students can initially enroll in a 4-year program then leave after three years and be awarded a bachelor's degree.

North America

s sometimes contain the word Doctor, but are still considered undergraduate degrees in most countries, including Canada. For example, the Doctor of Medicine program in Canada is considered an "undergraduate degree." However, in the United States, most first professional degrees are considered graduate programs by the U.S. Department of Education and require students to already possess an "undergraduate degree" before admission. These degrees are not research doctorates and are therefore not equivalent to the Doctor of Philosophy Many countries offer bachelor's degrees that are equivalent to American graduate degrees. For example, the Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degrees offered in the U.S. are equivalent to the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree.
In the United States and sometimes in Canada, an Associate Degree is a two-year degree. It is occasionally undertaken as the beginning of a four-year degree. Some two-year institutions have articulation agreements with four-year institutions, which specify which courses transfer without problems.

United States

California

The California General Education Curriculum certification, awarded for the completion of an Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, or Associate of Business degree respectively, indicates the completion of all bachelor's degree lower level course work and permits the student to block transfer to any of the three state universities and several private universities as a third-year student or "Junior."
To obtain an AGEC certification, one must:
Although an AGEC certification meets the requirements for the bachelor's degree Lower Level it may or may not meet any prerequisite requirements for any given degree program. Associates degrees with an AGEC certification are often custom tailored with electives to meet the prerequisite requirements for the program and university the student wishes to transfer to.

Virginia

Virginia's community college has signed system-wide agreements, allowing students who graduate from one of the 23 community colleges with a transfer associate degree and a minimum grade point average to obtain guaranteed admission to more than 20 of the Commonwealth's four-year colleges and universities.

South America

Argentina

Argentine higher education system is based, since its conception during the colonial period, on the old and dogmatic Spanish higher education system, which is basically a Continental education system. A historic event took place in the University Reform of 1918, a highly popular series of reforms that took place in the oldest university of the country, the Universidad de Córdoba that finally paved the way to the modernization of the Argentinian higher university systems as it is known nowadays. Since its foundation, it was focused on the teaching of Professions offering Professional degrees.
It is divided into three levels.
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the second largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 departments, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini, Instituto Libre de Segunda Enseñanza and Escuela de Educación Técnica Profesional en Producción Agropecuaria y Agroalimentaria.
Entry to any of the available programmes of study in the university is open to anyone with a secondary school degree; in most cases, students who have successfully completed high school must pass a first year called CBC, which stands for Ciclo Básico Común. Only upon completion of this first year may the student enter the chosen school; until then, they must attend courses in different buildings, and have up to 3 years to finish the 6 or 7 subjects assigned in two groups of 3 or 4. Each subject is of one semester duration. If someone passes all 6 subjects in their respective semester, the CBC will take only one year. Potential students of economics, instead, take a 2-year common cycle, the "CBG", comprising 12 subjects.
The UBA has no central campus. A centralized Ciudad Universitaria was started in the 1960s, but contains only two schools, with the others at different locations in Buenos Aires.
Access to the university is free of charge for everyone, including foreigners. However, the postgraduate programs charge tuition fees that can be covered with research scholarships for those students with outstanding academic performance.
The university has produced more Nobel Prize laureates than any other Spanish-speaking institution. It is currently the best ranked Argentine university in college and university rankings, present at number 197 of the Top Universities 2008 and at number 151-200 of the 2010 Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking. According to the 2010 University Ranking by Academic Performance, the university is the best in Argentina and the 247th in the world, and, according to TopUniversities, it is the 46th best university in the world taking into account employer reputation.

