Bachelor of Liberal Arts

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The Bachelor of Liberal Arts (BLA or ALB) is the title of an undergraduate bachelor's degree. Generally, it is awarded to students who major in liberal arts, pursue interdisciplinary studies, or design their own concentrations.

A candidate designs a unique course of study that sometimes culminates in a thesis or capstone project. A Bachelor's in Liberal Arts allows students to pursue multiple fields in the form of a dual major or a minor in a certain field.

Harvard University awards the Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies degree to completion of Harvard Extension degree program. [1]

In 2022, Georgetown University began to offer a BLA to people incarcerated at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Maryland through the Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative, with an inaugural class of 25 students. [2] [3]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bachelor of Arts</span> Bachelors degree awarded for undergraduate study in liberal arts, the sciences or both

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A bachelor's degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years. The two most common bachelor's degrees are the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and the Bachelor of Science. In some institutions and educational systems, certain bachelor's degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate educations after a first degree has been completed, although more commonly the successful completion of a bachelor's degree is a prerequisite for further courses such as a master's or a doctorate.

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Harvard Extension School (HES) is the extension school of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1910, it is one of the oldest liberal arts and continuing education schools in the United States. Part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Extension is Harvard University's part-time, open-enrollment program, offering undergraduate ALB and graduate ALM degrees primarily for nontraditional students. Academic certificates and a post-baccalaureate pre-medical certificate are also offered.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Master of Arts in Liberal Studies</span> Graduate degree

The Master of Arts in Liberal Studies or Master of Liberal Arts is a graduate degree that aims to provide both depth and breadth of study in the liberal arts. It is by nature an interdisciplinary program, generally pulling together coursework from a number of disciplines such as behavioral sciences, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences designed to train students to think critically and contextually about their own fields of discipline as well a diverse range of issues. Similar graduate degrees are known as Master of Liberal Arts, Master of Liberal Studies (MLS), Artium Liberalium Magister, Magister Artium Liberalium, and Doctor of Liberal Studies (DLS). Characteristics that distinguish these degrees include curricular flexibility and interdisciplinary synthesis via a master's thesis or capstone project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oberlin Conservatory of Music</span> U.S. music school

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory of Oberlin College, a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one of the few American conservatories to be completely attached to a liberal arts college, allowing students the opportunity to pursue degrees in both music and a traditional liberal arts subject via a five-year double-degree program. Like the rest of Oberlin College, the student body of the conservatory is almost exclusively undergraduate.

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) is a program of Bard College that provides college education to people in prison. Currently operating in six prisons across New York State, BPI's academic programs engage students in the full breadth of liberal study and end in associate and bachelor's degrees from Bard. It currently enrolls 350 students full-time in liberal arts programs. BPI first started making the news when its debate team won against Harvard University in 2015. Since federal funding for prison education programs was eliminated in 1995, BPI is one of a limited number of college degree granting programs available in U.S. prisons.

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The history of the Harvard Extension School dates back to its founding in 1910 by Abbott Lawrence Lowell. From the beginning, the Harvard Extension School was designed to serve the educational interests and needs of the greater Boston community, but has since extended its academic resources to the public, locally, nationally, and internationally.

References

  1. "Bachelor of Liberal Arts Degree Program". Harvard Extension School. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
  2. Roller, Shelby (April 7, 2021). "Georgetown to Launch Bachelor's Degree Program at Maryland Prison". Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences . Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  3. Hilton, Jasmine (April 10, 2022). "Georgetown degree program launches for Maryland prisons". The Washington Post . Retrieved December 26, 2022.