Editing Academic degree (section)

=== Emergence of the bachelor's degree ===
In [[Medieval university|medieval European universities]], candidates who had completed three or four years of study in the prescribed texts of the ''[[trivium (education)|trivium]]'' ([[grammar]], [[rhetoric]] and [[logic]]) and the ''[[quadrivium]]'' ([[arithmetic]], [[geometry]], [[astronomy]] and [[music]]), together known as the [[Liberal Arts]], and who had successfully passed examinations held by their master, would be admitted to the degree of [[Bachelor of Arts]]. The term "bachelor" comes from the Latin {{lang|la|baccalaureus}}, a term previously used to describe a squire (i.e., apprentice) to a [[knight]]. Further study and, in particular, successful participation in, and moderation of, [[disputation]]s would earn one the [[Master of Arts]] degree, from the [[Latin]] [[magister (degree)|magister]], "master" (typically indicating a teacher), entitling one to teach these subjects. Masters of Arts were eligible to enter study under the "higher faculties" of [[Law]], [[Medicine]] or [[Theology]] and earn first a bachelor's and then master's or doctor's degree in these subjects. Thus, a degree was only a step on the way to becoming a fully qualified master – hence the [[English language|English]] word "graduate", which is based on the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|gradus}} ("step").