Bolivia

Education in Bolivia, as in many other areas of Bolivian life, has a divide between Bolivia's rural and urban areas. Rural illiteracy levels remain high, even as the rest of the country becomes increasingly literate. This disparity stems partly from the fact that many children living in rural area ation are not necessarily attributable to lack of funding. Bolivia devotes 23% of its annual budget to educational expenditures, a higher percentage than in most other South American countries, albeit from a smaller national budget. A comprehensive, education reform has made some significant changes. Initiated in 1994, the reform decentralized educational funding in order to meet diverse local needs, improved teacher training and curricula, formalized and expanded intercultural bilingual education and changed the school grade system. Resistance from teachers’ unions, however, has slowed implementation of some of the intended reforms.
For a better understanding of education levels in Brazil, it is necessary to understand the structure of the higher education in the country. The present Brazilian system is organized according to the law that establishes the guidelines and bases for national education - Law n. 9.394 of December 20, 1996.
The classification of institutions of higher education happens according to their academic organization, and the following names are possible: Universities, University Centers, Colleges and Integrated Schools, Colleges and Institutes and Centers of Technological Education.
The higher education courses have two different academic levels, known as Undergraduate or Post Graduation. These degrees, have subdivisions in which are distributed programs of higher education in Brazil, and they may be bachelors, licentiates, and associates, for Undergraduate levels.
As for specializations, there are MBAs, Post-MBAs programs and for Post-graduation there are academic master's, professional master's degrees and doctorates. At the undergraduate level, there are still community colleges and further education courses.

Diplomas and certificates

At the undergraduate level, the bachelor's degrees, licentiates and technologist, provide undergraduation diplomas, while colleges and Extension courses provide certificates of completion. The law formalizes a B.A., B.S., Licentiate or Technologist degrees, according to the student's education, and is prerequisite to begin a Postgraduate degree course.
In the Postgrad, only students graduating from Stricto Sensu courses, that is, academic or professional master's and doctoral degrees and are given the titles of Master or Doctor, respectively. For students of the Lato Sensu - specializations, MBA programs and Post-MBA programs - is given certificates of completion and the title Specialist.
Graduate degrees in Brazil are called "postgraduate" degrees.
The National Polytechnic School, also known as EPN, is a public university located in Quito, Ecuador.
EPN is known for research and education in the applied science, astronomy, atmospheric physics, engineering and physical sciences. The Geophysics Institute monitors over the countries volcanoes in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador and in the Galápagos Islands. EPN adopted the polytechnic university model that stresses laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering.
The Oldest Observatory in South America is the Quito Astronomical Observatory and is located in Quito, Ecuador. The Quito Astronomical Observatory, which gives the global community a Virtual Telescope System that is connected via the Internet and allows the world to watch by streaming, is managed by EPN.
National Polytechnic School houses an international team of seismologists and
volcanologists at the Geophysicics Institute with the task of monitoring all the seismic activity in the county. Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismometers. The moment magnitude is the most common scale on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe. The more numerous earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5 reported by national seismological observatories are measured mostly on the local magnitude scale, also referred to as the Richter magnitude scale. There are many geologists who study the eruptive activity for the volcanoes in the country and observe volcanic eruptions, especially Tungurahua whose volcanic activity restarted on August 19, 1999, and is ongoing, with several major eruptions since that period, the last starting on 1 February 2014.
The Geophysics Institute at EPN monitors the Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andean cordillera in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina.
Católica University was founded as a university football team for Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, a Catholic university in Quito. In 1962, they won the inter-university championship. Soon after, they became a football club on June 26, 1963 under Liga Deportiva de la Universidad Católica.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito is a liberal-arts, non-profit, private university located in Quito, Ecuador. It was the first totally private self-financed university in Ecuador and the first liberal-arts institution in the Andean region.
Academically, USFQ ranks as one of the three-top universities in the ranking of Ecuadorian universities, issued by the Ecuadorian Council of Evaluation and Accreditation of High Education. In 2009, it was ranked first in Ecuador in relation to the number of peer-reviewed scientific publications.
The university now enrolls 5,500 students, 4,500 of whom are undergraduates. The university each year has about 100 indigenous students and 1000 international students participate in USFQ academic programs. USFQ has developed a scholarship program for indigenous students, offering full scholarships to the best students of public high schools throughout Ecuador. Although USFQ receives no funding from the government of Ecuador, its faculty comprises one-half of all the people in that nation who hold a doctorate.
USFQ main campus is located in Cumbayá, outside of Quito, where students use a library, education and research laboratories, classrooms, and seven restaurants. USFQ is the only university in the world that owns a campus in the Galapagos Islands, and a campus in the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, one of Earth's most biodiverse area.

Chile

Students can choose between 25 "traditional" universities and 35 private ones. There is a single, transparent admission system used by 33 universities. The test, called PSU, an acronym for University Selection Test is designed and evaluated by the University of Chile, while the system itself is managed by the Ministry of Education.
The test consists of two mandatory exams, one in Mathematics and one in Language. There are also two additional specific exams, Sciences and History, depending on which undergraduate program the student wishes to apply to. The cumulative grade point average achieved during secondary school is also taken into account in the final admission score, as well as the student's relative position in his class and two previous promotions. Every university assigns different weightings to the results of the various exams for the various programs offered. Some universities may require additional tests or personal interviews for admission to some programs. In 2010, a total of 250,752 persons took both mandatory PSU tests.
The University of Chile is the largest and oldest institution of higher education in Chile and one of the oldest in Latin America. Founded in 1842 as the replacement and continuation of the former colonial Royal University of San Felipe , the university is often called Casa de Bello in honor of its first president, Andrés Bello. Notable alumni include two Nobel laureates and twenty Chilean presidents among many others.
The Universidad de Chile was formally opened on 17 September 1843. During this period, the university consisted of five faculties : Humanities & Philosophy, Physics Sciences & Mathematics, Law & Political Sciences, Medicine, and Theology. By 1931, the number of colleges had increased to six: Philosophy & Education Sciences, Legal & Social Sciences, Biology & Medical Sciences, Physical & Mathematical Sciences, Agronomy & Veterinary, and Fine Arts.
Almost all of Chile's presidents graduated from the University of Chile, including all of those in the 20th century with the exception of Eduardo Frei Montalva, General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, and former military dictator General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.
Higher education in Chile in colonial times dates to 19 August 1622, when the first university in Chile, Santo Tomás de Aquino, was founded. On 28 July 1738, its name changed to Real Universidad de San Felipe, in honor of King Philip V of Spain.
The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two Pontifical Universities in the country, along with the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. It is also one of Chile's oldest universities and one of the most recognized educational institutions in Latin America. It ranks 1st in South America by QS ranking.
UC was founded on June 21, 1888 by the Santiago Archbishop, to offer training in traditional professions and in technological and practical fields such as business, accounting, chemistry, and electricity. Its first chancellor was Monsignor Joaquín Larraín Gandarillas, and at the very beginning, the university only taught two subjects, law and mathematics. Since it is a Pontifical University, it has always had a strong and very close relationship with the Vatican. On February 11, 1930, Pope Pius XI declared it a pontifical university, and in 1931 it was granted full academic autonomy by the Chilean government. UC is a private, urban, multi-campus university. It is one of the eleven Chilean Catholic universities, and one of the twenty-five institutions within the Rectors' Council, the Chilean state-sponsored university system. It is part of the Universities of the Rectors' Council of Chilean Universities, and although it is not state-owned, a substantial part of its budget is given by state transferences under different concepts.
UC's 18 faculties are distributed through four campuses in Santiago and one regional campus located in southern Chile. The technical training centers affiliated with the University are: DUOC, the Rural Life Foundations, the Baviera Foundation, the Catechetical Home and the San Fidel Seminary. These centers carry out technical-academic extension activities in rural and agricultural areas. Other UC activities are a Sports Club, a nationwide television network, and a Clinical Hospital dependent on the Faculty of Medicine.
UC 's Graduates of the School of Architecture have also made important contributions to the country with such work as the Central Building of UC, and the National Library. Two of its most important alumni are the Jesuit Saint Alberto Hurtado and Eduardo Frei Montalva, a Chilean president. Both of them studied in the School of Laws. Sebastián Piñera, previous Chilean president, graduated from the university's School of Economics.
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile ranks among the first 10 Latin-American Universities according to the Shanghai ranking, and is 1st according to the QS ranking.
UC has four campuses in Santiago and one campus in Villarrica. The campuses in Santiago are:
These four campuses have a total of 223,326.06 m2 constructed in a 614,569.92 m2 area. The Villarrica campus has 1,664 m2 constructed in a 2,362.5 m2 area.
UC was founded on June 21, 1888 by the Santiago Archbishop, to offer training in traditional professions and in technological and practical fields such as business, accounting, chemistry, and electricity. Its first chancellor was Monsignor Joaquín Larraín Gandarillas, and at the very beginning, the university only taught two subjects, law and mathematics. Since it is a Pontifical University, it has always had a strong and very close relationship with the Vatican. On February 11, 1930, Pope Pius XI declared it a pontifical university, and in 1931 it was granted full academic autonomy by the Chilean government.
UC is a private, urban, multi-campus university. It is one of the eleven Chilean Catholic universities, and one of the twenty-five institutions within the Rectors' Council, the Chilean state-sponsored university system. It is part of the Universities of the Rectors' Council of Chilean Universities, and although it is not state-owned, a substantial part of its budget is given by state transferences under different concepts.
UC's 18 faculties are distributed through four campuses in Santiago and one regional campus located in southern Chile. The technical training centers affiliated with the University are: DUOC, the Rural Life Foundations, the Baviera Foundation, the Catechetical Home and the San Fidel Seminary. These centers carry out technical-academic extension activities in rural and agricultural areas. Other UC activities are a Sports Club, a nationwide television network, and a Clinical Hospital dependent on the Faculty of Medicine.
UC 's Graduates of the School of Architecture have also made important contributions to the country with such work as the Central Building of UC, and the National Library.
Two of its most important alumni are the Jesuit Saint Alberto Hurtado and Eduardo Frei Montalva, a Chilean president. Both of them studied in the School of Laws. Sebastián Piñera, previous Chilean president, graduated from the university's School of Economics.
The Department of Industry and System Engineering is engaging Stanford Technology Venture Program of Stanford University on a collaboration on innovation and technology ventures.
In December 2011, the schools of engineering of PUC and the University of Notre Dame signed an agreement to establish a dual graduate degree in civil engineering and the geological sciences, which now extends to other departments in both schools.
In April 2013, PUC and the University of Notre Dame also signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen scholarly engagement and expand their long-standing relationships. The agreement establishes an exchange program in which faculty, doctoral students and university representatives from each institution will visit, work, study and collaborate with the other institution.

Paraguay

The Universidad Católica "Nuestra Señora de la Asunción" is a private university of Catholic obedience in Paraguay. It has 8 teaching facility centers.
The Universidad Nacional de Asunción, abbreviated UNA, is a public university in Paraguay. Founded in 1889, it is the oldest and most traditional university in the country. When the university just started it had only the Faculties of Law, Medicine and Mathematics, and schools of Clerk, Pharmacy and Obstetrics. Nowadays the UNA has 12 faculties and 2 institutes in 74 careers that take place in different areas of knowledge, offering students the most comprehensive range of vocational training opportunities. The academic community is made up of about 40,000 students and 6,200 teachers.
It also has several institutes and technology centers and research facilities that provide the academic community, both for conducting scientific research, and for the development of postgraduate studies, resulting in contributions to society. The university campus is spread throughout Paraguay, with centers in Pedro Juan Caballero, Caacupé, San Juan Bautista, Santa Rosa Misiones, Caazapá, Villarrica, Coronel Oviedo, Caaguazú, Paraguarí, Villa Hayes, San Pedro, San Estanislao, Cruce Los Pioneros and Benjamín Aceval.

Peru

Education in Peru is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, which is in charge of formulating, implementing and supervising the national educational policy. According to the Constitution, education is compulsory and free in public schools for the initial, primary and secondary levels. It is also free in public universities for students who are unable to pay tuition and have an adequate academic performance. As of 2008, various institutions such as UNESCO, World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank have stated that Peru has the best education system in Latin America and that primary, secondary, and superior education attendance rates were the highest in Latin America.
The Programme for International Student Assessment has however placed Peru at the bottom of the ranking in all three categories in 2012 compared to the 65 nations participating in the study of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance.
Higher education in the form of universities began in Peru with the establishment of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos by the Royal Decree issued by King Carlos V on May 12, 1551. The institute opened as the Sala Capitular del Convento de Santo Domingo in 1553. In 1571, it obtained Papal approval and in 1574 it received the name of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. The precursor to the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, the "Estudio General o Universidad," was established in Cusco by the Dominicans on July 1, 1548. This institution was responsible for teaching evangelists for the new lands, and taught scripture, theology, grammar, and the Quechuan language.
The National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco is a public university in Cusco, Peru and one of the oldest in the country. Its foundation was first proposed on March 1, 1692, at the urging and support of Pope Innocent XII. The document in which Pope Innocent XII sponsored the founding of the university was signed in Madrid, Spain by King Charles II on June 1, 1692, thus becoming Cusco's principal and oldest university. The university was authorized to confer the bachelors, licentiate, masters, and doctorate degrees.
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru is a private university in Lima, Peru. It was founded in 1917 by Catholic priest Father Jorge Dintilhac SS.CC as Peru's first non-profit private institution of higher learning. Academically, PUCP ranks alternatively as first or second in Peru.
In July 2012, after an Apostolic Visitation, begun earlier, in 2011, by Cardinal Peter Erdo, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, the Holy See withdrew from the university the right under canon law to use the titles Catholic and Pontifical in its name, but it was not possible because the legitimate law was the Peruvian Law. However, on Monday, April 28, 2014, the Rector of the University stated that,: "The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has formed a Commission of Cardinals with the mission of meeting to find a 'final, consensual solution,' in the framework of the Apostolic Constitution 'Ex Corde Ecclesiae,' to the outstanding issues" between the Vatican and the University." Besides Cardinal Erdo, the other two Cardinal Members of the Commission will be Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix, Archbishop of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, and Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Chile.
The University began activities in 1917 with two schools: Letters and Laws. In 1933, when the university had more than 500 students, the Schools of Engineering, and Political and Economical Sciences were established. In 1935, the School of Education was created. Later, in 1939, the Academy of Catholic Art was founded, with Adolf Winternitz as its director; the university is still one of only a small number to offer an arts major in Perú. During the 1960s, Gustavo Gutiérrez O.P., a Peruvian priest and an instructor at the university, developed the first principles of "Liberation Theology", promoting Marxist socialism and pan-Latin American solidarity.
There are currently 16,000 undergraduate students pursuing 38 different specialties in 10 schools. Its main campus is located in the Lima district of San Miguel, with the newly built Mac Gregor complex. Outside the main campus there are other facilities such as the IC, a language-learning center, the Confucius Institute PUCP, the cultural center located in the district of San Isidro. CENTRUM, a center for business studies featuring doctoral level and MBA programs and located in the district of Santiago de Surco, is also part of PUCP. Inside, there is a Pastoral Counseling Center. The Student body is made up of 17,064 Undergraduates and 4,917 Postgraduates and 57 Doctoral students as of 2013, 1014 school year.

Uruguay

Education in Uruguay is compulsory for a total of nine years, beginning at the primary level, and is free from the pre-primary through the university level. In 1996, the gross primary enrollment rate was 111.7 percent, and the net primary enrollment rate was 92.9 percent. Primary school attendance rates were unavailable for Uruguay as of 2001.
There are three levels of postsecondary education:
The University of the Republic, is Uruguay's only public, state-owned university. It is the most important, oldest, and largest university in the country, with a student body of more than 130,000 students. It was founded on July 18, 1849 in Montevideo, where most of its buildings and facilities are still located. Its current Rector is Rodrigo Arim.
The process of founding the country's public university began on June 11, 1833 when a law proposed by then-Senator Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga was passed. It called for the creation of nine academic departments; the President of the Republic would pass a decree formally creating the departments once the majority of them were in operation. In 1836 the House of General Studies was formed, housing the departments of Latin, philosophy, mathematics, theology and jurisprudence.
On May 27, 1838, Manuel Oribe passed a decree through which created the Greater University of the Republic. That decree had few practical effects, given the institutional instability of the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay at that time.
The Universidad Católica del Uruguay Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga is one of the many private universities in the country, and has seven schools: Humanities, Management, Law, Engineering and Technologies, Nursing, Dental School and Psychology. Its main campus is located in Montevideo, and some lesser ones are located in Maldonado and Salto.